This is my last post here... It was nice, however I dont like many things that are here -
missing rss, ads (I didnt know about them, because I am using AdMuncher, however I noticed them few days ago when I connected from public computer) etc...

But that doesnt mean that I will stop blogging :) My new & fresh blog can be found at

MSMVPS.com

This is example. On this picture you can see active job AdobeReader (JobState Running). This job is associated with computers on right (pc####).

Green ones were successful, red failed (in fact I forced that computer to fail), blue means the installation is running right now.

The last three computers were not activated yet, because they are turned off. When user turns them on, Adobe Reader will be automatically installed.

BTW this is alpha GUI, I am not GUI programmer, so excuse the layout

I created thread dedicated to SDS development.

You can find it here: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=55843&hl=

Hope so you will join and (ideally) help!

Martin

Hey, yesteday I spend one hour and I creating first GUI for SDS - its working great! :)

I will post some images soon

One of the SDS installation methods is using scheduled task.

Script is parsing variable %time:~0,5% to variables SDS.ScheduledHour and SDS.ScheduledMinute, then it add SDS.ScheduledTimeout(default is 3) to SDS.ScheduledMinute.

Oh, I forget this...

Requirements: W2k+ on both server+workstations... Maybe clients can be older, I didnt have a chance to try it.

Space: Whole SDS is around 1MB (!!!) now.

Installation: SDS DONT NEED to install. I tried it just yesterday, when I bring SDS to one company on my flash disk, started TemporarySDSServer.cmd and it worked like a charm! :)

HW: Heh, I dont know... Any computer that can run batches? :)

Well, SDS is moving fast to first public beta release. I will now try to describe how it is working etc...

The purpose of SDS is to allow administrators to install software on remote computers.
Whole SDS is based on batches + few AutoIt scripts (for client GUI for example). All operations are filesystem based, so you can create them manually or create some GUI/Web etc.

Right now there are two modes of SDS - SDSAutomatic and SDSManual.

SDSAutomatic is ideal for mass installations - for example to install office to 100 computer, while SDSManual is for one-time operations.

I am using technology I called "batch services" (see few pages ago), and it is working quite well...

Every SW installation (called PACKAGE) is defined in Package.ini. For example .NET framework installation have this Package.ini:
[.NET FrameWork 1.1 SP1]
RunWait="!CurrentDirectory!\Package\NDP1.1sp1-KB867460-X86.exe" /q

I will write about list of available commands in few days.

If you want to install .net framework to computer PC1000 using SDSManual, you have to type command
SDSManual.cmd /Operation:Installation /Package:DotNET/Machine:PC1000

There are more parameters, however I want to keep this sample easy to understand.

Output from this command looks like this:

Operation=Installation
Package=DotNET
Storage=Remote
AllowDefaultPackages=Yes
Restart=No
InstallationMethod=Scheduled


Parsing container 16748510


Creating Package: Disable_User_Input


Creating Package: Disable_Remote_Registry


Creating Package: DotNET


Creating Package: Enable_Remote_Registry


Creating Package: Enable_User_Input


Creating Package: Restart_Computer


Added a new job with job ID = 1
Job will run at 17:47

Job ID 16748510 was successfuly created.
Operation: Installation
Package: DotNET
Computer: PC1000


If you have created special directory for SDSAutomatic (called JOB), installing it is much easier - you just need to create file %ComputerName%.sds inside this folder.

Example job, that will install .NET Framework:
You must create directory Running.DotNET. Running means the job is ready to proceed and will be parsed automatically by SDSAutomatic.

Inside this directory you must create subdirectory ComputerGroups, where you will put all computer that should have this SW installed.

You also must create file job.ini - here you will specify what should this job do. For example
Operation=Installation
Package=DotNET_Framework_1.1

And thats it!

Hi guys, today I successfuly run first Phase 2.5 operation. Now is the time you can help me.

I am looking for

a.) betatesters

b.) someone who could create documentation. I am not good at this job, so I would like if someone else could try it :(

About betatesting, I first need a guy that will create documentation for other betatesters...

Contact me directly to martin.zugec(at)gmail.com

EDIT: My ICQ for faster communication: 137412582

Heh, today it looks like I did a big piece of work ;)

This is FIRST version of SDSAutomatic (Phase 2.5), that is responsible for automating tasks on many computers.

SetLocal EnableDelayedExpansion

rem Setting internal variables
Set SDS.pathExecutionPath=%~dp0
rem Importing SDS configuration
For /f "usebackq EOL=; delims== tokens=1,2" %%i IN (`Type "%SDS.pathExecutionPath%Configuration\Main.ini"`) Do Set %%i=%%j

For /f "usebackq delims=. tokens=1,2" %%i IN (`dir /b "%SDS.pathJobStorage%"`) Do If /i %%i EQU Running (
 Echo Parsing container %%j
 For /f "usebackq delims== tokens=1,2" %%a IN (`type "%SDS.pathJobStorage%\Running.%%j\Job.ini"`) Do Set GlobalSDS.%%a=%%b
 For /f "usebackq delims=. tokens=1,2" %%a IN (`dir /b "%SDS.pathJobStorage%\Running.%%j\ComputerGroups\*.sds"`) Do (
  Set GlobalSDS.Machine=%%a
  Set GlobalSDS.Available=0
  Call:CheckIfOnline 
  )
 )
Goto:EOF 

:CheckIfOnline
Ping -n 1 %GlobalSDS.Machine%
If %ErrorLevel% EQU 0 (
 Set GlobalSDS.Available=1
 Call:MachineOnline
 )
Goto:EOF
:MachineOnline
Call "%pathExecutionPath%SDSMain.cmd" /Storage:!GlobalSDS.Storage! /Operation:!GlobalSDS.Operation! /Job:!GlobalSDS.Job! /Execution:Server /Machine:%GlobalSDS.Machine%
If "%SDS.errMajor%" EQU "" (
  Goto:EOF
 ) Else If "%SDS.errMajor%" EQU "0" (
 Move /y "%SDS.pathJobStorage%\Running.%%j\ComputerGroups\%GlobalSDS.Machine%.sds" "%SDS.pathJobStorage%\Running.%%j\ComputerGroups\Failure\%GlobalSDS.Machine%.sds"
 ) Else (
 Move /y "%SDS.pathJobStorage%\Running.%%j\ComputerGroups\%GlobalSDS.Machine%.sds" "%SDS.pathJobStorage%\Running.%%j\ComputerGroups\Pending\%GlobalSDS.Machine%.sds"
 )

This cmd is responsible for creating RunOnceEx entries...

rem Creating queue of operations + paths
If /i %SDS.varOperationType% EQU Installation (
 If /i %SDS.varDestinationStorage% EQU Remote Set SDS.ObjectsToParse.!SDS.intParseObjects!=%SDS.pathInstallationsStore%\!SDS.varJobContainer!\%SDS.JobFile%
 If /i %SDS.varDestinationStorage% EQU Local Set SDS.ObjectsToParse.!SDS.intParseObjects!=%SDS.pathLocalStorage%\Installations\!SDS.varJobContainer!\%SDS.JobFile%
) Else If /i %SDS.varOperationType% EQU Command (
 If /i %SDS.varDestinationStorage% EQU Remote Set SDS.ObjectsToParse.!SDS.intParseObjects!=%SDS.pathCommandsStore%\!SDS.varJobContainer!\%SDS.JobFile%
 If /i %SDS.varDestinationStorage% EQU Local Set SDS.ObjectsToParse.!SDS.intParseObjects!=%SDS.pathLocalStorage%\Commands\!SDS.varJobContainer!\%SDS.JobFile%
)

For /f "usebackq delims== Tokens=1,2" %%i IN (`Set SDS.ObjectsToParse.%SDS.intParseObjects%`) Do Set SDS.LastObject=%%j

rem Generating script for generating RunOnceEx entries
Reg Add %SDS.varRemoteMachine%%SDS.varROEKey%\0%SDS.intROEIndex% /VE /D "%SDS.varJobContainer%" /f
Reg Add %SDS.varRemoteMachine%%SDS.varROEKey%\0%SDS.intROEIndex% /V 1 /D "%SDS.LastObject%" /f

rem If creating registry structure was unsuccessful, fill errMajor variable
If %ErrorLevel% NEQ 0 Set SDS.errMajor=%ErrorLevel%

rem Increasing values of intROEIndex and intParseObjects
Set /a SDS.intROEIndex=%SDS.intROEIndex% + 1
Set /a SDS.intParseObjects=!SDS.intParseObjects! + 1