[wpkg-users] WPKG for remote / offline clients (who are never local)

[Dave Evans]

we have a number of users with laptops who work out of the office most 
of the time (i.e. they come into the office 1 or 2 times a year).
others are remote desktops which never come to the office

what I want is for the client to:

  * connect to a central server somewhere (could be via VPN or a
    restricted server on the internet)
  * download any new or changed files in the background (like Windows
    Updates)
  * execute wpkg (possibly next boot to avoid killing running
    applications whilst we update them)
  * (optionally) send the log file back up to the central server


I initially thought that off-line / laptop mode was for this, but on 
reading further I realise it's to stop the clients trying to access the 
server when they can't, useful, but no help here.
I looked around to see if there was anything that anyone had already 
done to help in this scenario - but I can't find anything helpful.
So I've started to code a solution, I'm getting on well, but there's a 
lot of work to do, and I thought it was about time I checked with the 
mailing list in case someone else knows something that will already do this.
It may be that it's obvious, but just called something my brain won't 
think of (so I'll never find it using search)

I've considered using offline files to make the remote folder structure 
available locally, but I've no way of ensuring that things will be 
updated locally in the correct order to make them execute right.
My current idea is to run wpkg at boot as normal, then as the last task 
download any new/changed files using BITS (the part of Windows Updates 
which does the trickle download of new patches) then these new versions 
should get installed next boot.

Does anyone know of anything that will do what I'm after already?
and if not
Would anyone else be interested in using this when I get it ready?

--------------------------------------------------------------
Dave

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