Guest Posted March 12, 2015 Posted March 12, 2015 Hi Advice needed! Im wanting to deploy all my software in school via a centrally managed console on my server, at the moment i currently install all the software i need by incorporating them into my images on WDS. but this isn't flexible enough for me. also need to be able to push out any plugins updates ie flash, java etc... now my 2015 budget is about to start and i need to get costings for a good program, I'm currently looking on Google and its coming up with tons of software that will do all this from a centrally managed console, now my question is, any recommendations??? I'm running a W2K8 R2 Environment with Win 7 Pro x64 Client Domain. take into note, not all of my software are in .msi format and some are in .exe so need to be able to deploy these as well, not sure if they can be run silently either, that i will have to find out along the way Not sure if ive posted in the correct area, couldnt find anywhere in the forums main page to post this related thread, nor could i find a previous post similar to this. sorry to admins!
Steve21 Posted March 12, 2015 Posted March 12, 2015 SpecOps is my favourite at my old jobs. SCCM at new one honestly can't stand, so much faff to get a single thing done. Heard some good things about WPKG for free alternatives too Steve
Guest Posted March 12, 2015 Posted March 12, 2015 thanks Steve! ive used WPKG before but i think its been abandoned, as its not been updated since Vista! lol ill take a look into SpecOps now
adhutton Posted March 12, 2015 Posted March 12, 2015 We use this: https://ninite.com/pro Its not free (or that cheap), but works brilliantly. Andrew
tmcd35 Posted March 12, 2015 Posted March 12, 2015 If you have, or are looking at EES licences for Office and Windows on the client then SCCM is included in the price. Also, if you are looking at EES then MDOP is very cheap on the subscription price and gives App-V which is another option for application deployment. The other thing with SCCM is to look at what else it does, not just package management. Anti-Virus, OS install (WDS), Updates (WSUS). It's a bit of a beast but once set up is pretty powerful and offers a lot of functionality for the price.
JRowley Posted March 12, 2015 Posted March 12, 2015 SCCM is really great for this, it can be a bit of a pig to get set up as above, but it is simply brilliant once it is. Complete flexibility in all areas.
Guest Posted March 12, 2015 Posted March 12, 2015 ive never used the program before but i have heard off it. what packages can SCCM deploy. the scenario i dont want to come across is, it cant deploy an .exe file across the network,
tmcd35 Posted March 12, 2015 Posted March 12, 2015 Looking at the console now: MSI, appx, app, appv-4, appv-5, xap, mobile cabinet, ipa, apk, OS X, exe's, bat, just about anything that can be launched via the command line... APP-V is the most impressive. You can repackage any msi, exe, or whatever, into an app-v package that runs in its own virtual environment on the client without effecting the clients registry or interfering with other installed apps. 1
JRowley Posted March 12, 2015 Posted March 12, 2015 ive never used the program before but i have heard off it. what packages can SCCM deploy. the scenario i dont want to come across is, it cant deploy an .exe file across the network, It can deploy pretty much anything, the nice thing about it is that if you have an msi for example it will pick up the installation information and as you might expect it can just install it in the background like normal. However if you have a .exe you can create an application which has an installation type which runs a script, the script can then run the .exe for you with any parameters you need to make it silent. This is somewhat long winded I'll admit but obviously msis are preferred.
Guest Posted March 12, 2015 Posted March 12, 2015 wow thank you. thats a real eye opener! might just go and trial it
JRowley Posted March 12, 2015 Posted March 12, 2015 To be honest that is just the tip of the iceberg, what I really like is the device collections. Sure you will have your computers laid out a specific way in AD but what if you only need to deploy something to computers that have a specific piece of software installed or specific piece of hardware? Well no problem just create a device collection that has a criteria which matches that specific piece of software/hardware, then deploy the software to that collection. Job done!
Guest Posted March 12, 2015 Posted March 12, 2015 that would help me out greatly with my smartboards and clever touch boards. im guessing if i link them devices up i can then install the correct software for each!?
sparkeh Posted March 12, 2015 Posted March 12, 2015 Another vote for SCCM. You can licence it on its own via EES (without all the other gubbins you might not want) and it peanuts.
Guest Posted March 12, 2015 Posted March 12, 2015 thats even better! i work in a school, with 100 clients tops, and it would be for software deployment only. ive downloaded the trial from technet, will see how it operates over next few days! thanks you guys!
sparkeh Posted March 12, 2015 Posted March 12, 2015 One more thing, I found these guides invaluable when setting up SCCM: System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Step By Step Guides - Configuration Manager 2012 - www.windows-noob.com Not sure if they have been updated for R2 now but there isn't a great deal of difference.
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