FYI Scripted Unattended Install of The SMS 2003 Admin Console

[skclark]

Just found this article and thought others could make use of this information.

Scripted Unattended Install of The SMS 2003 Admin Console

This article was Previously posted on Don Hite's Blog

You can create an installation file to install the SMS admin console in unattended mode and kick the process off from within a Vbs script.

First you need to create a share on a server and copy the entire contents of the SMS installation CD to it. Then copy the Vbs script to the root of your SMS Install share and then copy the Console.Ini file to the ServerName\ShareName\SmsSetup\Bin\I386 directory.

When these objectives have been met simply execute the Console Install Vbs script and in a matter of a few minutes the console will be installed.

Here you will find the syntax of the Console Install Vbs script. It is set to run fully unattended with the NoUserInput switch appended to the end of the script. To ensure that word wrapping does not cause any problems the script has line numbers added. Remove the line numbers before saving the file as your Vbs script.

Vbs Script:

1. Dim oShell
2. Dim oExec

3. Set oShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
4. Set oExec = oShell.Exec ("\\Server_Name\Share_Name\SmsSetup\Bin\I386\Setup.Exe /Script Console.Ini /NoUserInput")

Here you will find a very basic Ini installation file used with the script above. You can name it to something other than Console.Ini as is shown in the Vbs script above.


[Identification]
Action=InstallAdminUI

[Options]
FullName=YourName
OrgName=YourOrginization
SMSInstallDir=C:\SMSADMIN
SDKServer=PrimaryServerName

The default SMS install directory is C:\SMSADMIN but it can be set to a directory within the Program Files directory, another folder or another drive letter if you wish.

Note: [Identification] Action= can include any of the following, however the Ini file must have added options for the Primary and secondary site unattended installs:

InstallAdminUI.
SMS Administrator console

InstallPrimarySite.
Primary Site

InstallSecondarySite.
Secondary Site

For more information on executing an Unattended Setup follow the link below

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sms/sms2003/cpdg/plan6obu.mspx?mfr=true

 

[ncotton]

Interesting, but slightly redundant I feel, I don't know any reason we would need to create an unattended installation, cause surely all of the users of a console, should be viable and autorised to install it themselves...

I see where it is going, but still...

nice find though new2me

Hope this Helps.

Neil J Cotton
njc Information Systems
Systems Consultant

 

[skclark]

I understand your point of view. And perhaps my situation is different than most in that I would like to provide certain support staff the ability to leverage the power of SMS 2003 without having a full understanding or privileges of an SMS Administrator.

In my situation I am using this to deploy to members of our HelpDesk and User Support team to utilize the remote control tools, software deployment on a limited basis, and to create custom reports. I prefer pushing the console rather than providing the various teams with the install disks for SMS 2003.

 

[ncotton]

But as far as I am aware, there is nothing that they can not do on an Admin Console, that you cant do on the primary site (apart from being physically extracted from going behind the scenes and fecking with the DB/AD etc)

I've never looked at limiting permissions on SMS to certain functions, would be interetsing to read up on and play with though

Hope this Helps.

Neil J Cotton
njc Information Systems
Systems Consultant