planning switch to MSI deployments when software already "out ther

[Guest squeakstar]

Hi chaps,

I've been working in this SMB for over a year which admittedly is about 5

times larger than the er, small business i worked for previously and one of

the things that excited me of working somewhere bigger were the idea that so

much of the place would be running automated processes for software installs

and having cool management systems going on but to be honest it feels like

this place is stuck in the NT 4 days.

 

The business has been kind enough to fund me some proper training though and

i'm an exam away from being an MCSA - yay. Anyhoo, i'm trying to drag this

place into the future, or more like today anyway. I'm going through and

writing a proposal on modernising this place, and one of the things i'm a

little concerned is dealing with the cross-over from fully manual

installations via sneaker-net, to creating MSI deployments and distributing

them from the server.

 

I'm after a bit of advice as to how best to manage this process. The types

of apps i'm wanting to deploy via MSI are those that are frequently updated

like Adobe Acrobat Reader and some specialist in-house apps.

Should i uninstall the software then pull machines into an OU set-up with

MSIs to deploy, or can the latest update be just churned out and over

existing installations?

 

Really keen to hear others opinions on how to go about this, and some

forewarning of pitfalls would be great.

 

Thanks everyone!

 

squeak squeak

[Guest DevinHenderson@gmail.com]

Re: planning switch to MSI deployments when software already "outther

 

Re: planning switch to MSI deployments when software already "outther

 

On Feb 20, 7:51 am, squeakstar <squeaks...@discussions.microsoft.com>

wrote:

> Hi chaps,

> I've been working in this SMB for over a year which admittedly is about 5

> times larger than the er, small business i worked for previously and one of

> the things that excited me of working somewhere bigger were the idea that so

> much of the place would be running automated processes for software installs

> and having cool management systems going on but to be honest it feels like

> this place is stuck in the NT 4 days.

>

> The business has been kind enough to fund me some proper training though and

> i'm an exam away from being an MCSA - yay. Anyhoo, i'm trying to drag this

> place into the future, or more like today anyway. I'm going through and

> writing a proposal on modernising this place, and one of the things i'm a

> little concerned is dealing with the cross-over from fully manual

> installations via sneaker-net, to creating MSI deployments and distributing

> them from the server.

>

> I'm after a bit of advice as to how best to manage this process. The types

> of apps i'm wanting to deploy via MSI are those that are frequently updated

> like Adobe Acrobat Reader and some specialist in-house apps.

> Should i uninstall the software then pull machines into an OU set-up with

> MSIs to deploy, or can the latest update be just churned out and over

> existing installations?

>

> Really keen to hear others opinions on how to go about this, and some

> forewarning of pitfalls would be great.

>

> Thanks everyone!

>

> squeak squeak

 

I am assuming you are using Group policies to push the assign the

software to the computers?

 

If so, just remove the software from the group policy, force it to

remove the software and push the new software with the same policy

only use the new msi file.

 

Edit group policy, remove the adobe6.msi clicking force software to

uninstall immediately, then add a new software package to the existing

group policy adobe7.msi.

 

I recommend using wise installer for creating the msi packages for

applications that do not have native msi files. I have had a lot of

luck with it. Or you could use the free wininstall packager on the

windows 2000 server cd. I think it is located under support tools.

 

Hope this helps.

[Guest squeakstar]

Re: planning switch to MSI deployments when software already "out

 

Re: planning switch to MSI deployments when software already "out

 

>

> I am assuming you are using Group policies to push the assign the

> software to the computers?

>

> If so, just remove the software from the group policy, force it to

> remove the software and push the new software with the same policy

> only use the new msi file.

>

> Edit group policy, remove the adobe6.msi clicking force software to

> uninstall immediately, then add a new software package to the existing

> group policy adobe7.msi.

>

> I recommend using wise installer for creating the msi packages for

> applications that do not have native msi files. I have had a lot of

> luck with it. Or you could use the free wininstall packager on the

> windows 2000 server cd. I think it is located under support tools.

>

> Hope this helps.

>

 

yeah you describe the situation i want to be at, sorry, maybe i waffled too

much, but i'm already aware of the assigning apps and that. The main reason

I'm posting is to get ideas or benefit of other's experience with regards to

migrating to this system of software deployment.

We've got around 80 workstations all with previous versions of adobe reader,

JRE, and industry specific applications to our company that have all been

installed manually in the first place. Thinking about it overnight, would the

best way to switch to this kind of deployment go like so:

- move workstations to a department OU (they are all in one huge one right

now)

- whilst in that OU then manually remove the software we want managed

control of

- import the MSI package into group policy for the OU

 

machines will then be rebooted and installed with latest update.

 

Is it best to only deploy one app at a time through assigned installations?

As we've got at leats three apps i want to switch over to managed control of,

this process is going to be a multi-stepped process isn't it...?

 

Thanks!