Software Installation Administration Tools

[dball63]

Long time no post

I have a problem that I would love to find a solution to. I used to be an Novell Zenworks advocate for large software rollouts in the office. Our IT department now is not willing to make the changes needed to NDS to keep using Zenworks. They also will not allow me to make any Active Directory policy changes to use any microsoft built-in installation tools. Can anyone offer something else that I could try at a low cost?

This has been a problem that has cost me lots of lost time over the last 3 years. I need to find something.

David
Sacramento, CA

 

[rvnguy]

dball63,

What is it exactly that you are trying to accomplish without your IT dept's backing??

rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all

 

[dball63]

A cheap interim solution that will allow me to remotely install software and patches without the use of NDS or ADS. I've been waiting for a solution for over 5 years. I've tested Zenworks, 3.0 and not deployed it. I tested Zenworks 3.2 and no deploymment to wait for version 4.0. I tested version 4.0 and again no deployment to wait for version 6.0. Our IT deparment has plans to deploy something but like I said earlier, they have not been able to provide a deployment for over 5 years now.

I'm not looking to deploy something without my IT departments knowledge. In the meantime I am looking for a solution that will not envolve our central IT department if that is possible. If I can't find anything then I will have to continue to visit each machine one-by-one the old fashion way. I also have given some thought to breaking away from them somewhat to creat our own AD Domain. That way we could create our own GPO's as we wish. Thats a last resort though. I want to cooperate if I can. I hate working so visiting each machine to do ruitine installs. Its a step backwards from what I am used to.

Tomorrow I plan to do some snapshot installations using old Zenworks 2.0. Its what I've used mostly for the last 5 years but with windows 2000 and XP desktops, installations are rarely successful and require lots of massaging to make them work. I'd love to find something else that was more efficient and easier to use.

David

 

[wcburton]

I have used InstallRite from epsilonsquared.com with good results. It monitors the files, registry, and INI settinds during install. It then allows you to view and edit the result (only delete, not add or edit). It will then create a single exe to apply the changes. I am not sure how well this compares to Zenworks as I have not worked with that.

You could also look at AutoIt (

http://www.hiddensoft.com/autoit3/).

I have used that to make a wrapper around the installrite-created executable to do a runas administrator.

For pushing these out to clients, you can use scripting or batch files along with psexec from sysinternals.com. With scripting, you can set up an input file of PC's to process. If any of them are not available or fail, write that to an output file. At end of processing input file, copy the output file over the input and repeat until all PC's processed.