On Sat, Aug 7, 2010 at 4:09 AM, Guillaume Rousse <[email protected]> wrote: > Le 07/08/2010 00:22, Rob Townley a écrit : >> .MSI files are Microsoft Installer format. With a OCSagent-setup.MSI >> installation program, >> current MS Active Directory administrators would be much more likely to >> deploy the agent because it can be seamlessly pushed out with a couple of >> clicks to all 10,000 workstations at next bootup. I push out >> OpenOffice.msi and FrontMotionFirefox.msi >> and their updates to all workstations by default using this. But to >> use ActiveDirectory to _push_ software, >> the software must be packaged as a MSI. So obviously, OCS / Fusion >> can fill a major void. > Hi Rob. > > I've been very interested by msi packages too, hence the creation of a > ticket in fusioninventory tracking system: > http://forge.fusioninventory.org/issues/199 > > However, unless I'm wrong, msi package deployment only occurs when > rebooting the target computer. Which largely reduces the difference > between 'pushing' software and 'pulling' them from boot-time scripts. > And I don't want to reboot my hyperv servers just to install new software... > > Otherwise, they still seems to have advantages over standard interactive > installers: > - installation/upgrade logic handled by AD, garantishing consistent > behaviour between software for users, and less work for developers > - ability to uninstall automatically the gpo doesn't apply anymore > - automatic restoration point creation on target computer > >> What is a little trickier is configuring the default install, but not >> too difficult and >> there are options. >> 1.) If sysadmin can use a default hostname for the server, then no >> configuration is necessary. > Being a slave to default configuration values is not very appealing. > >> 2.) Server 2008 uses XML for creating Group Policy Objects to >> configure pushed out >> Microsoft Installer Files so that a single MSI could be configured as >> Group Policy Object. > We have initial admx/adml templates already, see in the contrib > directory. The only issue being fusioninventory using two different > locations in registry on 32 and 64 bits hosts, because it is only > available in 32bits. Separating perl itself from the agent package would > help there. > >> 3.) Or the admin could make a Microsoft Installer Transformation >> (MST) package to modify - which isn't >> too hard either because it is really just the diff from the original MSI. > Really too much work, compared to previous solution, and still suffering > from the you-have-to-reboot-to-apply-the change issue. > >> The bottom line is that providing a simple MSI agent, the userbase for >> Fusion / OCS >> would explode. > Or just make life eventually easier for the current user base. At least, > having a exhaustive list of available deployment strategies would be a > huge benefit for unix admins coming to windows world. > -- > BOFH excuse #33: > > piezo-electric interference > > > _______________________________________________ > Fusioninventory-user mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/fusioninventory-user > >
Yes, MSI installs generally are installed on reboot, but most AD admins i know do not bother with .EXE installs from login scripts. If they can't find a .MSI installer, they move onto another solution. When i searched for adml, nothing was found, but i did find them manually. I hope i can figure out the translation and howto translate to english. Would the ADMX/adml templates work for ocsinventory-ng agent installer as well? _______________________________________________ Fusioninventory-user mailing list [email protected] http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/fusioninventory-user
