Rollout of the ZfD4 management agent? 3

[OMaraSTO]

I'm struggling to find a way to automatically (silently is preferred) rollout the Zenworks 4 management agent to our users.
We have in the region of 300 workstations inside the LAN, so doing this manually is very arduous.
Novell seems to reccommend using the application launcher, however it is the application launcher that I'm trying to fix by rolling out the workstation manager!!!
I've tried using the /r switch to run the setup which creates a text file, then the /s switch to apply the text file. I've also downloaded the new version of the setup - which Novell reccommends - which is a .MSI, the problem with this is that It requires user input, can I configure it to run silently? How?

Thanks

SteveO

 

[tneary]

Hey SteveO,

I had the same issue as this. Because I upgraded to Zen4 on the server, the nal files were upgraded to version 4, which caused errors when I tried to launch nalexpld.exe. What I did was took the nal files off of the 3.2 install CD and created a directory called zen32 in public. I created an app object for the Zen4 agent based on the MSI file you mentioned. I put a regread command in the login script that checked to see if the Zen4 agent was installed. If it was not installed it would launch nalexpld.exe from the zen32 directory and nalexpld would install the Zen4 agent MSI. It actually worked pretty well. If you need more detailed instructions I could repost them.

Tom

 

[rweir]

SteveO,

You said you have tried the response file, but have you seen this site on Cool Solutions?

http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/netware/features/tips/t_silent_install_iprint_nw.html

This worked for me...

 

[OMaraSTO]

Tom,

That's great. If you could post more instructions that would be brilliant. Although technically my installation of Zen 4 was an upgrade from Zen 3.2, 3.2 had just sat on the server virtually unused by my predecessor, so I'm quite new to Zen. I've sussed out the NAL using snapshot, but have no experience of using NAL with MSI's, particularly how to customise them to do a silent install.
All PCs have the 4.83sp1 or 3.32sp1 respectively, with all the zenworks client components insalled. Remote management, inventory, and imaging all seem to work, but the NAL does not display the Application objects to the associated user or workstation until the Zenworks 'standalone style' management agent is installed.

Many Thanks

Steve

 

[tneary]

Steve,

Here is the procedure that I used to update the Zen agent on Windows 98 machines.

Create a directory in PUBLIC called nal32. Copy the contents of the PUBLIC directory on the Zen32 media the nal32. The reason I did this step is because the Zen4 install destroyed my Zen32 nal files in public. You can then install the newest 3.2 service pack on top this directory. Launch nalexpld.exe from the nal32 directory to make sure it launches correctly. Create a Zen4 agent Application object based on the Zen4 MSI file you downloaded. Be sure to read the readme file, it explains how to push out custom settings. I recommend using the MSI from zfd4patch3 it fixed some GP issues I was having with XP. Associate the app object(force run) to a test user. Log in as the test user and run nalexpld.exe from the nal32 directory to make sure it works. If it does not work check associations,system requirements,etc. Once you get it working you can put nalexpld.exe into the login script to push it out to all pcs. Here is how I did it in the login script.

REGREAD "HKLM,Software\Novell\ZENworks,Version"
WRITE "VALUE=%99"
IF "%99"="4.00.0012" THEN EXIT
@\\server\sys\public\nal32\nalexpld.exe

This checks for the Zen4 agent. If it is installed it exits the login scripts. If it is not it launches nalexpld.exe from the nal32 directory and installs the agent. In the app object I configured it to launch the Zen4 nalexpld.exe from startup on the pcs. If you want to launch it from the login script you will need to tweak for your environment.

Here are the problems that I had with this procedure and the solutions that worked for me.
The file wm95sast.exe was not deleted when the agent was installed and cause the Zen4 agent to not load properly. What I did was created a very simple Qbasic program that runs as a "Run after termination" script in the app object. It appendend this line to the autoexec.bat "if exist c:\novell\client32\wm95sast.exe ren c:\novell\client32\wm95sast.exe wm95sast.old" minus quotes. I tried to put this line in the app object itself but it would not rename wm95sast.exe because it was in use. If you want a copy of the program I could email it to you.

I also had problems with the Zen4 agent on new CPQ pcs running XP. This tid helped 10064807.

Let us know how you do

Good Luck
Tom

 

[OMaraSTO]

Great stuff! However......
On my test PC I can successfully use the old NAL to install other applications, it works a charm.
I've created the app. object for the latest zfd4 management agent, based on the MSI file, with the silent interface option taken, but no other changes from default. When I try to install this, I get 'Windows Installer returned an error: 1603'
I've looked this up and 1603 is simply 'fatal error'
(Thanks Microsoft, that's a really helpful description)
Any ideas??

Steve

 

[tneary]

What OS are you trying to install to? What version of MSI is installed? You may need to update MSI on the workstations. Check MS site for a newer version. That can be pushed out via nal as well.

Tom

 

[OMaraSTO]

The OS was windows 2000. The MSI was.. I'm not sure, I'll check into it, but I think you're right because I tried the install later on another machine and it worked OK (well, it returned an different error but it turned out to just mean that it had initiated a re-boot)
However, seeing as the other apps installed OK by using the 3.2 launcher, to get round the issue and get the management agent up to date I'm just going to install it manually on a clean machine and do a snapshot to push it out as an AOT; I'll cross the MSI bridge at a later date.
Thanks again for your help.

Steve

 

[ITsmyfault]

just a FWIW..
Platform: NT4.0 SP6a w/IE 5.5 SP2 + all susequent patches, also Win2k SP3 w/IE5.5 or 6 and patches

Harware: HP Vectras, VLi8, VL400, VL600, and newer)

I've had a bunch of issues with the MSI install of the agents so I've wound up doing them manually.. thankfully we're a smallish shop!! Still frustrating since the whole point of the thing for me is to *not* have to run from desk to desk but.. hopefully just a one time thing.

IDriver seems to blow up the most. Have tried updating MSI to the latest on the problem machines but it did not help. Sometimes hangs, sometimes runs to 100% but never actually completes.. other times running a 2nd time works. Very odd. Probably much happier with 2k than NT.. These NT boxen are all clones (built from OS images and then a checklist for apps and settings) so irregularity like this is unnusual.

Not for nothing, but IMHO the agents should have come as a dist file. Novell does this with Groupwise and other products, why not Zen4?! Programs like Norton AV can install agents remotely.. my mgt software should be able to as well. Maybe in SP1? Part of the problem with our setup is that we could not put zenwsimport into DNS as we have multiple offices over WAN links so I wanted the workstations in office A to register to that database locally.. (and then roll up later) so we pushed out a job to append the entry to everyone's host file.. but that wouldn't work until the agents were installed. Chicken, meet egg.

None of the VLi8's will take the install. The others are basically ok with a little work. I'm glad I didn't persist with the forced run install.. That seems to point to a hardware or BIOS issue.. darned if I know what it is though.

Inventory is fine alhtough it needed a couple of server reboots (shades of windows!) to get it all together. Remote mgt works well.. Getting ready to get imaging and dist going now that the agents are installed and PXE nics are almost all installed.
Phew!

 

[SECOB]

In answer to the original question: For a silent install use the /q (quiet) at the end. When used in a login script, the login script pauses and gives the user no options until it completes.

 

[techwtr]

I just upgraded to Zen 4 on the server and I am currently in the process of upgrading the client on all the workstations ( majority Win XP Pro workstations ). We were told not to start Zen off at the workstation anymore with nalexpld.exe. You should always use naldesk.exe to get zen started. I am not certain right now as to why with Version 4 nalexpld.exe shouldn't be used. Those that tested this in HO made that determination. The naldesk.exe you should use is in C:\program files\novell\zenworks\naldesk.exe. That will be there after you do the zen 4 client upgrade. After the upgrade is done, everytime the customer logs into their computer on the Lan, zenworks runs at startup ( you should find naldesk in startup. I don't believe this was a tweek on our part).

We are using a zen App to push the new Zen 4 client on the workstations. This way you can set it to go force run. The only thing the end user has to do is click on Yes restart pc or No don't restart right now.

The most problem we had was the new naldesk.exe wasn't in startup. If the old naldesk was present, zen didn't automatically start on it's own. I would have to fix the path of the naldesk in startup so it pointed to the one in c:\program files\novell\zenworks directory.

We got that fixed by making some adjustments to the zen app that was pushing the Zen 4 Client out to the workstations. One last thing....Do a search for naldesk on the computer. If you have multiple naldesk.exe on the computer and zen isn't starting up it could be due to the fact the wrong naldesk is running.

Hope this helps!