Installation using Group Policy

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aburt
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Jan 17, 2005 11:50 am

Installation using Group Policy

Postby aburt » Wed Jan 26, 2005 12:52 pm

Hi,

If we built an installer using InstallAware how would a Network Administrator install our software silently onto multiple machines? Could they use Group Policy?

I am aware that InstallAware builds its own MSI 'on-the-fly' with the appropriate settings. Is it possible for a Network Administrator to use this MSI?

If that's not possible, how could we allow a Network Admin to record some configuration settings?

Many thanks,

Andrew

sinan
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Joined: Sat Nov 13, 2004 8:12 am
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Postby sinan » Thu Jan 27, 2005 3:51 am

Andrew

You will want to provide a single self extracting EXE file for your installation. The network administrator can then push this EXE and silently install it on as many systems as he wants using the /s command line parameter.

The network administrator cannot use the MSI because it needs to be appropriately "configured" by the InstallAware script that executes at runtime.

As for recording configuration settings:

1) You can pass command line values for pre-defined script variables, such as TARGETDIR. For instance, if you say setup.exe TARGETDIR=d:\\some\\folder, this becomes the destination directory, as if it were chosen in the destination directory during a non-silent install.

2) If you need more complex configurability, your script can read the command line passed to the installer for switches it recognizes. Or you could even have your script read a text file which contains more advanced setup settings.

Since nothing is hard coded in InstallAware, and your script remains in full control of what happens during setup, you can precisely tweak how silent setups are handled. You could define your own command line switches, your own INI files, or do whatever else you can think of :D

Hope these suggestions are helpful,
Sinan

aburt
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Jan 17, 2005 11:50 am

Postby aburt » Thu Jan 27, 2005 4:46 am

Thanks Sinan,

Yes, I think that answers my question.

Thanks for your quick response.

Andrew


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