Best Practise Jobs for Delivery

I think, it's better to create 3 Jobs (schedulded and run asap after it; activated for a longer time) step by step, but I have to work with 3 install-collections for the differnt computers too.

Of course I have a collection (Adobe 9 installed) which I exclude, but this collection is only current, when the inventury runs (once a week). If I would work with 1 collection (where I add computers in 3 steps) and create 3 jobs or modify the first two times, so the job maybe runs 2 or 3 times at one client. And if a client was offline a few days or weeks, than it get 3 jobs at one time if all are still activated.

Am I right?

Linne

Depending on what sort of collections you are using for your 3 stage deployment there are different methods. If these are sites which are set up in AD you can just point your task to each site as you are ready to deploy to it. It's better to keep one central task and use separate collections which you point the task to when it's their scheduled time. The reason you don't want to create separate tasks is mainly for reporting. Each task has a different GUID and if you want to run reports on the sucess of the task you will be looking for 3 different GUID numbers. This also goes against trying to keep your machines uniform if they all have different task GUIDs on them. We do staged deployments all the time and I've created collections for each city and we point the task to those collections when it's their scheduled time to go.

Emily Duncan
Sidley Austin LLP
Software Deployment Developer

Hi Emily,

the point with the guid and the reporting is a good reason to use one task and different collections.

But there is still one problem. Most time I have two big parts (or maybe different cities) to rollout (and therefore a 3-step-testing). At the moment I use two jobs and two collections for it.

Scenario:
I want to rollout part one on tuesday at 10 pm and as fast at possible after the date and part two on thursday at 10 pm and as fast at possible after the date. If I use the same task for it, I have to reschedule the job and all the clients (part 1 and part2) would get the job again (this is not always a problem, but no-good for the reports)! Ok, I exclude the collection with the software alredy installed, but this is only current, after the inventory of the client was running (once a weak).

So is this not a problem for you or how do you handle this?

Linne

If you have your task set to 'Run as soon as the computer is notified' the task only runs once and not again. Taks have guids and regardless of whether you enable a task, turn it off, then turn it back on, as long as the data is not purged from the machine (default is 6 months) then the machine knows it has already run the task and will not run it again.

If you have the task set to 'Run at logon' then you need to create two collections, one Target, and one Exclusion. In the target collection include the sites you are deploying to and you can add each site on the schedule you need to. In the Exclusion Collection name it something like "task name....Successfully completed'. Edit that collection once created and use a query for machines to Include. It will look something like this:

SELECT b.AdvertisementName, a.Name, a.[User], b.ReturnCode, a.[guid]
FROM vComputer AS a
INNER JOIN Inv_AeX_SWD_Execution_Summary AS b ON a.Guid = b._ResourceGuid
WHERE b.AdvertisementName = 'Softwise Innova 08.09.1' and b.ReturnCode = '0'

Return Code 0 is the default for success codes but you can look inside your package and see what success codes you my be using.

Now, in the Exclude part of the collection choose your target collection.

This wll prevent machines from running the task twice no matter what site they are in.

I hope that makes sense. We roll out many upgrades this way to many different sites on many different schedules. Let me know if you need more info.

Emily Duncan
Sidley Austin LLP
Software Deployment Developer

Hi Emily,

if I use 'Run as soon as the computer is notified' than the job will really only run once. But for software delivery this is not a good option, because the installation will beginn to a casual time, when the computer get's his new config (every 4 hours) and the user is currently working.

So I use the schedule with a time late in the evening and the asap-option when the computer is offline (so the installation runs when the user ist not working or directly after the systemstart). If I modify the scheduled time (for the second part of my rollout) than the job would run again on every computer!

Interesting is the part with the purging. So after 6 month every client would do a run-once-job again (when I have an always-active job for additional software delivery for new computers)!?! This could create big damage under a special constellation.

Linne

If you create Exclude collection that networkchic described then the job would not run again on every computer because those computers would no longer be in your install collection.

Also - have you considered running the Hardware Inventory on a daily basis and then using the Add/Remove Program data that is collected during that scan to exclude computers?

Gary

Maybe in the future if we use Altiris for the install of all our software, it would be better to run the inventory daily. I'm a little afraid of performance problems during the inventory at some clients.

I don't use the "Add/Remove Program data" for our reports and collections, I use the "SW - Auditsoftware" with the "productname",
"productversion" etc.

Still important is the following question for me:
"Interesting is the part with the purging. So after 6 month every client would do a run-once-job again (when I have an always-active job for additional software delivery for new computers)!?! This could create big damage under a special constellation."

I don't believe you need to worry about the 6 month purge jobs on the NS.
Each client has a file called AeXSWDPolicy.xml that records the fact that the task was executed. This file does not get purged.

Concerning the inventories - you might want to consider running the hardware inventory daily and continue to run the software inventory weekly. The hardware inventory is quick and I doubt it would have any impact on users. This way you could get daily updates of information in the Add/Remove Programs portion of the registry.

Hi Gary,

in the ressource manager under register "inventory" folder "Data Classes" there is the folder "inventory" with 4 different subfolders:
- "User"
- "Hardware"
- "OS" (contains the "Add/Remove programs")
- "Software" (contains the "SW - Audit Software")
I'm not working with the "Add/Remove programms" but with the "SW - Audit Software" classes for my reports.
--> You mean I could create a daily inventory beside the weekly full-/delta-inventory which contains only the one inventory-class I need?

One other question. I use the following standard-reports to check the installation of software packages: "Reports / By Solution / Software Delivery: Windows / Client Program Execution / Excecution - All". I only get the data for the last 7 days. Is this, because I delete the packages at the clients after 7 days? Can I not check older excecutions with this report? Is there annother report to do this?

Thx
Linne

Hi,

can anyone ask my the question about the reports:

"I use the following standard-reports to check the installation of software packages: "Reports / By Solution / Software Delivery: Windows / Client Program Execution / Excecution - All". I only get the data for the last 7 days. Is this, because I delete the packages at the clients after 7 days? Can I not check older excecutions with this report? Is there annother report to do this?"

Merry Xmas
Linne

I've successfully used networkchic's suggestion of two collections, one target and exclusion.

We're currently deploying Microsoft Silverlight and while I have both a package and program prepared, I can't find it when I search for its b.AdvertisementName. If Altiris doesn't know it exists, obviously the code below won't work.

So what am I missing?

SELECT b.AdvertisementName, a.Name, a.[User], b.ReturnCode, a.[guid]
FROM vComputer AS a
INNER JOIN Inv_AeX_SWD_Execution_Summary AS b ON a.Guid = b._ResourceGuid
WHERE b.AdvertisementName = 'Microsoft Silverlight' and b.ReturnCode = '0'