Software Distribution

1
Software Distribution Getting It There

• Erick Engelke Daniel Delattre

2
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

3
Challenges

• Deployment of Windows Software
• Reliable
• Effective
• Automated
• Targeted
• Upgradeable
• Removable
• Secure

4
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

5
Possible solutions

• Manual installation
• RoboCopy
• Active Directory Group Policy Objects
• Third party commercial solutions
• Open Source solutions
• Others?

6
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

7
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

8
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

9
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

10
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

11
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

12
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

13
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

14
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

15
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

16
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

17
WPKG - Example

• GAFF Lab
• Microsoft office
• SSH
• MatLab
• Other scientific software

• GAFF Lab with Scanner
• Scanner software
• Inherit rest from GAFF lab profile

18
GAFF Lab Example
19
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

20
WPKG Busy Warning
21
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

22
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

23
Resources on the Web

• wpkg
• http//www.wpkg.org
• GPOtool
• http//www.eng.uwaterloo.ca/erick/nexus/gpotool.e
  xe

24
Questions?

• Any questions?
• Open discussion.