Deploying Connector on the Endpoint Itself Overview

See article

Prepare the MSI Package 

1. Prepare the MSI package.
2. Create a shared folder or used SCCM shared folder and place a copy of the MSI package. This will be the distribution point of the MSI package to the network.

In our example, a shared folder named "Software" was created.

All the domain users and all the domain computers were given read permission over this folder.

Deploying Applications Using SCCM

1. Launch the SCCM console.

2. Select Software Library, Under Application Management select Applications.

3. Right-click Applications and select Create Application.

4. Select Automatically detect information.. and choose the type as Windows Installer (Native), Specify the location of the Vlink-Installer.msi file from the shared folder.

5. Click Next again on the confirmation page.

6. On the "General Information" page, fill-in the form fields to describe the application as best as you can. The more information you provide, the more it can help with future tasks. Note that you do not need to append MSIEXEC user-interface options, such as "/q" since CM will do that automatically later in the process. In addition, the "Installation behavior" option allows you to target a User, a Device ("System"), or a combination of the two; however, for this example, we going to target a Device Collection, so we chose "System".

7. On the confirmation page, click Next to continue. After the Application is created, click the Close button.

8. Once the Application is created, click the "Deployment Types" tab at the bottom to see the results. Unlike a "Package" in CM 2007, an Application can have multiple Deployment Types, allowing you to configure actions relating to specific Operating Systems or Devices.

Staging the application content

The next step in the process is to make sure the Application content is placed where clients can access it when they're instructed to use it. This is referred to as "Distributing Content". Basically, the files associated with the Application are copied to selected Distribution Point servers, either explicitly, or by way of Distribution Point Groups. For this example, we will Distribute the content to a selected Distribution Point.

1. Right-click on the Application you just created, and select "Distribute Content". This will allow you to stage the installation binaries and related files on your Distribution Point servers so that clients can access it when executing the installation requests.

2. On the Content options page, accept the content confirmation and click Next to continue.

3. On the Content Destination page, click the Add button to select the target Collection, Distribution Point server, or Distribution Point Groups, to stage the Application content. In this example, we selected an individual Distribution Point server. Once you select all of the desired content locations, click OK and then click Next to continue.

4. Check the boxes for each desired Distribution Point and click OK to continue.

5. On the Summary page, click Next to continue. After a few seconds, a progress bar will show the content begin copying to the Distribution Point.

6. When the content has finished distribution, you will see the Confirmation page. Click Close to finish. The next step is to target the Application to desired Users or Devices (computers, etc.).

Deploying the application

If you already have a target Collection created, you can skip this step, we showing this to illustrate that we have a Direct Membership Device collection for use in targeting the Application "Deployment" in the next step.

1. In the "Software Library" section of the Admin Console, under Applications, right-click on your new Application once again, and this time select "Deploy".

2. Since we deploying to a Device Collection, select "Device Collections" at the top-left, and then select the appropriate target Collection on the right, and click OK, then click Next. You can just as well target a User Collection or a Query-based User or Device Collection. This is only for demonstration. 

3. Once you have selected the Software (Application) and the Collection, you now have the option of entering some comments to describe this particular Deployment if you desire. After this, click Next to continue.

4. Confirm the Distribution Point selections, or click Add to select additional Distribution Points or Distribution Point Groups if desired, and click Next to continue. 

5. On the Deployment Settings page, select "Install" for the Action, and for the Purpose select "Required". If you aren't familiar with "Available" and "Required", you can think of them as synonymous with "Published" and "Assigned" as it pertains to Group Policy software installations. The first option makes the package available for users to choose when to install it. The second option runs the installation without requesting any approval or interaction from the users. For this example, we leaving the three checkboxes alone. We recommend reading up on each of them and testing them yourself to see if they benefit you within the context of your environment.

6. On the Scheduling options page, you can specify a date and time for the Deployment to begin, as well as setting a specific deadline date. 

7. Since we deploying this installation to computers, we don't want it to interrupt the users. For this reason, select "Hide in Software Center and All Notifications". If you have specific Maintenance Windows in place, you should carefully consider the remaining three options and then click Next.

8. On the Alerts settings page, you should select the first two threshold options so that you can properly monitor the Deployment when it becomes active. The default values are usually sufficient, but you may want to adjust them to suit your needs. If you are using System Center Operations Manager 2012, you may want to use the last two options.

9. On the Summary page, click Next to continue.

10. After the progress bar finishes, you should see a successful Confirmation. Click Close.

11. Click on the Application once again, and this time select the "Deployments" tab at the bottom. This will show all of the current Deployment configurations you have created for this Application. At this point, there should only be one Deployment for this Application.

From this point, you should now have an active Deployment which clients will begin evaluating and executing, as long as they are members of the target Collection and they meet any optional Global Conditions you may have set on the Deployment.

Monitoring the deployment

Now that the Application is in Deployment, the next step is to monitor its progress. Click on the Monitoring section in the Admin Console, and select Deployments. From here you can view the current status of each Deployment and see successes and failures. You can also drill down into each status indicator to view more detail if needed.