GuidesSafe-Guarding Servers from Software Distribution, at the Application Level

Safe-Guarding Servers from Software Distribution, at the Application Level

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by Dana Daugherty

The Scariest part of software distribution is the possibility of
damaging a NT server by accidentally installing a software package
meant for a workstation. A mistake like this could cause you to
loose credibility with your co-workers, your boss or even your job.
I’ll share a SMS Installer script that will stop an install cold if
it accidentally starts on a server.

The Scariest part of software distribution is the possibility of damaging a NT server by accidentally installing a software package meant for a workstation. A mistake like this could cause you to loose credibility with your co-workers, your boss or even your job.

There are ways to isolate the workstations you want to distribute
to via SMS queries. SMS can fail you though because of the problem
with duplicate SMS IDs and .lkp problems. You can also specify a
platform (Win 95, Win 98, Win 9x, NT) on the environment tab of a
program’s properties (Packages Tree package nameprogramsprogram
properties). You can not however, differentiate from NT Server and
NT Workstation. A real short-coming if you ask me. It’s best to use
SMS query techniques to distribute software only to the PCs that you
want to receive it but also use this program as an out just in
case. 

As you can see when you read my script it first checks for the
llsrvmgr.exe (NT license server) if it finds this file it displays a
dialog box “Wrong Platform” and immediately exits the program, if
not it checks for winword.exe (Ms Word). If Word is found it
continues, I call the program I want to run. Incidentally, my
company doesn’t’ have Word installed on any server, you may want to
use another application here.

Note- SMS Installer must be installed on your system to read,
edit and recompile this script. Take a look at the SMS Admin Guide
if you need a quick overview of SMS Installer.

Download
SMS Installer Script

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