There's been a lot of action surrounding Nomad 2012 recently with the impending release of version 5. We've had the announcement of two great new features in Nomad 2012 V5, an Introducing Nomad 2012 version 5 video released, and a webinar showing you how the new features work in version 5. If you missed the webinar, you can still watch the recording by clicking on this link here.
During the webinar we received a lot of questions. So many in fact that we've had to split this Q and A blog post into a two part series. We've categorized them and in part one, we'll be answering questions on:
Webinar
Nomad
Nomad 2012 Naming
Single Site Download (SSD)
FanOut
In part two, we'll be answering:
Nomad 2012 and Wireless
PXE
User State Migration Tool (USMT) and Peer Backup Assistance (PBA)
Compatibility and Support questions on Nomad and System Center Configuration Manager
Compatibility and Support questions on Nomad in general

Webinar questions

Q: ­Can we get a copy of this webinar?
­1E: You can find a replay of the webinar by clicking here.

Nomad questions

Q: If I have multiple subnets on the remote location connected with slow wan links, how does Nomad handle that?
1E: If you are implementing the new Single Site Download (SSD) feature then subnets will share data across each other with just one system bandwidth throttling the data over the WAN. The system would get the content over the WAN using reverse QoS™.
Q: During OSD, are you able to configure a "preferred" host for the data to backup to? Otherwise, how do you ensure the data is not being backed up to another machine that is also being OSD deployed and therefore, wiped.
1E: Yes this can be enabled for specific hosts or targeted at specific NFS/CIFS locations.
Q: ­In previous versions of Nomad we have seen Content Mismatch errors when updating packages. What has been done to prevent this from happening?­
1E: Nomad has redundancy and resiliency mechanisms built in to ensure consistency of content before pulling data across the WAN.
Q: ­How are Reports generated or does it take the Config2012 reports?­
1E: The Nomad reporting pack with documentation can be accessed via 1E support.
Q: Has logging and reporting been enhanced to allow easier and quicker troubleshooting for nomad related installation issues and client issues?
1E: 1E constantly endeavours to improve product functionality. Reporting has existed in Nomad for a while now and can be requested through 1E support. If there is any specific logging enhancements you would like to see please let us know through our support portal.

Nomad 2012 naming

Q: ­Hi, can you explain the naming convention? Nomad 2012 version 5? Before it was Nomad Enterprise version 4.
1E: The product was renamed last year to Nomad 2012. It was version 4 of the software and now it is version 5.

Single Site Download (SSD) questions

Q: ­If a site has multiple floors, can you use SSD and enable more than one client go across the WAN­
1E: The purpose of SSD is to prevent more than one client from going across the WAN. The sites are defined using the ActiveEfficiency API so it is possible if you wanted to define your site in such a manner.

FanOut Questions

Q: Can I have multiple Fanout peers at a single remote site?
1E: Yes, Nomad 2012 will automatically do this if necessary.
"Q: ­For the FanOut, do we need QoS between the clients. Currently we have only the QoS setting for the site servers. ­"
1E: QoS is not needed with Nomad, this is the benefit of its Reverse QoS™ technology where it automatically bandwidth throttles without Administrative intervention.
Q: ­Does FanOut require different licenses like MultiCast does?
­1E: No.
Q: ­What kind of network topology information must be provided to know which LAN segments can reach out to the "next" segment in the FanOut? How do you limit which subnets are linked in the spiderweb to control where they jump from LAN to WAN
­1E: FanOut is automatically controlled within the LAN by the Nomad peers, no information is needed. You would define your LAN segments and subnets for Single Site Download through the ActiveEfficiency API and this controls how the peers behave over LAN/WAN.
Q: ­For SSD/FanOut example: if we have a building with five floors and total of 500 clients, it would be great if we can configure the SSD to allow perhaps one client per floor to go across the WAN and then leverage the FanOut feature. Is this possible?
­1E: Yes, however the SSD feature is designed so that just one system for that building would go across the WAN not one for each floor. Generally, people would have multiple subnets in a single building or “site” so by grouping them together and using SSD, you only have one system pulling content across the WAN. If you decided to group them differently to have multiple systems in a building to pull data across the WAN using Reverse QoS™, you can easily do this with the ActiveEfficiency API.
Stay tuned for Part 2 tomorrow.