Client install tool systemhound

From systemhoundwiki

Contents 1 Client install tool 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Configuration 1.2.1 Required Files 1.2.2 Editing Configuration 1.3 Monitoring Deployment Progress 1.4 Alternative Scenarios 1.4.1 Moving systemhound central server 1.4.2 Uninstalling systemhound

Client install tool

Introduction

The preferred deployment mechanism for systemhound clients is to deploy the client MSI (Windows Installer) via Active directory.

The client install tool provides an alternative approach to this enabling you to deploy (and uninstall) the client software via a login script but still using the MSI deployment package. It is suitable for all Windows platforms where the pre-requisites are met. The tools wraps calls to Windows Installer.

Each time the tool is launched it checks whether the client is installed before launching the client MSI. Deployment is controlled by a parameterised INI file where you can specify the basic rules the tool uses to decide on whether to deploy or not.

To following pre-requisites are required for deploying using the tool:

• Microsoft Windows Installer must already be installed
• The user launching the tool must either have local administrator rights to the computer or Windows Installer should be able to run in an elevated privileges. More information can be found at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;q259459
• The user launching the tool must have write access to where the tool is being run from as the default location for the log file is the same location. You can alter the log file location by editing the clientinstall.exe.ini file and changing the msiexec parameters if you wish the log file to go elsewhere.

Configuration

Required Files

Copy the files clientinstall.exe and clientinstall.exe.ini from "C:\Program Files\systemhound\Utils\LoginscriptInstallation" to a shared network location where they can be referenced by your login scripts. Also copy the client installer "systemhound client.msi" to the same location.

The default location for the MSI log file is the same directory as clientinstall.exe. Therefore the user running the program must have WRITE access to this folder. If the user doesn't have access then the MSIEXEC error code of 1622 is returned. You can edit the ini file to change the logfile location. For help with other MSIEXEC error codes see the microsoft page http://support.microsoft.com/kb/229683

Editing Configuration

Open the file clientinstall.exe.ini within notepad and ensure that the following entry contains the name of the systemhound central server:

You can now add a call to clientinstall.exe within your login scripts to deploy systemhound out to your company’s computers.

Monitoring Deployment Progress

Whenever the tool launches the installer, the file deployments.ini is updated. This file is created within the same directory as the clientinstall.exe and contains two INI file sections: SUCCESS and FAILURE. Each entry under these sections contains the machine name as the field name and the username and date of entry as the value.

In addition to this the log file generated by the Windows Installer is stored in the same directory. This log file is named with the client computer’s name as its prefix and should be used to troubleshoot deployment.

Alternative Scenarios

Moving systemhound central server

Ideally you would use a registered DNS entry to refer to your systemhound central server but if this was not possible and you rename or move your systemhound central server to another PC you will need to redeploy the systemhound client to reflect the host name change. By editing the value "expected value" within the [installedok] section of clientinstall.exe.ini you can force the reinstall of the client software should the client machine be referring to a different central server name. For example replace "expectedvalue=*" with "expectedvalue=newcentralservername".

Alternatively you may decide to script the change of the registry entry on the client machines. The central server is held at

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\systemhound]
"database_server"="NEWSERVERNAME"

Microsoft link to scripting registry changes:

• KB264584[1]
• KB82821 Regedit command line [2]
• Running a registry change within login script [3]

And, if you are using Active directory policy to deploy systemhound then create a new distribution (with the new hound server) and force a redeploy within Active directory. KB816102

Uninstalling systemhound

Should you need to remove the systemhound client, repeat the configuration steps detailed for deploying but when calling clientinstall.exe from within your login scripts add the command line argument ’UNINSTALL’.

clientinstall.exe UNINSTALL

Of course you can also manually remove the client software from within Add/Remove programs inside Windows Control Panel.