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Automation tools / ideas ?
dachish
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Does anyone out there know any good software for automating installs? I have an application I need to install on about 200 machines and that is very time consuming and will take away valuable time from my other duties.
The application requires 1) installing 2) configuring the tool with some basic information such a server address and such in about 3 menus 3) Running the update tool.
The last time I did something like this was when Office 2007 came out and people who still had 2003 needed the compatibility patch to be able to read 2007 files. I simply made a text files with the PC names of all our PCs, then ran psexec (from the pstools suite) and had it go down the list, download the small file from out network location, and then install passively. All the user had to do in the end was hit "ok" when it finished. That saved me from having to install this about 400 times and I was very pleased.
We have an application called MS System Center or some such but I have no experience with it and am not sure it can do what I need. I am going to research that later.
I've found a couple of tools that let me 'record' installs much like photoshop records actions, and that would be ideal, except none of them seem to be able to record my steps after the install.
Any ideas folks?
Thanks so much.
The application requires 1) installing 2) configuring the tool with some basic information such a server address and such in about 3 menus 3) Running the update tool.
The last time I did something like this was when Office 2007 came out and people who still had 2003 needed the compatibility patch to be able to read 2007 files. I simply made a text files with the PC names of all our PCs, then ran psexec (from the pstools suite) and had it go down the list, download the small file from out network location, and then install passively. All the user had to do in the end was hit "ok" when it finished. That saved me from having to install this about 400 times and I was very pleased.
We have an application called MS System Center or some such but I have no experience with it and am not sure it can do what I need. I am going to research that later.
I've found a couple of tools that let me 'record' installs much like photoshop records actions, and that would be ideal, except none of them seem to be able to record my steps after the install.
Any ideas folks?
Thanks so much.
My heart it ceases, my breath undrawn.
Eyes forever focused, on the sanguine, metal dawn.
Eyes forever focused, on the sanguine, metal dawn.
dachish on
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Posts
If so - Install using an MSI and group policy
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I've got a spare copy of Portal, if anyone wants it message me.
It's a pretty simple scripting language made to automate Windows tasks. I've set up installs with it before that I couldn't configure via group policy or deploy with zenworks and chained together others that I could.
There's examples in the documentation and on their forums that should get you started, and once you're finished you can compile the script to an EXE so there's no requirements on the client machines.
Eyes forever focused, on the sanguine, metal dawn.
"Was cursing, in broken english at his team, and at our team. made fun of dead family members and mentioned he had sex with a dog."
"Hope he dies tbh but a ban would do."
Eyes forever focused, on the sanguine, metal dawn.
If you need help with a specific thing, just shoot me a pm
"Was cursing, in broken english at his team, and at our team. made fun of dead family members and mentioned he had sex with a dog."
"Hope he dies tbh but a ban would do."
Bigwah - awesome, thanks. You might regret that offer soon though! =p So far I'm doing okay though.
Mono - it's gotten a little easier already...it just threw so much info at me at first that it felt overwhelming. I'm having a good time messing with it.
Eyes forever focused, on the sanguine, metal dawn.
You can lock the keyboard+mouse (except Ctrl+Alt+Del), but when you do this you cant use Alt to access menus (ie alt+f for File), but instead you can use mouse clicks, just make sure the window is always in the same position and the same resolution is used (for simplicity's sake).
"Was cursing, in broken english at his team, and at our team. made fun of dead family members and mentioned he had sex with a dog."
"Hope he dies tbh but a ban would do."
Basically, if the workstation is locked, Windows doesn't allow any keyboard/mouse interaction. AutoIt and other macro lanugages can't do much when this happens, though they can still do batch stuff, like running programs or setting registry keys.