Deploying Office 2007 with SCCM 2007

Transcription

1 Deploying Office 2007 with SCCM /06/2006 Abstract This document will describe how to deploy Office 2007 Professional using System Center Configuration Manager 2007.

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3 Table of Contents Overview... 4 Preparing the SCCM Client... 5 Preparing Office Configuring SMS Creating an SMS Package Creating a Package Program Populating Distribution Points Distributing the SMS Package The Results Summary About 4sol The Company Our People Deploying Office 2007 with SCCM 2007 Page 3

4 Overview Microsoft Office is the primary application of 90% of all business desktops. Deploying and managing this installation, and every other software installation, efficiently will save time and effort for IT administrative task. Microsoft Office 2007 will be released some time during the next 12 months. It would be beneficial to know how to deploy it quickly and efficiently. Ideally, all desktop applications will be virtualised using Softricity Desktop, offering new deployment and management techniques. However, this is not an option for every organisation. Microsoft will be releasing a successor to SMS 2003 and SMS 2003 R2 in 2007 called System Center Configuration Manager 2007, formerly known as SMS V4. This document will describe a likely scenario that administrators may face next year, i.e. how to deploy Microsoft Office Professional 2007 using Microsoft SCCM Microsoft SCCM 2007 is a solution for managing desktops, laptops, servers and Windows mobile devices. It offers auditing, software management, reporting and security configuration/management for the complete network. Note: the process described in this document applies to all Microsoft Office desktop products, e.g. Visio, Project, etc. This process is only valid for Volume License editions of the Microsoft Office products. Deploying Office 2007 with SCCM 2007 Page 4

5 Preparing the SCCM Client The SCCM client will download any content into its local cache (C:\windows\system32\ccm\cache) before carrying out an installation. Microsoft Office 2007 is a pretty large installation. The default configuration for the local SCCM client cache is 256MB which is way too small. Make sure you configure your SCCM client cache to be big enough to handle the content, e.g. 1024MB. Deploying Office 2007 with SCCM 2007 Page 5

6 Preparing Office 2007 Insert your Office 2003 CD and copy it onto a network share that your SMS server has read access to. Make sure you have modify access. This is your SMS packages share. Run SETUP.EXE /ADMIN to enable an administration installation. This is different to administration installations of the past. The purpose of the /ADMIN command is to start up the Office Customisation Wizard. This utility used to be part of the Office Resource Kit but is now built into SETUP.EXE. The OCW will no longer create a MST or transform file. It now creates an MSP file which is specified when running SETUP.EXE while installing the product. Deploying Office 2007 with SCCM 2007 Page 6

7 The Office Customisation Wizard starts up and asks if you want to edit an existing file or create a new one. In this case, we need to create a new file. You can specify where to install the Office product. You can also enter an organisation name. Enter your volume license key. Make sure you have this correct or your installation will fail. You must also accept the license agreement. Deploying Office 2007 with SCCM 2007 Page 7

8 The Display level is also important. For SMS deployments, set it to Basic or None. Setting it to Full-Default will force the installer to prompt for an OK to begin the installation, something that is undesired in an unattended and silent installation. Leaving it with Basic and Completion Notice is handy for running manual installations for debugging via a manual installation. Modify User Settings enables you to pre-configure Microsoft Office Professional. It will be important for early adopters of Microsoft Office 2007 to know that it saves in a new XML based file format by default, e.g. a Word 2007 document uses.docx. This new format is incompatible with previous versions of Microsoft Office. You may want to pre-configure Microsoft Office to save as Office compatible format. This can be done here. Deploying Office 2007 with SCCM 2007 Page 8

9 Set Features Installations States enables you to decide what components of Microsoft Office to install. The good news here is that The Office Assistant, aka Clippy, does not exist anymore. You can now add, edit or remove shortcuts for Microsoft Office. Deploying Office 2007 with SCCM 2007 Page 9

10 The last section of the OCW enables you to pre-configure Microsoft Outlook You can set up a profile, set up a connection to a server, enable caching mode, set up offline storage, etc. Deploying Office 2007 with SCCM 2007 Page 10

11 Once you are happy, you can save the configuration as an.msp file in your network copy of the Office 2003 installation, i.e. your SMS packages share. Deploying Office 2007 with SCCM 2007 Page 11

12 Configuring SMS Creating an SMS Package This is your SMS packages share as it appears on the SMS server. In my case, I have placed this share on my primary SMS server. Note how I have organised the folders and placed my package in a Build folder with a version. You will likely have many applications and each will possibly have several versions depending on packaging success. It is important to keep these for the ability to test and rollback. Deploying Office 2007 with SCCM 2007 Page 12

13 Below is the SMS packages share as it appears over the network. Note the SETUP.EXE and my MSP file for my standard desktop installation. We are now ready to build a package in SCCM 2007 from the files and folders in the package share. Note how I have mimicked my folder configuration from the package share in the Packages and Advertisements containers in the SCCM 2007 administration console. Deploying Office 2007 with SCCM 2007 Page 13

14 Right click on the 2007 folder and choose to create a new package. Describe the package as required. Deploying Office 2007 with SCCM 2007 Page 14

15 This package will contain source files to deploy so select the This Package Contains Source Files tick box. I normally use a compressed copy of the source folders but I also like to set the source directory. This will enable me to quickly choose to always obtain files from source directory. This is handy in case I decide to patch my current build of Microsoft Office However, it is more likely that I will have to alter my MSP file in OCW. Using the always obtain option during testing means that I don t have to recreate the package after I change my MSP file. I finish the wizard to create the package. Creating a Package Program Now it s time to create a program to execute against the package, i.e. tell SMS how to install the package or even uninstall it. I ll normally deploy Office per machine and without a user being installed. I ve named my program appropriately. The command line option is the actual command that will install Microsoft Office SETUP.EXE can be typed or browsed for inside of the package. The full command, SETUP.EXE /ADMINFILE STANDARD.MSP, will tell SETUP.EXE to perform a customised installation according to the specifications I have put in the listed MSP file. Deploying Office 2007 with SCCM 2007 Page 15

16 We have a choice of whether to reboot the PC or not. I prefer to let SMS to install the computer. This will present the user with some notification and a 5 minute timer. However, I have come across an installer that would break if SMS did the reboot instead of it. Microsoft Office 2007 does not require a reboot. Deploying Office 2007 with SCCM 2007 Page 16

17 We have the ability, beyond SCCM collections, to prevent accidental targeting of computers. This will ensure that Operating System, Service Pack level and memory requirements are all met before an installation commences. The Microsoft Office 2007 Beta 2 release is listed as supporting Windows 2003 and Windows XP SP2 with a minimum of 2GB disk space free. We can now specify under what conditions that Microsoft Office 2007 will be installed. For a new deployment it doesn t matter if a user is logged in or not. But for an upgrade, it would be best to ensure that previous versions of Office are not running or else the installation of Microsoft Office 2007 may fail. The best way to accomplish this is to ensure that users are not logged in. Deploying Office 2007 with SCCM 2007 Page 17

18 Microsoft Office 2007 should be installed with administrative rights. A normal installation will not require the usage of the Software Installation Account. You would probably only need to use this to copy down files from a network folder requiring domain authentication of a user. Complete the wizard. No further customisations will probably be required. The last tab does offer support for installations onto servers that are monitored by MOM2005 or System Center Operations Manager You can choose to disable agent monitoring of the host and raise an alert if the installation has failed. This would be very useful to avoid noise and to get an alert if Terminal Servers or application servers will have problems after a failed deployment. Populating Distribution Points This is an important step in a multi-site SCCM deployment with many site servers. You should ensure that you have configured the package with a schedule to populate the distribution points to avoid swamping limited WAN links. SCCM 2007 offers a new type of distribution point called the Branch Distribution Point. It is intended to be used in small branches. It doesn t even require a secondary site server; it can be installed on a Windows XP Professional computer. This would be limited to 10 simultaneous connections due to Windows desktop operating system licensing limitations. A BDP should only be used in small to medium sites. A secondary site server offers traffic optimisation for client connections and reporting that cannot be obtained by using a BDP. Deploying Office 2007 with SCCM 2007 Page 18

19 In my situation, I have only got a single primary site server. I have populated the DP and wait for it to successfully install, to use SCCM and SMS parlance. Distributing the SMS Package A software distribution consists of 3 components: A Collection: who to distribute to. A Package: What to distribute. An Advertisement: How and when to distribute by linking the collection to the package with a schedule. I have taken a short cut by navigating to the package program Per-System Unattended. I right clicked on it and selected Distribute Software. This launched a partially pre-populated wizard for me to create an advertisement. Deploying Office 2007 with SCCM 2007 Page 19

20 In this example, I am distributing Microsoft Office 2007 to all members of a collection called Pilot Group. Deploying Office 2007 with SCCM 2007 Page 20

21 I gave the advertisement a meaningful name. It is good to list the collection and the package in some way. We now specify when the advertisement will be available for SCCM 2007 clients to access. This is not the installation schedule. This is the date and time when SCCM 2007 clients will start to download the policy and the source files for the package from the DP. I like to have this happen well before the scheduled release date or installation date of the software. This will enable all clients to pre-download the content and will even enable roaming users to have the software installed even if they are away from the network on the installation date. Deploying Office 2007 with SCCM 2007 Page 21

22 Once an advertisement is downloaded as a policy to an SCCM client and the content is downloaded, it will wait to run the package program. The program will run either when it is executed by a user from Control Panel or when another scheduled date and time are reached. Deploying Office 2007 with SCCM 2007 Page 22

23 We can now specify when to make the advertisement mandatory. Making an advertisement mandatory will force it to execute the package program. The schedule can be a repeating one if required. In my example, I am using a simple schedule to force an installation several days after the advertisement becomes live. This will give a decent window for as many clients as possible to download the package content. Users with downloaded content may choose to pre-empt the mandatory installation by running the package program from Control Panel. Deploying Office 2007 with SCCM 2007 Page 23

24 The Results Once the advertisement is live, you should start to monitor its status. Below is a nice report to get, a client has successfully gone through each step in a sample deployment: Accepted: The advertisement was downloaded as a machine policy. Waiting: The content was downloading. Running: The package program started to run. Succeeded: The installation was completed and the user can now run Microsoft Office 2007 Professional. Deploying Office 2007 with SCCM 2007 Page 24

25 Summary Microsoft Office 2007 Professional can take a long time to deploy manually. By making use of the available tools, i.e. the Office Customisation Wizard, and System Center Configuration Manager you can quickly deploy fresh or upgrade installations of Microsoft Office 2007 Professional with a zero-touch deployment and with the ability to monitor and report on your success. Deploying Office 2007 with SCCM 2007 Page 25

26 About 4sol The Company Delivering integrated technology solutions that will provide a rapid return on your investment. 4sol was founded by three directors with a wealth of experience in the IT and business consulting arena. Helping to design and project manage for some of the world s largest corporates has provided them with a unique understanding of how to maximize return from any IT investment. We offer a unique approach built around our own project management methodology utilizing our bespoke project toolkit jumpstart. Based on the best practices of the Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) and further enhanced by our experience in the deployment of infrastructure based solutions, jumpstart can significantly reduce the timeframe and costs in developing technology solutions. All our consultants and engineers are fully qualified and accredited in their respective disciplines allowing us to provide sound systems analysis and to recommend long term cost effective solutions. 4sol are committed to developing strong relationships with our clients, working in a partnership role providing you with a trusted technology advisor. Our People Our team of experienced personnel applies innovative thinking to address both tactical and strategic infrastructure requirements in order to identify the correct solution. At 4sol we know that our people are the key to our success. Continuous certification exams and product training ensure that our skills are at the forefront of our industry. We invest in our people, and encourage an environment that promotes innovation, creativity and personal development. Our peoples' technical expertise is combined with excellent project management and problem solving skills as well as sound business knowledge of our chosen markets. Deploying Office 2007 with SCCM 2007 Page 26