These questions were raised during Software Deployment Training
FAQ's
If the software is deployed using Advertise Configuration, will the installation happen? No, installation will not happen, only the installables will get copied to the end user's machine.
What is the difference between commercial and non-commercial software? Any software that uses a valid license is termed as commercial. If a license is not required, then it is termed as non commercial software.
Can I deploy a Patch as a Software package? Yes you can, if you know the command line arguments to install them silently.
Can I set the number of times to retry the configuration if it fails? Yes, you can configure the number of times you want to retry the configuration in case it fails to install.
How would you uninstall the previous version of a software while installing the latest version? This can be done using the pre-deployment activities.
I have 100 WAN machines in my remote office, if I want to deploy a 50mb file, does this use the full 5gb bandwidth for HTTP? It is recommended to use Distribution server in this case. The data from the Endpoint Central Server will be replicated only once to the distribution server and this data is later internally shared to the WAN computers.
If I have an exe or msi or any other type of software installable do I need to provide the command line arguments or it will be automatically picked by Endpoint Central?
When you are creating the Packages from Software templates you need not specify the switches or arguments as they are already available in the templates. If you are creating the packages manually you should specify the silent switches/commands for silent software installation.
What will happen if the connection between server and client gets disconnected during the deployment of software? Does the entire setup file needs to be copied and downloaded to client again?
No, the entire setup file will not be copied and downloaded again. The download will be resumed from where it ended.
What is the importance of non-commercial/commercial License Types? In Self Service portal there is setting to publish all the non-commercial software to "All computer group" for self deployment. Thus the software which are marked as non-commercial will get published to the "All computer group".
Is it possible to prompt for user confirmation while deploying a software? How can I do that? For computer configuration under install/uninstall software there is an option "Allow User to interact with the Installation/Uninstallation Window". On enabling this option user will be prompted for installation. Ensure that you do not give any silent switch while creating the EXE package for this option to work.
How to enable logging for software installation? While adding MSI packages enable the option "Enable Logging for troubleshooting" to enable extra logging for troubleshooting.
What if the Network share is a DFS share?Will it replicate to the local servers in the Remote office? If you are using a Distribution File System (DFS) as Network share replication is automatically taken care to local servers in the Remote office.
Can the HTTP Repository share the same UNC path as the Network Share? If anything was downloaded from a Template will it go to the same location as the other installation files? Yes. If you provide the same location for both the Network share and the HTTP repository, then the Template applications will get downloaded to the same location.
How can we copy the "software deployment configuration" from one deployment to another? You can choose to clone the configuration with/without the target, and re-use the configuration for deployment. If you would like deploy this configuration only to a specific number of computers, you can also choose to edit the configuration, modify the target and re-deploy them, you should ensure to add a pre-deployment activity to exclude computers if the software already exists. So that the deployment will happen only to the newly added computers.
What is the difference between Automate Patch Deployment against Software Deployment for example, "Java", assume we already have previous Java installed? Automated patch deployment is used to update the patches, whereas when a software/application needs to be upgraded, it should be performed using Software Deployment.
How does the software approval process work if we are not using ServiceDesk Plus? Software Approval feature is a part of Service Desk Plus integration. As of now, it's unavailable to customer who does not have ServiceDesk Plus product integrated with Endpoint Central.
when I deploy a software it takes much time , even though I use immediate deploymently? Deployment will happen only based on the timing set on the Deployment settings, even if you choose to deploy immediately. If you want to deploy a software immediately, you will have modify the deployment to meet your requirement. So, that whenever a computer is reachable, the deployment will begin.
How Can I uninstall Symantec Endoint Protection from workstations?You will have to get the vendors website to fetch the uninstallation switches, once you have the uninstallation switches, you can create a package and deploy it to the target comptuers.
When deploying a package, to 10 computers, it is successfully deployed to 5 computers whereas it shows error as "Network no longer exist for deployment". What could be the problem?Based on the scenario that you have specified, it is clear that the first 5 computers are reachable and the deployment is successful. So, you will have to verify if the remaining 5 computers are reachable from the server. You can verify it pinging the agent computer. If there is issue in connectivity, then we will not able to deploy the software to the target computer. Deployment will begin when the product server is reachable from the managed computer.
When deploying a package, how do you check for existing versions of software?You can verify the version of the software from the Inventory details. If you want to verify this, before initiating the deployment, you can use pre-deployment activities, to verify the version and choose to proceed or abort the installation.
When a software is deployed using Self-service portal, does it require admin rights to install a software on user machine? When a software is installed using self-service portal, it uses the "system account" to install a software for computers and currently logged on user account for user specific software.
Can you deploy Enterprise applications, specifically purchased for a organization? Enterprise applications can be deployed through Endpoint Central. You need to add the package with proper silent install switches as specified by the application vendor. It can be achieved by passing the license key as arguments or by XML files which depends entirely on the product.
Self-service portal is not enabled, Do I need an Enterprise Edition to use Self-Service portal? How do I know, which Edition do I use? Self Service Portal is only available for Enterprise Edition. You can login to the web console and click Licenses at the top pane. You can view the license type as Professional or Enterprise Edition.
Can the software self-service be setup to only should users software based on AD Computer and User OUs/Groups?Self-service portal can be enabled for all managed computers, users and custom groups in Endpoint Central.
If a machine ins't on, the agent turn it on, and do the installation?Yes, it is possible to wake up the computers before deployment. You can configure this from, Software deployment -> settings -> Deployment policies-> Turn on Computers before Deployment.
How does the "Install After" timer work in relation to the refresh policy, for software installation? Software will install in next refresh policy after the time mentioned in the 'Install After'. Refresh policy is a duration of 90 minutes for the network.
Where on the user's pc does it copy the software installables? Does it erase afterwards? Installable files will be copied inside the 'Endpoint Central' agent folder. Files will be deleted once the software is installed successfully.
Does the scheduler use the local machine time or the Endpoint Central server time? Schedulers work with reference to the EndpoCentral server time.
If I want my software packages to be replicated to the Remote office, what is the best way? For Remote Office based network infrastructure, HTTP repository is the recommended approach. This would automatically replicate the deployed packages to the respective Remote Offices. Currently, replication of packages in Network share are not supported. However, if you are using Distributed File System (DFS) replication is automatically taken care.
With the proxy set, are the template packages included with Endpoint Central ready to use as deployment via your ( Endpoint Central's) repository, or does all the software have to be within our local software repository? Using the given 'Proxy', Endpoint Central will download files from the external vendors website and store the files in the HTTP software repository.
How about for msp, which should I select? I would like to create a package but it’s an msp not exe msi? Which Package type do I select when it's an msp? MSP file format can be used for installation in Endpoint Central. Choose "MSIEXEC" as package type and specify the arguments along with its silent switches as shown below: %windir%\system32\msiexec.exe /update "\\share\xyz.msp" /qn.
When doing sequenced deployment of software, if the first package fails, does it attempt to continue? How is notification sent back? If the first package fails , it will halt the installation. we have e-mail notifications to notify the admin about failure. We would recommend you to configure the retry option, to increase the success rate.
I used an installer to deploy 'Chrome' software in my network. Now a new version of chrome has been released, should I use the same installer to uninstall the older version of 'Chrome' and install the new one? Basically, the latest versions of chrome will be upgrading over the existing one. In general, the uninstall doesn't need the original package. You can use the uninstall string to directly uninstall it.
With configurations what is best way to deal with perquisite software upgrades? If you keep the same configuration, is it best to change the perquisite version and keep the same configuration? If you want to maintain the history of previous configurations, then you will have to create a new configuration for every upgrade, else you can update the same package and configuration.
Can you add multiple exit codes for success to a package (I.e. both 3010 and 1641 can mean success but reboot required)? Currently Endpoint Central do not have option to add multiple exit code. However, this can be added to road-map tool.
I have a requirement to perform registry entries in a specific order along side a software install. How can this be achieved?You can use script to do the registry and use it with pre/post deployment activities of Software Deployment. To give you a quick heads-up, the development team has plans to provide requested feature under Collections. (Collection is the combination of multiple configurations in required order) This would empower you to do multiple configurations like Registry, Environment Variable, File folder Operations, Drive mapping etc., along with "Software Deployment" as a collection.
If you have a configuration that pushes software to 10 computers and later you add 10 more. Does the configuration reinstall the software on the first 10?The product will attempt to install it on all computers. However, you can follow the below approach to handle this, 1. Using configuration Modify >> save as new >> Without target and add new target computers, 2. Apply the configuration to a 'Custom Group' and later add new computers to custom group so that only the newly added computers will get the configuration.
Is there plans to automatically update packages you have already downloaded via template? Currently the product doesn't support this feature. However the product roadmap has this added in. Please raise those requirements to our product road map.
How can I host Software Repository in another computer? Create a folder in another computer. Give end-users read and execute permission for that folder. Go to Software Deployment->Software Repository->Network Share. Choose Exisiting Share. Here, enter the path name for the Network Share that you have created earlier. For example : \\MachineName\ExampleShare
