Deployment

Historically, network installations have typically supported two basic methodologies – the pull install and the push install. In the pull install scenario, the software application is advertised to the end user who determines if they wish to use the application. The push scenario, however, provides the end user with no choice – the application is pushed to their computer. Within the context of ASF, the intent of the solution is to monitor the system so the software should always be pushed to the desktop. Further, the ASF solution is system based and not end user based. For the purposes of this paper, unless otherwise noted, installs refer to push installs and policies are system specific rather than end user specific.

The Intel ASF installation is based on the Microsoft Installer (MSI) technology, a core component of the Intellimirror initiative. Windows Installer provides consistent and reliable methods to customize installations, update and upgrade applications, and resolve configuration problems².

Within the context of mass deployment, there several relevant features that MSI supports – administrative installs, resiliency and advertising – that are relevant.

Within the MSI domain advertising is best thought of as install on first use. Consider, Microsoft Word. The installation may be configured such that the dictionary associated with Word is advertised rather than full installed. This capability enables the user to conserve local hard drive space yet be assured that if the need arises, the dictionary is available.

MSI also supports the concept of resiliency. Should the user destroy any ASF files, the files can be restored using the repair mechanisms inherent within MSI. The Intel ASF Agent solution supports MSI’s repair capability. If a file that is part of the Intel ASF solution is inadvertently deleted, it can easily be restored using MSI’s repair mechanisms.

A critical feature for mass deployment is the ability to perform an administrative install – the installation of the ASF client source image to a network share. Since Windows Installer requires users to retain access to the source files throughout the life of the applications to enable the MSI application repair and install on demand capabilities, it is critical that the source image be available for these features to work.³The Intel ASF solution supports administrative installs.

Many software deployment tools support the concepts of multiple distributions points and resilient sources. In many enterprise environments, the number of systems under management typically requires some form of partitioning. It may be over geographical region or it may be based on organizational functions. To assist with site management, distribution points can be created that allow for the distribution of software to flow from the primary distribution point to these secondary distribution points before being made available to end users. Resilient sources are administrative installation points that are available to the clients throughout the life of the applications. Distribution points together with resilient sources provide a degree of fault tolerance since client computers can use the resilient sources should the original source become unavailable. Use of these features may require additional steps to configure than the traditional installation. Please consult your software deployment user manual to determine if it supports these features and how to use them.

As noted earlier, Intel ASF installations support the necessary MSI features required in MSI based software deployment tools. The Intel ASF solution can be deployed using tools such as Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS), Computer Associates TNG Unicenter* (with the software deployment option) and Landesk’s Management Suite (LDMS). In short, if the tool supports MSI, it can be used to deploy Intel’s ASF solution. Please check with your Management Console vendor for the install methodologies that are currently supported.