Application Deployment

[Fatmas]

Quick bit of background:

At the moment we are using Prism for application deployment. All our machines are windows XP based and prism seems to work fine.


We are however moving to Windows 7 next Summer and I have been tasked into looking into alternatives to application deployment. I've been told that Spec-Ops is a good bit of software to use but I want your opinions or any recommendations you might have.

If you need any more information just let me know.

Thanks guys and girls

[ZeroHour]

SCCM and GP is what we are looking at here and SCCM is dirt cheap under schools agreement as client lics are already included with the desktop pack and the server software is only about £80 a year!
Also you get a free special copy of AdminStudio to do repackaging included but it is limited features but enough.

[Arthur]

Also you get a free special copy of AdminStudio to do repackaging included but it is limited features but enough.

Is this the Configuration Manager Edition which you can download for free via the Microsoft TechNet website?

[Mr.Ben]

I use SpecOps here - and It has been quite awesome.

The only I have to say about it is that it took them a long time to support Vista, even though I didn't need it they don't seem to have any info about supporting server 2008/w7 on their website.

It's also quite expensive - £9 per client (A cost to me of £1080). But definetly worth it - the reporting tools alone have made it worthwhile, and I've only found 1 legacy package that I couldn't distribute automatically - and then all the user had to do was agree to the install.

[ZeroHour]

Is this the Configuration Manager Edition which you can download for free via the Microsoft TechNet website?

Yeh thats the place, click the link on the right and then you can register to download it.

[K.C.Leblanc]

Scripting and PSEXEC.

Unless it's Testbase, in which case we use the Technician.

[Richie1972]

Or a database and vbscripting in the startup script

[sparkeh]

I use AD and GPOs.

Can someone tell me what you gain by using SCCM?

[pete]

GPOs and/or scripts calling silent installs.

The really horrible stuff gets pushed out with the machine image - either already installed or sat on the local drive ready to be called by a startup script.

[Crispin]

Another +1 for ConfigMgr 2007.

We're rolling out configmgr clients over the next two weeks, hopefully allowing sccm to manage all our os deployments, wsus updates and applications.

Like ZeroHour says, sccm is pretty much included with the schools agreement we purchased. It's well worth looking into.

We are moving from Prism aswell so repackaging all the software will be a nightmare but worth it in the end.

[cookie_monster]

Does SCCM have an agent that runs on the client so you get reports and logging on software rollouts?

Does it take much effort to setup?

[ZeroHour]

SCCM does have an agent yes which does invetory and sofware.
Its not too bad to roll out its just a case of getting into the MS terminology and way of thinking but now I am starting to get there I love SCCM.