move software deployment

[goodhead]

Have alot of software that is setup to deploy from a server share using a unc path. Has worked well for years.
Now looking to demote the server and put in a new one.

Has anyone moved deployments to other servers without all the software being redeployed.

[sted]

simplest way is give the new server the same name

[SYNACK]

You can rename the location in AD but can't do this cleanly as changing it can cause massive problems in the future.

The good news is that if you remove the software but leave it on the machines when prompted then recreate the package pointing to the new location it will just perform a refresh/repair install which is massivly quicker than a full install. Have done this several times and unless you have any Windows 2000 clients it works fine.

I would recommend moving the installers to a domain integrates DFS share which you can keep the same even with further server switches as it uses a \\domain\dfs\share notation rather than \\server\share so it can be redirected at a later time without needing to redeploy packages.