Deployment of Software Package - MsOffice 2007, Adobe and winzip from SCCM - Part2

This article is continuation of my previous article, so my lab setup remain the same. In my previous article you have seen how to deploy Ms-Office 2003 and how to monitor the current status for troubleshooting analysis. In this article I will show you how to deploy Ms-Office 2007 and non-Microsoft product. Troubleshooting will remain same what I specified in my previous article.

Before reading this article I would appreciate if you go through with my previous article.

Note: The only change I made is I have uninstalled my ms-office 2003 software from my client machine (newlabtest) and removed the advertisement package from the SCCM.






How to deploy Ms-Office 2007 from SCCM:

1) Copy the MsOffice 2007 Application into a Local Drive:
Make a soft copy of Ms Office 2007 Application in the repository drive and share this application by giving full control to Administrator, SCCM computer and System as well. In my case it is SCCM server  where I created one folder called as “MsOffice2007” under E drive.

2) Create a MSP file :
MSP file is nothing but a customized file which we will create. It will help us to provide required answer in unattended  mode. In other word it is the same file what we have created in MS-Office 2003 which is called as MST file. The good part of MSP file creation for Ms-Office 2007 is you don’t require to install Office resource tool kit (ork.exe) because Ms-Office 2007 has built-in customizing tool. This makes our life much more easy and other advantage of this package is, it is not much complicated as we did for Ms-Office 2003 like installing ork.exe, creating MST file by going through out 24 steps, then in the program command adding of TRANSFORMS key.  The only thing we need to do is create a MSP file, create a office package and program command by just running setup.exe and then finally advertising it.

Now we will see how to accomplish this simple theoretical task into simple practical task. Inorder to create a MSP follow the below procedures:

 Click on Start => Run => Browse to setup.exe of Msoffice 2007 application and then add /admin. In my case it will be E:\MsOffice2007\setup.exe /admin
Figure1:

 
 It will open the Office Customization Tool Wizard by giving two option either to create a new MSP file or open the existing one. As I am creating new file I will select first option
Figure 2:

 
 It will show you welcome screen and the following steps which needs to be configured during the creation of MSP file. This wizard will only consist of 19 steps. I am not going to cover each and every steps but will make sure I am covering the important steps
Figure 3:

 
 As per the above figure 3: Click on Install location and Organization Name : Here you will give your location where this application need to be saved and organization name.
Figure 4:


 
 Additional network sources : This can be used to replicate the same copy to another server, incase if your current server is unavailable then it will approach the another server which you have configure under network sources. In my case I left with default setting, simply I clicked on Licensing and user Interface

 Licensing and user interface : Here you will give the product ID and accepting the terms and conditions.
Figure 5:


 
 Remove previous Installation : If you want to remove any older version you configured in this column or else let it be with default setting. I have set it to default one.

 Add Installation and run programs : I had kept it with default setting

 Office Security Settings : I had kept it with default setting

 Modify Setup Properties : I had kept it with default setting

 Modify User Setting : I had kept it with default setting

 Set feature Installation states : In this place you can customize your application by choosing specific application or keeping the default one. I had chosen only to install Msword, Excel, Powerpoint and Outlook
Figure 6:


 
 Add Files : I had kept it with default setting

 Remove Files : I had kept it with default setting

 Add Registry Entries : I had kept it with default setting

 Remove Registry Entries : I had kept it with default setting

 Configure Shortcuts : I had kept it with default setting

 Outlook Profile : I had kept it with default setting

 Specify Exchange Server Settings : I had kept it with default setting

 Add Accounts : I had kept it with default setting

 Remove Accounts & Export Settings : I had kept it with default setting

 Specify Send/Receive groups : I had kept it with default setting

 Then click on X icon to close this Wizard: This will ask you whether you want to save this configuration file, click on Yes and give the path where you want to save this location. I would recommend you to save this file under MsOffice2007 folder, under this folder you will one folder called as updates, just simply save it over there. I have given the name as MsOffice2007.MSP. The reason why I specifying this path location is just because if you save it some other location you need to add adminfile msoffice2007.msp under Msoffice2007 program package. So inorder to avoid this long command keep this MSP file under Updates Folder.

3) Create MsOffice 2007 Package:
 Open the SCCM Console
 Expand Site Database => Computer Management => Software Distribution
 Right click Packages => Select New Package
 In the General Option : Fillout the name and other details
Figure 7:

 
 Under Data Source : Give the path of MsOffice2007 Folder
Figure 8:

 
 Then simply click on next till you finish this wizard : Let it be the default option selected unless and until you require to have customize change.

4) Create a Program for the MsOffice 2007 Package:
Now we have created one package for getting the information to copied in the distribution point but before we could distribute this package we need to set a command to run this package i.e exe (execution command) so inorder to do this

 Expand Site Database => Computer Management => Software Distribution => Packages => Microsoft MsOffice2007 Package
 Right Click on Programs => New => Programs
 It will open the configuration wizard for this programs under general information you need to put the exe command,  and for MsOffice 2007, it will be “SETUP.EXE” and under “After running” column you can set the status of client computer what you want like after installing the Msoffice restart the computer or don’t do anything. I have set it to restart my computer.
Figure 9:

 
 Then the next screen will show you requirement like how much minimum disk space need to specify for client end machine and how many hours it should be set to execute the MsOffice application and complete the installation. I would recommend you to keep it unknown for both options.
Figure 10:

 
 Then click on Next and finish the configuration of program command with the default settings.


5) Distributing & Advertising the Package:
Now we have created the package and even program as well. It’s time to distribute the package to the Distribution point and then advertise it. I am going to do distribution and advertisement at the same time, so inorder to do this:

 Expand Site Database => Computer Management => Software Distribution => Packages
 Right Click Microsoft MsOffice 2003 Package => Distribute => Software
 It will show you welcome wizard click on Next
 Then select the shared repository distribution point and then click on Next
Figure 11:

 
 Then it will ask you whether you want to advertise program, by default it will select “YES” option so let be there, just simply click on NEXT
 Then it will show the selected program for MsOffice2007 : click on NEXT
 Advertisement Target : It will ask where you want to advertise this package, here you need to specify the collection where you want to distribute this package. In my case it is All windows XP system where I have my newlabtest computer
Figure 12:

 
 Once you click on Next it will ask you what will be your advertisement name : I chosen the default one and clicked on NEXT

 Then it will where do you want to advertise this package i.e either you advertise this package specifically for that collection only or you can include sub-collect as well. I select the default one i.e include sub-collection option and clicked on NEXT

 Next will be whether you want to run this application for specific time, i.e., do you want to have expiry time or you don’t want. I chosen the default one : No Never expire the time for this package

 Assign Program: In this place you need to give a time when to assign this task, in production environment during maintenance windows, as I am running in my lab I want to complete this task on high priority I have select assign it right way and ignore the maintenance window
Figure 13:

 
 Then click next it will display summary and then click on Finish.
 Now package is being advertised…

6) Client –end Process:
 You will have one Assign Task
Figure 14:
 

 Then it will get installed without any user intervention
Figure 15:
 

 Once it get installed you will the application in place
Figure 16:


 
How to deploy non-Microsoft Product:

Whenever we are considering the fact about the deployment of software package we need think from two prespectives, is it going to be normal user level intervention or zero touch i.e unattended method. This is very important to understand the requirement before you could choose the unattended method blindly without understanding whether it is going to work or not. The reason why I am stressing on this point is let me give you an example for getting more clear picture, I tried to install winzip through SCCM, it required the user intervention for installing the application. So I thought to test the same procedure without the user intervention and finally it was halted and whole application package is being paused. So this means we need to have fair idea how this application can be installed, if there is a chance of unattended go to the respective product website and see what is the unattended command we need to use and test that command on the client machine without configuring it from SCCM to see whether it is working or not and then try out from SCCM.
Here I would recommend you to install the non-microsoft product or the product where you are not confident whether it is going to work or not through zero touch method, don’t try to run that command, because the execution command which we run is not a part of SCCM support rather then it is the part of the specific product support.

Now here I have chosen the normal user intervention setup process, and inorder to install this package remember only 4 steps:

1) Create a Package for the application
2) Create a program execution package for the application
3) Distribute the package
4) Advertise the package

I am going to show you only the possible screen shot so that you feel the concept behind this because the above 4 steps is already be taken care under MsOffice Application package.
I am going to create a package for Adobe and Winzip

1) Creation of Package:
 Open the SCCM Console
 Expand Site Database => Computer Management => Software Distribution
 Right click Packages => Select New Package
 In the General Option : Fillout the name and other details
Figure 17:

 
 Then give the path of source folder in the next screen
Figure 18:

 
 Then follow the default configuration by simply click on Next and finish it.

2) Create a program:
 Expand Site Database => Computer Management => Software Distribution => Packages => Adobe 8.0 Package
 Right Click on Programs => New => Programs
 It will open the configuration wizard for this programs under general information you need to put the exe command,  and for Adobe, it will be “AdbeRdr_en_US_exe” and under “After running” column set it no reboot required for this installation
Figure 19:

 
 Then click on next and finish the task

3) Distributing and advertising the package : Follow the same steps which I referred for MsOffice 2007.

4) Follow the same steps for winzip as well. Once your are done you will see the packages are assigned to client computers and ready for installation
Figure 20:

 

Figure 21 (winzip)


 
I hope this article is being very informative for you all. And I believe that this would have given a clear cut idea how to do a deployment and which are the process involved. I would like to thanks Rajnish Sharma for helping in understanding the Ms-Office 2007 deployment flow. And thanks to you all to share your time and patience in this matter.

Related Articles:

• System Center Configuration Manager

Upcoming articles:

• Build and capture for Operating System Deployment through SCCM