On Tue, Apr 14, 2009 at 2:15 PM, Rainer Meier <r.meier at wpkg.org> wrote: > Hi Jason, > > M. Jason Stewart wrote: >> More like 200 separate DSL connections. We use Citrix as an >> alternative to individual VPNs. If you're not familiar, just think >> Teminal Services over HTTPS. Users get their applications via a web >> portal, it's like remote desktop for individual applications. As >> such, the client machines are not joined to our domain- they are just >> stand alone PCs. >> Thanks for the links, looks like I have some more reading and >> experimenting to do. > > The use case you describe is not fully clear to me yet. Citrix is well-known to > me as a way to remotely access Windows environments. Personally I am using RDP > quite a lot. > But when using Citrix/Terminal services, then the software environment is fully > located on server side (centralized). This is actually exactly the reason for > such services - concentrate all data and environment on a centralized server. > > But in this case you don't need WPKG on your road-warrior clients but on the > central server to install software on a central location. If your clients are > using Citrix remote access then the whole software installation is located on > the server. > > Well, you could deploy the Citrix client to your workstations using WPKG but I > don't think it's updated very frequently. > > In any case WPKG is usually run from an SMB/CIFS share. If you don't have a VPN > then it's unlikely that your clients will be able to access any share. So what > you could do is to install WPKG locally on every client (wpkg.js installed > locally). But WPKG by default reads its configuration (hosts, profiles, > packages) from the same location where it's executed from. Alternatively you can > provide these XML files on an HTTP server (which could be a web-server of your > company which is available via internet). > > After you managed this hurdle you cannot fetch the software from CIFS share as > WPKG usually does. However you could use the HTTP-download functionality to > fetch the installer files from a public server (might be your company webserver > too). But remember that licensing might not allow you to publish the packages on > a public internet server (where actually everybody could download it from). > > > > If you really want to use WPKG for this kind of deployment have a look at the > change notes where it's documented how to use the downloading feature.... > > NEW: Added download extension as initially proposed by Tomasz Chmielewski (with > some changes). A download definition is specified as follows: > <download url="http://server.domain.tld/path/to/file.msi" > target="subdir/file.msi" timeout="7200" /> > > The 'timeout' attribute is entirely optional. It defaults to the value of > 'downloadTimeout' as specified within config.xml (7200 if not omitted). > The value is specified in seconds. > > The 'target' attribute specifies a path relative to the 'downloadDir' as > specified within config.xml (defaults to '%TEMP%' if omitted). > NOTE: You need to specify the full file path, including the file name, not > just a directory name! > > So to install the package above could be installed by the following > install command definition: > <install cmd="msiexec /qn /i %TEMP%\subdir\file.msi"> > > and > > MOD: Download XML nodes are now allowed as sub-nodes of any command (install/ > upgrade/downgrade/remove). This allows you to specify a download which is > only downloaded for a specific command. This was implemented since it > usually makes no sense to download the installation package again right > before the remove commands are executed (which usually runs a local > uninstall command which does not need the original installer). > Specifying a download XML node on the global package level (not below a > specific command definition) is still allowed. Such downloads will be > executed regardless of the command to be executed. So you can specify some > global downloads which are executed in any case. > Note: If multiple install (or upgrade/downgrade/remove) commands are > specified WPKG will download the the files of all command nodes of the > same kind before starting to execute the commands in sequence. > Example: > <package...> > <donwoad url="http://example.org/package.exe" target="package.exe" /> > <install cmd="%TEMP%\file.exe some arguments" ...> > <donwoad url="http://example.org/file.exe" target="file.exe" /> > </install> > <install cmd="%TEMP%\file2.exe some arguments" ...> > <donwoad url="http://example.org/file2.exe" target="file2.exe" /> > </install> > <upgrade cmd="%TEMP%\update.exe arguments" ...> > <donwoad url="http://example.org/update.exe" target="update.exe" /> > </upgrade> > </package> > This definition will simply download "package.exe" (global). "file.exe" > and "file2.exe" right before the install commands are executed in > seuence. > In case of upgrade it will download "package.exe" (global) and > "update.exe" before executing the upgrade command(s). > > > > However I am not sure that you need it in case you really use Citrix > remote-desktop solution. > > > Please also remember that the downloading feature is quite uncommon and not very > widely used, so testing and fixing would probably require some time. > > > br, > Rainer > Rainer, Thank you for the info. You are correct about our apps being centrally managed through Citrix, I was just illustrating why we don't/won't use VPNs. I'm looking at WPKG as a method to deploy applications that are local to the client machines. Examples: Windows Defender, Antivirus software, custom registry changes, Asset management client, etc. |