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ConfigMgr - An Administrator's Guide to Deploying Applications using PowerShell

Owen Smith

Ever wanted to deploy applications using PowerShell and ConfigMgr? Well now you can!

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About

About

About the Book

My manager asked me to deploy an application: "Should be simple", he said. "It's a Setup.exe and part-way through the installer, the user has to make a choice from a drop-down menu - they must select 'Sage Enterprise Management' and you know they wont, so make sure that part's automated"

"After that, I have one more urgent deployment; you'll need to customise an xml file which needs to be copied to a specific folder structure that may or may not already exist on the computer.  And there's an Excel Add-in - so we'll need it to be automatically picked up by Excel and activated so that the tab appears with no end-user config. Should be a piece of cake."

Fed up of sand being kicked in your face? Exactly how do you deploy a PowerShell script? What if it's a function? What if it's not? What if it accepts parameters? How do you know which properties of your MSI can be tweaked and even more importantly, how do you know what values can be passed to them? What about detection rules? What if there's nothing to detect? Help!

If you would like to know how to achieve all of this and much, much more using Microsoft Configuration Manager (SCCM) and PowerShell then you will want to read this book.

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Author

About the Author

Owen Smith

I'm a network admin for a global company based in the UK HQ.  

Contents

Table of Contents

Introduction

Who This Book Is For

How This Book is Organised

  1. Code
  2. The Sum of Its Parts
  3. Part 1: Why Use PowerShell?

PowerShell Cmdlets

  1. Write-Host
  2. Get-Location
  3. Set-Location
  4. Push-Location \ Pop-Location
  5. Get-Process \ Stop-Process
  6. Start-Process
  7. New-Item
  8. New-ItemProperty
  9. Get-Item
  10. Test-Path
  11. Try \ Catch
  12. Copy-Item
  13. Try It Out
  14. The Story so Far
  15. Part 2: MSIEXEC

Fundamentals

  1. View the help
  2. Where Is It?
  3. Better to use $Env:

Parameters

  1. Installation
  2. Silent Install
  3. No Restart
  4. Uninstall
  5. Note

Properties

  1. Which Properties Can I Set?
  2. How to Find Valid Property Values
  3. Tip!

Uninstall GUIDs

  1. 32-bit Installations
  2. 64-bit Installations
  3. TIP!

Setup.exe

  1. Example MSI Extraction

The Story so Far

  1. Part 3: Detection Rules

Why Use PowerShell?

Detection Fundamentals

  1. The Microsoft “Rules”
  2. In Practice
  3. Use the Docs
  4. Note
  5. Where Do I Put My Detection Rules Anyway?
  6. Silently Continue

Detection Rule Context

  1. Why Context Matters
  2. The Solution
  3. To Summarise

Detection Types

  1. File \ Folder Presence
  2. Executable Presence
  3. Executable Version

Top Tip!

  1. Registry Key
  2. Registry Value

Custom Detection

  1. Why Use Custom Detection?
  2. By File
  3. Remember!
  4. Write to the File Contents
  5. By Registry

Branching

  1. By Office Bitness

Examples

  1. Mimecast Detection (Branching Example)
  2. Java Detection (This and This)

The Story so Far

  1. Part 4: Location, Location, Location

Where Is This Script Running from Anyway?

  1. How We Used to Do Things
  2. The Various Solutions
  3. A Better Way

File Placement

  1. Where to Place Your Files for Deployment

Referencing Files

  1. Referencing Files in a Flat Structure
  2. Referencing Files in Subdirectories
  3. If You’re Elsewhere…
  4. And Finally…

The Story so Far

  1. Part 5: Installing the Program

Calling the MSI or Setup.exe

Start Your Engines Please

Parameters

  1. -FilePath
  2. Top Tip
  3. -ArgumentList
  4. -NoNewWindow
  5. -Wait

Dealing with Spaces

Putting It All Together

  1. Example 1 - Simple MSI
  2. Example 2 - MSI with Properties
  3. Example 3 - Setup.Exe

The Story so Far

  1. Part 6: Deploying the Script

Calling Your Script

  1. Standard Script (Top to bottom)
  2. Script with Entry Point
  3. Function
  4. Watch Your Dots!
  5. Function Accepting Parameters

The Story so Far

  1. Part 7: Deployment Template

How to Use

  1. Deploying Based on Office ‘Bitness’
  2. Note!
  3. Deploying Based on Operating System Architecture
  4. Pre-Deployment Tasks
  5. Post-Deployment Tasks
  6. Logging
  7. How to Call the Template
  8. Lead by Example

The Story so Far

  1. Part 8: Useful Code Snippets
  2. Detect Office ‘Bitness’
  3. Watch Out!
  4. Detect Operating System Architecture
  5. Obtaining the Current Logged in User Name
  6. Better to Use $ENV:?
  7. Copying Files
  8. Did you Know?
  9. No Include
  10. Register \ Unregister DLL’s
  11. Use the Template!
  12. Part 9: Real-World Examples

Ready to go Scripts

  1. Adobe Reader
  2. Java
  3. Firefox
  4. Mimecast
  5. Fusion Excel Connect Client
  6. Tips
  7. Bonus Chapter 1

A Step-by-Step Guide to Deploying a CCMCache Resize

  1. The Scenario
  2. Bonus Chapter 2

A Step-by-Step Guide to Deploying EMC SourceOne Agent for Offline Files

  1. Objectives
  2. Download and Extract the Files!
  3. Move the Files to the SCCM Source Location
  4. Discover the Silent Deployment Switches
  5. The Deployment Template
  6. Download the Pre-Configured Deployment Template
  7. Create The Application
  8. Installation Program
  9. The Detection Rule
  10. Traditional Method
  11. PowerShell Method
  12. Lock and Load
  13. Summary
  14. Bonus Chapter 3

A Step-by-Step Guide to Deploying RSAT Components for Windows 10

  1. Background
  2. Get the Script
  3. Install-RSATCapabilities
  4. Uninstall-RSATCapabilities
  5. Season to Taste
  6. Move the Script to the SCCM Source Location
  7. Create The Application
  8. Installation Program
  9. The Detection Rule
  10. Watchout!
  11. Distribute and Deploy
  12. The Result
  13. Afterword

Don’t Be a Stranger!

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