[wpkg-users] Thanks for everything - WPKG is nice but it still needs improvement

[Steve Handy]

Gentlemen I want to thank you for everything. We engaged in some great conversation today. WPKG is a great tool. I will use it on the LAN level within my organization. However at the offsite level, the program still needs some improvement. The WPKG still DOES NOT reinstall software when a user removes it. Incrementing the revision of course is not the answer. I agree with Rainer on this. When a solution is available please let me know.


Thanks guys
Steve Handy

-----Original Message-----
From: Rainer Meier [mailto:r.meier at wpkg.org]
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2008 4:18 PM
To: Steve Handy
Cc: 'Adam Williams'; 'wpkg-users at lists.wpkg.org'
Subject: Re: [wpkg-users] Can WPKG install packages while user is at desktop - Lets move on the 2nd problem

Hi Steve,

Steve Handy wrote:
> One more thing though. Why is it that when I uninstall the firefox, and then run the cscript \\.... /sync.., the program doesn't install.

As written already many times either you used execute="once" or the
checks still evaluated true. In case (parts) of an application is still
running it is quite common that the uninstall entry is not entirely
removed until the next reboot (when uninstall is finished, files are
removed and uninstall entry is cleanded). So WPKG might still find the
uninstall entries unless you reboot and therefore thinks the application
is still installed.


> Let's move on Rainer:
>
>  So basically what I have I good. Great. Okay, now here is the 2nd dilemma.
>
> We have employees here at my organization. They have offsite laptops. Currently they use the Windows PPTP VPN client to connect to the company from outside. When they initially boot, they DO NOT HAVE a network connection established. (So  WPKG will NOT install software at this point). When they arrive at their respective desktops, they establish a network connection via Sprint broadband air cards they have. They then click the VPN icon to establish a VPN connection into the company.

 > Here is where WPKG comes in, I need the WPKG to execute the cscript
\\Store1\WPKG\wkpg.js /Synchronize /quiet and check for packages that
need to be installed. (and install if necessary).
 >
 > How do I make this happen?

Well, you don't need WPKG to invoke itself as you wrote. You need to
configure your VPN software to run WPKG when the connection is up and
running. I know that some VPN clients (OpenVPN for sure) allows you to
define some scripts to be run after connection establishment. There you
can simply add a batch script to execute WPKG.

Today I wrote already as an answer to another request that you might
simply run the WPKG service from command line instead of manually
invoking the wpkg.js script. Of course this only applies if you
installed WPKG client and the service is available. If yes, then you
might use the command

net start WpkgService

to run the WPKG service again. This works perfectly fine if you
configure WPKG client to terminate after wpkg.js terminated (see
configuration). If not, then you might need to execute 'net stop' before
to terminate the still running service:

net stop WpkgService
net start WpkgService


NOTE: The user executing this commands needs privileges to start/stop
Windows services.

Alternatively you might execute WPKG on a regular base using the Windows
task scheduler (twice per day? up to you...).
WARNING: If you run wpkg.js manually (using 'cscript ....' then all
variables defined in WPKG client are not defined. You need to write a
small batch script which is doing this part of WPKG client if you like
to do so. Something like:

@echo off
set SOFTWARE=...
cscript ....\wpkg.js /synchronize


> In addition we are now eliminating the PPTP VPN client method and using a SSL VPN method where our employees are taken to a webpage via a public url https://portal.callglobalcom.com and thru active x components are brought "inside the company" How can WPKG work in this scenario? The SSL VPN is created by a Sonic Wall device.

Again, you need to ask your VPN provider how to implement a
post-connection script where you can run WPKG. Or just run it regularly
using the task scheduler.

Most VPN solutions should support such a requirement. If not then you
can go for the task scheduling option or ask users to execute the
software update manually after connection (which is the last option I
would go for).
If you need to use the task scheduler you can (AFAIR) create a task
which is run as the SYSTEM user. Just execute the 'net start
WpkgService' command as described above by such a task. If you do this
twice a day it will not affect users too much. Recent versions of WPKG
client also allow you to check server connectivity first. So if WPKG
client (invoked by 'net start WpkgService') discovers that your
'server.companydomain.local' does not exist, then it will even not try
to invoke wpkg.js and terminate immediately.


HTH,
Rainer


HTH,
Rainer