Group Policy Initiated Install

[spanningtree]

Anyone have experience with Group Policy Installation? I've tried to use GPO for both Publishing and Assigning a new msi package on a UNC enabled share and I can't seem to get it to install. BTW-I did create the pub/priv key paring so that is not the reason for failure.

 

thanks,

 

Randy

[Mayoff]

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/314934

 

Based on this document, I would assume you would use assigning. If you assign the program to a computer, it is installed when the computer starts and is available to all users that log on to the computer

[Guest]

If you want to install retrospect via GP your clients need to have Isscript9.msi installed first. If you do not it wont work. If you deploy isscript via GPO you will never be able to install another program that uses isscript (any version).

 

It took me 3 months to fix the mess that happened when i deployed retrospect and isscript.

 

Tech support would not help me because it was out of their scope .... i just think they did not know what a GPO was.

 

you can wrap isscript.msi within another msi .. but you cant deploy isscript.msi by it self

[LuckMan212]

So, based on this, am I supposed to assume that remotely deploying Retrospect client is *NOT* possible? What was your final step-by-step solution? I want to roll out the client to about 30 machines and this could save me a lot of time if it's possible. But I don't want to make more headaches for myself... also, I am curious how the silent install deals with the "enter password" prompt that usually appears during install. Is there a way to prepare the package so that there is a default password entered, or do these clients get installed with NO password?

 

thank you for your help.

[Mayoff]

See page 168 of the Retrospect user's guide. It is explained.

 

http://kb.dantz.com/article.asp?article=8333&p=2

[MRIS]

The following vbscript will remove all installshield engines from a computer. Use this, for example, after retrospect is fully deployed via GP together with it's installsheild engine, and you later have trouble installing another application that requires a different (usually earlier version) of the instalshield engine. You will need to re-install the retrospect supplied installshield engine if you want GP to remove the client, for whatever reason.

 

remove_installshield_engines.vbs


' Posted into Public Domain on 14.03.2008 by MRIS





' Uninstall Software
'
'
'
'
'






strComputer = "."
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:" _
   & "{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")

Set colSoftware = objWMIService.ExecQuery _
   ("Select * from Win32_Product Where Name = 'InstallScriptMSIEngine'")

For Each objSoftware in colSoftware
   objSoftware.Uninstall()
Next









' delete registry keys
'
'
'
'

Const HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT = &H80000000
Const HKEY_CURRENT_USER = &H80000001
Const HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE = &H80000002
Const HKEY_USERS = &H80000003
Const HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG = &H80000005
Const HKEY_DYN_DATA = &H80000006

Dim RegHive
Dim RegKey

'Select registry hive constant from above list.
RegHive = HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE 

'Path to key to delete (no leading/trailing slashes).
RegKey="SOFTWARE\InstallShield\Driver"

'Recursive sub to delete all subkeys and parentkey.
DelKey RegHive, RegKey


Sub DelKey(RegRoot, SPath)
Dim sKeys
Dim SubKeyCount
Dim objRegistry
Dim lRC
Dim lRC2
Dim Key
Set objRegistry = GetObject("winmgmts:root\default:StdRegProv")


lRC = objRegistry.EnumKey(RegRoot, sPath, sKeys)

If IsArray(sKeys) Then
for each Key in sKeys
DelKey RegRoot, SPath & "\" & Key
next
End If

lRC2 = objRegistry.DeleteKey(RegRoot, sPath)

End Sub













' Delete Files
'
'
'
'



on error resume next
Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
objFSO.DeleteFolder("C:\Program Files\Common Files\InstallShield\Driver")
objFSO.DeleteFolder("C:\Program Files\Common Files\InstallShield\Engine")

Edited March 13, 2008 by Guest
added code tags

[bilbus]

Yes DO NOT install retrospect client via group policy.

 

If you do it the way EMC tells you to you wil never be able to install another software package that uses the isscript engine. EMC will not help you fix it and did not even know what group policy was when i called.

 

I also ran into this problem, took me 2 months and 100+ hours to remove the mess. I found out that the windows installer cleanup tool can remove the install script mapping. But this tool must be run localy. Walking to 100+ computers many of which are laptops that are not local is not fun ..

 

The only 2 ways i know of to safely deploy restrospect

 

1: preinstall isscript 9 on your deploymernt image. This works for new installs, i use acronis for image deployment. (image deployment is when you premake windows installs and push them out to new desktop with windows and your applications pre installed .. this replaces installing windoes on new computers)

 

2: wrap install script within another MSI installer package. These products are comonly use to convert non deployable software into deployable software.

 

These products are complicated and not free.

Edited April 3, 2008 by Guest

[Mayoff]

Billbus, I am assuming you mean Retrospect Client and not Retrospect? I just want to make sure a future reader of this thread doesn't get confused.

[bilbus]

Yup, client .. i have edited my post.

[TimRice]

Does Retrospect 7.7 change any of the information discussed here?

 

Does Retrospect properly support deployment via GPO's and has ISScript.msi been fixed to support GPO deployment?

 

I do have access to the tools to create a custom MSI for the deployment, and an alternate deployment tool (BigFix) so if it doesn't properly support GPO's I'm can work around it, but I have to roll Retrospect out to just under 400 laptops so that they can be backed up prior to Whole Disk Encryption being installed on them.

[jocoph]

i dont see any changes in the User Guide

[Richy_Boy]

We use 7.7 and I don't think there has been any fixes to allow RS client to be deployed via GPO - because of IScript.msi.

 

There's probably a work around or two, but we only have about 50-odd clients, so manually installing any new kit is managable.

 

Rich