Automated installs in AD

[Adrian Marsh (NNTP)]

I currently have an Office 2000 Admin install point, and use Active
Directory to install it (User Based, Assigned).

At the moment, it only installs office as needed, which is fine for most
of my workstations. but there are a few laptops where I need it to be
installed fully all the time.

I've created a sub-ou, but can't seem to figure out how to get it to do
a full install...

Any advice?

Also,

If I have the same .msi file listed in a parent and a child OU, should
the application get installed twice (and listed twice in Control
Panel/Add_Remove) or is AD smart enough to only show it once???

Adrian

 

[Glenn L]

Not sure what you mean by "fully"
If you mean that it is automatically installed on the client rather than
being invoked by the user, then assign it to the machine rather than to the
user.

 

[Adrian Marsh (NNTP)]

Hi Glenn,

By "fully" I mean this: If I install Office by user, and Assign it,
then office is installed as it is used, i.e. user opens Word, AD
installs word then, not before. Great for quick-deployment, but bad for
mobile users.

I think I've sorted it though. In the domain OU, I've specified
User/Assign, so that all workstations and servers can use it as needs-be.
I've then also put it into the child-ou for Laptops as a Machine/Assigned.

It does seem to work, and as a bonus it seems to recognise that they are
the same package (same .msi I guess). Only one shows in the Control
Panel Add/remove dialog, but maybe Machine SIs don't show there??

Does beg some more questions though:

If I have to update the Admin point, and I "redeploy" the Domain OU SI
instance, will that also re-deeploy the child-OU instance too? And in
reverse, if I redeploy the child, will that affect the parent Domain OU
too??

Thanks

Adrian

 

[Adrian Marsh (NNTP)]

Another Software Install question:

When SI does the installation, does it use the SID of the network
machine used for distribution, or does it use the "netbios/dns" name?

I have a bunch of software installed by machine \\ABC.somedomain.com\si.
I want to move the .msi packages to \\OTHERMACHINE.somedomain.com\si
which has more disk space. In this instance I know I'll have to
remove/readd each package, causing remove/reinstalls on the clients.
For the future I wanted to setup a dns alias that I can use instead, so
I don't have to do this again, should I have to move packages again. But
that will only work if SI uses DNS and not the SID.

Cheers,

Adrian

 

[Adrian Marsh (NNTP)]

Another Software Install question:

When SI does the installation, does it use the SID of the network
machine used for distribution, or does it use the "netbios/dns" name?

I have a bunch of software installed by machine \\ABC.somedomain.com\si.
I want to move the .msi packages to \\OTHERMACHINE.somedomain.com\si
which has more disk space. In this instance I know I'll have to
remove/readd each package, causing remove/reinstalls on the clients.
For the future I wanted to setup a dns alias that I can use instead, so
I don't have to do this again, should I have to move packages again. But
that will only work if SI uses DNS and not the SID.

Cheers,

Adrian

 

[Guest]

It uses the machine name to resolve the IP address.
You could also use DFS to abstract the distribution path.