Dan R. Herrick
John B. Tyndall
ABSTRACT
Many organizations follow the same error-prone, time-consuming, and redundant procedures to install software manually, whether as part of a master image or on individual computers. Usually this involves visiting a system, executing some sort of interface, selecting a subset of modules or configuring certain options, and waiting for the installer to complete. There is another way: automated software deployment, which affords greater efficiency, consistency, and ultimately, service. This paper discusses the organization and detailed implementation of automating software installations and updates using silent and unattended methods, with various levels of administrative intervention, from help desk to systems administrator. We also describe different approaches to creating such an environment for both "mass" devices (e.g., public computer lab systems) and individual devices (e.g., faculty/staff desktop systems).
Key concepts include leveraging management software and resources you may already have (i.e., the "zero budget" approach) versus efficiency gains from third-party resources, high-level administrative toolkits along with low-level control methods, and developing a workflow for automated and semi-automated software installations.
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- IBM, "IBM Endpoint Manager," {Online}. Available: http://www.ibm.com/tivoli/endpoint.Google Scholar
- Microsoft Corporation, "Group Policy Software Installation Overview," {Online}. Available: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc738858(v=WS.10).aspxGoogle Scholar
- Secure By Design Inc., "Ninite: Install and Update All Your Programs at Once," {Online}. Available: http://www.ninite.com.Google Scholar
- J. B. Tyndall, "Building an Effective Software Deployment Process," in Proceedings of the 40th Annual ACM SIGUCCS Conference (SIGUCCS '12), New York, NY, 2012. Google ScholarDigital Library
Index Terms
- Sustainable automated software deployment practices
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