Software Distribution Getting It There

Erick Engelke & Daniel Delattre

WatITis | Enabling The 6th Decade Plan Through Effective I.T. Collaboration | December 6, 2005 | Software Distribution
Nexus Software Deployment
3,576 computers
1,750 in student or public areas
1,826 in private offices or research labs

Automated software delivery
is a big part of the Nexus promise and solution
necessary to keep system administration scalable
WatITis | Enabling The 6th Decade Plan Through Effective I.T. Collaboration | December 6, 2005 | Software Distribution
Challenges
Deployment of Windows Software
Reliable
Effective
Automated
Targeted
Upgradeable
Removable
Secure
WatITis | Enabling The 6th Decade Plan Through Effective I.T. Collaboration | December 6, 2005 | Software Distribution
Requirements
Reliable: software installs
properly or returns error report
for debugging

Effective: fast, without user
intervention and without user
frustration (boot time)

Automated: remotely
managed, workstations can be
rebuild easily
Targeted: able to add software
packages to specific group

Upgradeable: able to manage
and deploy software upgrades

Removable: able to remove
software reliably

Secure: must expose no new
security risks
WatITis | Enabling The 6th Decade Plan Through Effective I.T. Collaboration | December 6, 2005 | Software Distribution
Possible solutions
Manual installation

RoboCopy

Active Directory Group Policy Objects

Third party commercial solutions

Open Source solutions

Others?
WatITis | Enabling The 6th Decade Plan Through Effective I.T. Collaboration | December 6, 2005 | Software Distribution
Manual Installations
Somewhat reliable: vendor supported, but not
always identical results
Not very effective: need to visit every workstation
Not automated: manually insert CD
Targeted: one workstation at a time
Upgradeable: manual process
Removable: manual process
Reporting: during installation process
Insecure: exposes administrator password
WatITis | Enabling The 6th Decade Plan Through Effective I.T. Collaboration | December 6, 2005 | Software Distribution
RoboCopy
Reliable, similar to the Watstar nightly refresh

Not very effective. Works best on identical images and
identical workstations

Automated, but only suited for file copy installations, not for
MSI or executable installs

Upgrade or removal process involves overwriting or deleting
files

No reporting tools
WatITis | Enabling The 6th Decade Plan Through Effective I.T. Collaboration | December 6, 2005 | Software Distribution
Active Directory GPOs
Reliable for smaller software packages

Only for MSI software packages

Automated: build into Active Directory

Effective for initial installation

Upgrade process not very reliable

Removal process not very reliable and not very flexible; only
remove package from GPO!

No reporting tools provided by Microsoft
WatITis | Enabling The 6th Decade Plan Through Effective I.T. Collaboration | December 6, 2005 | Software Distribution
Third Party Commercial
Solutions
There are several options available

Nexus has 3500+ clients and growing most products
become very expensive with these numbers

Commercial systems are often less extensible than open
source which means less flexibility for our needs

Most tools offer excellent reliability and reporting
WatITis | Enabling The 6th Decade Plan Through Effective I.T. Collaboration | December 6, 2005 | Software Distribution
Open Source Solutions
Not many open source tools available

WPKG: popular and flexible, last updated July 2006, good
support

ANI: less flexible, identical systems, includes OS, no upgrade
or removal process, last updated 2005

Unattended: includes OS, not flexible, identical systems, last
updated 2004

SDS: similar to SMS, command line only, not very flexible,
last updated 2005

WatITis | Enabling The 6th Decade Plan Through Effective I.T. Collaboration | December 6, 2005 | Software Distribution
Current Environment
Nexus uses Active Directory GPOs

Not all software comes with MSI packages

Some software is very unreliable to install

Upgrades or uninstall is extremely unreliable

Once software is unusable, it becomes very hard to detect
and fix

Microsoft offers no reporting tools
WatITis | Enabling The 6th Decade Plan Through Effective I.T. Collaboration | December 6, 2005 | Software Distribution
GPO Issues
Repackaging: capturing unrelated, unnecessary or even
damaging elements

Hardware dependencies: capturing hardware information

Logic: capturing removes logic, such as compatibility, other
components and hooks to other installed software

Large software packages: seem to install less reliable
WatITis | Enabling The 6th Decade Plan Through Effective I.T. Collaboration | December 6, 2005 | Software Distribution
GPOTool
Locally developed tool

Looks for broken software
Initially used for lab of 120 supposedly identical computers.
Now used many places on campus

analyze delivery reliability to fix broken and assure quality

can reset flags on individual computers to reinstall software

able to uninstall software

reporting capability
WatITis | Enabling The 6th Decade Plan Through Effective I.T. Collaboration | December 6, 2005 | Software Distribution
GPOtool Observations
Reliability of GPOs in a 120 station lab

Microsoft Office 100%
Microsoft Visual Studio 97%
Nexus Common Applications 96%
Altair Hyperworks 89%
Ansys 85%
MasterCAM 81%
WatITis | Enabling The 6th Decade Plan Through Effective I.T. Collaboration | December 6, 2005 | Software Distribution
Open Source: WPKG
Software deployment, removal, updates

Offers push and pull features

Deploys MSI, InstallShield, other vendor supported formats

Supports layered images like GPOs

Files can be distributed for better total scalability

Limited local and remote reporting

Very small footprint

WatITis | Enabling The 6th Decade Plan Through Effective I.T. Collaboration | December 6, 2005 | Software Distribution
WPKG - overview
Software Packages defined e.g.. Matlab

Packages can depend on other packages

Stations profiles defined - list of packages
e.g.. All computers in a given lab

Profiles can extend other profiles
e.g.. scanner machine is superset of generic lab

Computers are assigned to profiles
WatITis | Enabling The 6th Decade Plan Through Effective I.T. Collaboration | December 6, 2005 | Software Distribution
WPKG - Example
GAFF Lab
Microsoft office
SSH
MatLab
Other scientific software
GAFF Lab with Scanner
Scanner software
Inherit rest from GAFF lab profile
WatITis | Enabling The 6th Decade Plan Through Effective I.T. Collaboration | December 6, 2005 | Software Distribution
GAFF Lab Example
gaff01
gaff02
...
gaff29
gaff30
GAFF LAB
GAFF SCANNER
OFFICE
SOFTWARE
SCIENTIFIC
SOFTWARE
SCANNER
SOFTWARE
excel
matlab
word
mathcad ocr
pc
group
profile
software
profiles
software
packages
WatITis | Enabling The 6th Decade Plan Through Effective I.T. Collaboration | December 6, 2005 | Software Distribution
WPKG Web Tool
WPKG uses XML files to list packages, profiles and
computer names

XML is hard for users to enter but easy for
software to parse

Administrators need shared access

We added a web based interface and database
backend for WPKG - XML generated as needed

WatITis | Enabling The 6th Decade Plan Through Effective I.T. Collaboration | December 6, 2005 | Software Distribution
WPKG Busy Warning
WatITis | Enabling The 6th Decade Plan Through Effective I.T. Collaboration | December 6, 2005 | Software Distribution
Possibilities
Configure PC client software from any web browser

Perform reporting for gauging software license
renewal interest

Reduce duplication of effort in packaging software

Truly handle software life cycle including
upgrades/uninstalls


WatITis | Enabling The 6th Decade Plan Through Effective I.T. Collaboration | December 6, 2005 | Software Distribution
Our Plan: 2007
We currently use GPOs extensively this will not
change anytime soon

We will use WPKG too
Initially target only difficult or unreliable installs
Monitor the results and refine our tools


WatITis | Enabling The 6th Decade Plan Through Effective I.T. Collaboration | December 6, 2005 | Software Distribution
Resources on the Web
wpkg
http://www.wpkg.org

GPOtool
http://www.eng.uwaterloo.ca/~erick/nexus/gpotool.exe



WatITis | Enabling The 6th Decade Plan Through Effective I.T. Collaboration | December 6, 2005 | Software Distribution
Questions?
Any questions?
Open discussion.