I thought I would share some useful information I found out about distributing software that uses the install shield.  Below are some commands that can be ran against a software package that uses install shield.  The first command creates the iss answer file.  While the second command allows you to install the software using the answer file.  See the link for additional details.

Recording the response file

DSSAC_setup.exe /r /f1c:\temp\DS2.iss

Installing with response file

DSSAC_setup.exe -s -f1.\ds2.iss

The above assumes that DSSAC_Setup.exe is in the same folder as the DS2.ISS

http://unattended.sourceforge.net/installers.php

When you add preferred servers (Configure | Preferred server), you also provide credentials that devices should use when accessing the preferred server. For security reasons, make sure these credentials provide read-only access. Devices obtain these credentials from the core and use them to authenticate with that preferred server. When using preferred servers added to the Server Credentials dialog, you no longer have to configure your package shares to be null-session shares, as was necessary with previous versions. As long as the credentials you provide for the preferred server work with the package share, managed devices should be able to access the share.

Clients contact the core’s HTTPS web server. Clients authenticate by listing trusted certificate hashes. If there’s a match, the core passes the credentials configured in the preferred server configuration dialog.

UNC authentication occurs in this order:

• Mapped drive, if available
• Current user’s credentials
• LANDesk UNC authentication with credentials from the preferred server dialog.

If the current user account exists on the preferred server but the passwords aren’t the same in both locations, UNC authentication will fail. To prevent this from happening, configure a unique account for UNC authentication. Along the same lines, if the user already has a drive mapped to the preferred server and those credentials don’t allow access to the package share, UNC authentication will also fail. UNC authentication can’t disconnect existing conflicting connections.

The Web console uses COM+ provide the user for authentication.

Connections established through UNC authentication are dropped when the file transfer completes.

Environment:

LDMS 9.5 SPx

LANDesk content replication process

http://community.landesk.com/support/docs/DOC-21683

Using LANDesk content replication

http://community.landesk.com/support/docs/DOC-20779

Description:

Content replication  occurs but not all the file are replicated. In this case only 79 out of 252 files  replicated

The replicator log shows 79  files where downloaded with no error

Building file list

Requesting file list from 'FRA-VSP-29060.lab'

...

AddDirectoryToDownloadSet added 79 files

Copying files

Sun, 18 Aug 2013 20:49:57 About to call DownloadFiles (79 files) with these settings:

.....

DownloadFiles returned 79 files

Checking the .xml file, located on your source representative (under c:\program data\vulscan\"sharefolder.location.xml), we can actually see that the list contains only 79 files and not 252. So we can say that the Replication process is working fine.

However the list of file in the .xml file is incomplete

Now we compare vulscan.log file from that replicator to the one of a replicator where all 252 files are replicated

Log from a "working" replicator:

Traitement de '\\coreserver\LDMS_Share\Packages\Repliques' vers 'working replicator'

Reporting status Connexion aux partages source et cible

Thu, 12 Sep 2013 14:00:45 HTTP POST: http://FRA-VSP-29060/landesk/managementsuite/core/preferredserver/PreferredServer.asmx

Thu, 12 Sep 2013 14:00:45 Setting a proxy...

Thu, 12 Sep 2013 14:00:45 Setting socket timeout to 1000 * 60 * 4

Thu, 12 Sep 2013 14:00:45 Success

Connexion à '\\fra-vsp-29060\LDMS_Share\Packages\Repliques'

Connected to share (\\fra-vsp-29060\LDMS_Share).

Share count for '\\fra-vsp-29060\LDMS_Share': 45

Last status: Terminé

Connexion à '\\FRA-PC-30880\LDMS_Share\Packages\Repliques\'

Connected to share (\\FRA-PC-30880\LDMS_Share).

Share count for '\\FRA-PC-30880\LDMS_Share': 97

Last status: Terminé

Connect results - src:0, dest:0

Log from this "failing" replicator"

Processing '\\fra-vsp-29060\LDMS_Share\Packages\Repliques' to 'ANDRSR001'

Reporting status Connecting to source and target shares

Thu, 12 Sep 2013 14:00:11 HTTP POST: http://FRA-VSP-29060/landesk/managementsuite/core/preferredserver/PreferredServer.asmx

Thu, 12 Sep 2013 14:00:11 Setting a proxy...

Thu, 12 Sep 2013 14:00:11 Setting socket timeout to 1000 * 60 * 4

Thu, 12 Sep 2013 14:00:12 Success

Connecting to '\\fra-vsp-29060\LDMS_Share\Packages\Repliques'

Connected to share (\\fra-vsp-29060\LDMS_Share).

Share count for '\\fra-vsp-29060\LDMS_Share': 13

Last status: Done

Connecting to '\\ANDRSR001\LDMS_Share\Packages\Repliques\'

Connected to share (\\ANDRSR001\LDMS_Share).

Share count for '\\ANDRSR001\LDMS_Share': 13

Last status: Done

Connect results - src:0, dest:0

We can see that this "failing" replicator is not able to access the same share as the "working" replicator

Resolution:

Make the necessary change so the "failing" replicator can access all Shares it needs to build the file list

check this out. It's an excerpt from a sdclient log when it was downloading some files for a package. 192.168.253.150 is the client that's doing the downloading. It seems it wastes a few minutes per file, seemingly trying to get the file from itself.

Anyone see this? Is is expected?

This particular client is communicating through the gateway. I can't say I've seen the same logging on directly connected clients.

Downloading file http://server/ldlogon/packages/WebSense EndPoint/v7.6.1045/x64/MSI_Reboot_Actions.mst (5A2gWwvnlVI2n7wsOwQt0g==, 6)
Thu, 21 Jul 2011 19:56:50 Downloading file 9 of 29 from 'http://server/ldlogon/packages/WebSense EndPoint/v7.6.1045/x64/MSI_Reboot_Actions.mst'
Thu, 21 Jul 2011 19:56:52 The file http://server/ldlogon/packages/WebSense EndPoint/v7.6.1045/x64/MSI_Reboot_Actions.mst (6 levels) was not in the TMC cache.
Thu, 21 Jul 2011 19:56:52 ILdDownloading file to C:\Program Files (x86)\LANDesk\LDClient\sdmcache\ldlogon\packages\WebSense EndPoint\v7.6.1045\x64\MSI_Reboot_Actions.mst, attempt 0
Thu, 21 Jul 2011 19:56:53 Performing TCP connection with a timeout of -1 milliseconds
Thu, 21 Jul 2011 19:56:54 Performing TCP connection with a timeout of 2500 milliseconds
Thu, 21 Jul 2011 19:56:54 SAD ProcessNeedFileReply about to download ldlogon\packages\WebSense EndPoint\v7.6.1045\x64\MSI_Reboot_Actions.mst from peer 192.168.253.150
Thu, 21 Jul 2011 19:57:25 Performing TCP connection with a timeout of -1 milliseconds
Thu, 21 Jul 2011 19:57:26 Performing TCP connection with a timeout of 2500 milliseconds
Thu, 21 Jul 2011 19:57:26 SAD ProcessNeedFileReply about to download ldlogon\packages\WebSense EndPoint\v7.6.1045\x64\MSI_Reboot_Actions.mst from peer 192.168.253.150
Thu, 21 Jul 2011 19:57:57 Performing TCP connection with a timeout of -1 milliseconds
Thu, 21 Jul 2011 19:57:57 Performing TCP connection with a timeout of 2500 milliseconds
Thu, 21 Jul 2011 19:57:57 SAD ProcessNeedFileReply about to download ldlogon\packages\WebSense EndPoint\v7.6.1045\x64\MSI_Reboot_Actions.mst from peer 192.168.253.150
Thu, 21 Jul 2011 19:58:28 Performing TCP connection with a timeout of -1 milliseconds
Thu, 21 Jul 2011 19:58:29 Performing TCP connection with a timeout of 2500 milliseconds
Thu, 21 Jul 2011 19:58:29 SAD ProcessNeedFileReply about to download ldlogon\packages\WebSense EndPoint\v7.6.1045\x64\MSI_Reboot_Actions.mst from peer 192.168.253.150
Thu, 21 Jul 2011 19:59:00 Performing TCP connection with a timeout of -1 milliseconds
Thu, 21 Jul 2011 19:59:00 Performing TCP connection with a timeout of 2500 milliseconds
Thu, 21 Jul 2011 19:59:00 SAD ProcessNeedFileReply about to download ldlogon\packages\WebSense EndPoint\v7.6.1045\x64\MSI_Reboot_Actions.mst from peer 192.168.253.150
Thu, 21 Jul 2011 19:59:42 ILdDownloadFile returned 0
Thu, 21 Jul 2011 19:59:42

While creating a new distribution package you are getting the error message:

Error:- The statement has been terminated. String or binary data would be truncated.

Resolution:

1. Create a full backup of you database

2. Log out from every landesk console connected to the core server

2. Execute the following statement:

"Alter table package

Alter column legacyapmguid nvarchar(100) "

So more of a question/poll. As our shop continues to grow, I've been pondering the fixed limit of 240 devices that a policy supported push can manage simultaneously. With the server and network infrastructure advancements, I'm wondering if this should be increased. Long policy pushes are taking an increasing longer to finish. I believe this should have a higher limit that we should be able to set based on our core architecture. What's your opinion?

Hi ,

I'm sequencing LANDesk management console 9.5 SP1 using APP-V 5.0.when i install the application locally it's working fine.But after sequencing i'm getting below error when i launch and enter my credential.

Could you please suggest why i'm getting this error.

Regards,

Maheswaran

Anyone create a a Cisco Anyconnect distribution package when complete has the built in hostname and AD child domain ?

It is pretty straight forward to create a .exe that can be distributed but this lacks hostname to connect to and the AD domain the account uses.

When you create the Cisco Anyconnect .exe using the Web portal a exe file is created but also a Cisco folder is copied to

%LOCALAPPDATA% C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local . This holds information relating to the host to connect to and the AD domain. Is it possible using Landesk to copy a folder in a share to a user environment variable path like %LOCALAPPDAT% ?

Could use some community troubleshooting help, so far I am not getting far on my own with finding an answer.

I have a normal multicast cache-only distribution job running with a high number of 1306 failures "No status was recieved. The client may be off or multicast may not be installed" under LANDesk 9.5 SP2.

I checked the clients, they do have a good working client install, with the multicast installed (validated via inventory record). Their inventory record IP also is matching what they are currently pinging as. Firewall looks fine. Why else would I get this error?

Checking the local devices, there is no task log in the data folder, so I am guessing that for some reason, the scheduled task on the core was failing to get things going on these devices. However on these same devices, I have been able to run Inventory and Security Scans initiated from the Console on the Core just fine. The multicast takes a long while and its still processing several devices, so it will be awhile till I can just re-try them again, but its frustrating to see that they failed at all in the first place with no real indication as to why.

Hello,

First off, here are a few details of my site.

Version: LANDesk Management Suite 9.0.3.1

30,000+ pc's running Win7

I understand each organization has its own needs, but is there a general best practice in regards to large multicast deploys?

We currently have guidelines in place that I think our outdated.

Example of deployment to 10,000 pc's with a 500MB package

- policy supported push used

- # of devices for distribution = 61

- bandwidth, WAN = 25%, LAN = 75%

- max # of MDR = 5

- max # of failed multicast to process = 240

- # of days to cache locally and on MDR = 14

- # of install tasks used = 20

A typical deployment would consist of multiple install tasks with no more than 500 pc's in each.  This is what I am challenging.

The logic behind this decision was the # of potential calls to our service desk if something goes wrong with the deployment.

If I had only used 2 tasks of 5000 vs 20 tasks of 500 and something went wrong (whether it be LANDesk or the package itself), our service desk would be inundated with calls.

The only benefit I see to having more tasks is that you have more MDR's and the distribution goes faster, but also adds more strain to the network.

In almost all cases, issues arrising from a deployment are not caused by LANDesk itself, so I don't see the benefit of multiple tasks.

Many of the deployments we do are much smaller than 500MB. 

Are there any gurus out there that can either validate this or recommend a better/best practice?

Thanks,

DS

I am trying to find a way to deploy a batch file that executes the following command line:

bcdedit /set {default} bootstatuspolicy ignoreallfailures

The reason for this is we have deployed several Windows 7 machines and if they happen to crash, they auto restart and launch the recovery which basically reverts their machine back to just Win 7 / removed from domain / apps uninstalled, etc.  This command line will prevent this from happening.  Unfortunately, I have had no success.  I know this command line has to be launched from an command prompt using Run as Administrator in windows but for deploying, I was hoping someone might have some ideas how to get this working.

Looking forward to your responses.  Thanks.

I am somewhat familiar with building distribution packages, only a built a few.  I soon will be faced with uninstalling Adobe 9x from 120 machines, and reinstalling Adobe X.

Can someone help me navigate the proper way to do this? 

Since we went to 9.5 SP2 we are unable to delete package bundles. I can create a new package bundle without any distribution package and when i try to delete it i get the following message (please see picture).

   I have spend the past year and a half working to get vPro to function correctly here on the enterprise. vPro (if working correctly) provides your LANDesk installation with some very significant tools. The ability to turn systems on and off in order to deploy software or patch at night is very nice. The ability to remote into a system (via KVM) and run an anti-virus rescue CDROM  from your local system to the remote "victim" is a tasty little treat also. Certainly everyone can see the benefit of using vPro with LANDesk.

   HOWEVER...

   Intel vPro is one of those tools which is at the mercey of a little thing I like to call "fellowship"; that is to say, while Intel has defined the various versions and what they can do the OEMs have the capacity to stray from the true form if they sell boxes which do not meet the higher requirements. One example is how all systems which have the i5 and i7 cores can be "full vPro" systems (they have Intel chipset, video and NIC) so all of the features within vPro will work on them. If a system is sold with i3 core then the OEM may not provide any more than a few "AMT" solutions. THis may not be a big thing at first glance, but vPro tends to gravitate to the old "weakest link" concept wherein you really want all vPro equipped devices to have the same level of support or it becomes increasingly difficult to figure out what is happening and how to get it working with the systems you support.

    Truly, I found this trek to be like a climb up the mountain to meet the wise philosopher. For every person that I spoke to about setting this up I found 4 or 5 others which said they had already spilled enough blood trying to make this work. All any of these poor souls could say was something akin to, "If you ever make it to Nirvana, please send a bus to pick us up..."

    Back to the "fellowship" point. It seems that Intel, in providing this free to OEMs is not getting the support from vendors which would propel this potentially valuable solution to the place where it needs to be. Couple that with the OEMs not communicating all that is required to LANDesk support and then working to ensure that LANDesk can function with the fewest of steps to make vPro viable... well you get the idea. It appears that since there is no money in it for anyone then the solution is waiting for some Don Quixote, or some Joebaggadonuts to volunteer to collect all of the information from the various resources about the country and make this thing work.

   Well, we have it working... In test and provisionally in production. I want to further compile my findings and get a real person to translate them from 1337 speak to Geek speak to English so we in the community can compare notes. I am convinced that once the data is looked upon by others we can put a guide together which will allow newcomers and those waitin on the Nirvana bus a means to get their vPro experience working.

   Of late I had the blessing to attend a class that Intel hosted locally demonstrating their SCS (Setup Configuration Software) which they use to provision and unprovision vpro devices over the LAN/WAN. This solution is well documented (especially compared to what you usually get from vPro sources) and well conceived. It was easy to setup and used very little resources. The instructor, William York, was very knowledgeable and didn't look things up rather recalled them from memory on a time when he had resolved the question for himself. All in all very impressive as an option. I am hopng to take this solution and use it to address provisioning and changes to provisioning from this solution and then use LANDesk to reap the rewards of a fully configured vPro environment. More on this later - I only have this working on the test servers at this point. If this all works out we, in the community, may be able to make the titans dance with one another.

   One can dream, I suppose.

I've got a distribution package that executes a .BAT file that calls a .REG to delete 5 registry keys. If I manually merge the .reg it works fine, manually calling the .bat file works fine (both as the logged on user, as well as using PSEXEC to run a command as the system account), but when i deploy the package via LANdesk (Push delivery method) the package deploys, says it completes successfully, but doesnt delete the reg keys. If i go to the cached package folder in SDMCACHE and try the .bat and .reg from there, they work fine. Am i missing something? LD support pointed me to http://community.landesk.com/support/docs/DOC-2417and http://community.landesk.com/support/docs/DOC-2900 but I dont see anything in there that I'm missing.

We don't currently record the registry into inventory, so I can't use a custom definition either. Has anyone found any reall really reliable ways to delete reg keys via distribution packages? It seems like it shouldn't be that hard.

How to reset the package hash for all software distribution packages in sql database.

Use the following script to run a query for the package_files_hash which will reset all the package hashes to null.

NOTE: Please make sure you backup your database prior to running the query.

New query

UPDATE PACKAGE_FILES_HASH SET HASH = null WHERE PACKAGE_FILES_HASH_IDN > 0

F5 to execute

Once executed the PACKAGE_FILES_HASH table will reset all HASH to NULL. Schedule a task and start, the HASH will update with a new HASH code.

I want a notification to advise when a scheduled task has run and if it is successful or not.

I cannot see a standard report and I have very little SQL knowledge.

Can anyone tell me if there is a standard report available to do this or one that reports on the Patch download?

Good day everyone.

Total LD n00b here! But i had been put in charge of administrating LD and the rest if history. Anyhow....

I am trying to have a number of previously packaged apps installed as a group, one after the other. I have had followed process described @ http://community.landesk.com/support/docs/DOC-4648 to build a template of those apps. Once template was done i scheduled it using Standard Distribution Push Delivery Method. Added a system to the Scheduled Task, started it and ...... All i can see on the client screen is a LANDesk Provisionning Agent screen but nothing seems to be happening.

Any assistance in figuring this out MUCH appreciated. For now i am back to installing things by hand

Hi all.

Is there a way to deisplay some more meaningful infor when system is being provisioned and apps (And other configuration changes) are being applied to it?

Action Type=Execute_file is great but it does not really tell us if it is trying to install Chrome, changing some settings or installing Oracle.

Is there a way to have it to say something more meaningful: Installing Office, Installing Chrome, setting up printers, etc

Please see picture of what i am talking about:

Thanks a ton!!!

Hi,

I have created Roxio 10 package but not able to deploy. It means Roxio 10 package is not working. Can any one suggest me about Roxio 10 package creation so that i can deploy package.

Regards

Praveen