deploying software that resides in dfs folders via configuration manager 2007

Deploying software that resides in DFS Folders via Configuration Manager 2007

Author: George Simos | SecuRe IT Services & Infrastructure v.1.0, rev.3 [email protected] | [email protected]

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Deploying software that resides in DFS Folders via Configuration

Manager 2007

Disclaimer: This Document is provided “AS IS” and has been checked for errors and any

inaccuracies; the steps described in it have been tested in Test and Real environments and

the procedure is refined to perfection. However this IS NOT the official recommended way

of distributing software via the System Center Configuration Manager and Microsoft will

not support it.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of

their respective owners.

We “Secu.Re IT Services & Infrastructure” hold no responsibility for any damages or/and

loss happened from the incorrect usage of these instructions. By continuing to read this

guide you “Agree” to accept any risks and demand nothing from the Author.

Names used for the Locations and domains in this document are not fictional, they were

selected on purpose due to their significance to the Author.



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This document describes the steps needed in order to deploy software or programs via DFS

namespaces that span and replicate across the enterprise.

The software that will be deployed through this walkthrough is Office 2007.

Why use DFS as your software repository

onsider the following scenario, you have one Primary/Central Site server with two (2)

secondary servers that connect with a saturated or bandwidth constraint WAN Link,

control of the bandwidth consumed is at high priority.

You need one logical place to access the data from any of the three sites and always

access the closest one.

You want to quickly move the data to another drive when hard drive space is limited

and attach this replica in the same namespace in such a way that users won’t notice

the change.

If something happens in a secondary site’s DFS folder, you want the clients to

fallback to another site.

You need to organize the packages and any other software in a manner you

understand and apparently can’t do it with SCCM’s software distribution shares

(which are hidden).

All these are the benefits of using DFS with Replication; however there is a cost for using

them and this is a small administrative overhead (it’s really small).

So let’s say that our Servers are named like this:

1) Prim1 is the Primary/Central Server which is in Thessaloniki /Greece

2) Sec1 is the first Secondary Server and is Located in Katerini/Greece

3) Sec2 is the second Secondary Server and is located in Ioannina/Greece

4) The domain name is longbeach.gr

Our DFS Structure is the following:

1) Every Server from the above list has a folder named “Server_Software” in their D:

Drive.

2) The DFS Root is named as \\longbeach.gr\SCCM

3) We make a new NameSpace folder named as “Server_Software” and add as folder

targets the corresponding folders named “Server_Software” of each participating

server, starting with Prim1.

4) We setup replication for the aforementioned Namespace folder in a “Hub and

Spoke” topology for having Prim1 as HUB and Sec1/Sec2 as Spokes.

5) The software packages reside in the path

\\longbeach.gr\SCCM\Server_Software\Packages any software needed must be

placed in there for consistency and management. At least those packages that will

be DFS distributed.

C



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We will not get into more detail for the DFS Structure; we have all we need to get our first

package deployed.

We will use Office 2007 as an example; it has some options we need to check.

Office 2007 has an exceptional installer and a tool to tweak it for administration purposes,

just run setup /admin and you will be presented with numerous options.

The installer caches locally the installation files on every client after the installation

completes, however if you ever lose them, it would be wise enough to setup a path to the

DFS’s package folder in the MSP file that holds Office’s installation options, let’s name this

file Office_Silent.msp, assume that this path is:

\\longbeach.gr\SCCM\Server_Software\Packages\Office_2007 (mind the underscores).

Summing up we have:

1) An administrative installation of Office 2007 in

\\longbeach.gr\SCCM\Server_Software\Packages\Office_2007

2) An MSP file that holds the information passed to the setup routine, named

Office_Silent.msp in the same path.

In order to apply an MSP file you run the following command:

Setup.exe /adminfile Office_Silent.msp

This is the command we need for our package, but we want it to run from the DFS folder and

not from an ConfigMgr’s package. Let’s see how we achieve this objective.

We assume that the replication has completed for all the targets and we are ready to roll our

installation.

Let’s say that we have a collection named “Windows Clients” and has as content a mix of

Windows XP and Vista Clients, we will advertise “Office 2007” at this collection.

Please go to next page...



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We create the Software Package first:

This is the first significant step; don’t select the checkbox “This package contains source

files”:



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At the next step, select “Access the distribution folder through common ConfigMgr package

share”.

The next step is a matter of preference concerning the “Send Priority” and the “Preferred

Sender”, the branch distribution point content settings don’t have any application in our

infrastructure, and we have Distribution Points at the Sites, not BDPs.

The Management Information Format selection at the Reporting Dialog are left as “Use

package properties for status MIF matching” for Office 2007, this is something that depends

from the package.

At the security dialog, specify any security context you need for the Instance and Class rights

(security context= User, Group).

At the Summary dialog you must have something like this, proceed to finish with the

package creation:

Package Information

Name: Office 2007

Version: 12

Publisher: Microsoft

Language: English Data Source Information

Source Location: Not configured

Update Schedule: Not configured

Cache Persistence: No Data Access Information:

Share Name:

Enable Automatic Disconnect: No

Disconnect Retries: Not configured

Disconnect Grace Period: Not configured Distribution Settings

Priority: Medium

Preferred Sender: <No Preference> Branch Distribution Point Download: Automatic

Branch Distribution Point Download On Demand: No

Multicast: Disabled

Encrypt in Multicast: No

Only use Multicast to transfer this package: No MIF Settings

MIF Matching: No

MIF File Name: Not configured

MIF Name: Not configured MIF Version: Not configured

MIF Publisher: Not configure

The next action is to add a program in the package, this is the part where we add the

execution commands and later advertise them to the collection(s).



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Expand the package we’ve created and go to “Programs”, create a new Program and name it

“Silent (No UI)”. At the Command line enter the program you want to run along with any

flags, in our example we need to run the office 2007 setup with the msp file we created

beforehand, so the command is: Setup.exe /adminfile Office_Silent.msp, I

tend to enter the msp’s name in “ ” but this can be skipped.

At the “Start in:” section type the path where the command above resides and will be run

from, in our example is: \\longbeach.gr\SCCM\Server_Software\Packages\Office_2007,

you don’t have to add a training slash at the end of the path.

At the “Run” section leave it as “Normal”; if you have setup office to suppress any dialogs

then this has no impact.

Select what to do after running the command, for Office 2007 you need to restart the client,

so select “ConfigMgr restarts computer”.

The only dialog that matters next is “Environment”, you should select “Run with

administrative rights” and don’t select “Allow users to interact with this program in the

“Run” section. In the “Drive mode” section, select “Runs with UNC Name”. Finally select how

the program can run, in our example it’s “Whether or not a user is logged on.

You don’t have to distribute the package to the Distribution Points as there are no files for it

(remember that we selected that the package does not contains source files during its

creation), all the files reside in the DFS folder structure.

Now we have to proceed to the next action which is the “Advertisement” of the package.

You may Advertise a program by right clicking on the “Advertisements” folder under

software distribution and selecting “New” > “Advertisement”, then you name your

advertisement and select the package we created before which is “Office 2007” and select

the program “Silent (No UI)”, then target the “Windows Clients” collection and set

“Schedule” options according to your needs. Again at the “Distribution Points” dialogue you

don’t have to select anything special, leave it as is. Proceed with the “Interaction” choices

and the “Security” options and you are finished.

This is the way you can use DFS (or a shared folder) for software distribution with System

Center Configuration Manager 2007.

I’d like to thank my fellow MVPs Kim Oppalfens ([email protected]) & Torsten

Meringer ([email protected]) for reviewing this guide and their valuable comments.

George Simos SecuRe IT Services & Infrastructure Microsoft MVP in System Center Configuration Manager

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

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