Discussion:
[wpkg-users] Wifi-Only Clients & Software Deployment
Holger Kröber
2016-12-15 13:41:54 UTC
Permalink
Hi,

more and more clients in our environment no longer have a LAN cable
plugged in regularly.
Most of the time, they have a wifi connection. This has some side
effects for software deployment with WPKG.
WPKG is executed in the context of the system account trough Group
Policy startup scripts (Active Directory), before user login.
But this will only work, if the client already has established a
connection to the LAN at this time.
With WIFI, the connection is established after the user has logged in -
this is too late :)

How do you manage this in your environment?
Do you use tasks that run in the system context after the user has
logged in and are executed as soon as the WIFI connection is established?
How do you avoid conflicts (user tries to execute the program that you
want to upgrade right in the middle of the installation process etc.).
How do you give the user feedback about the installation process? If you
install software in the system context, the user normally won´t
see any messages because of session 0 isolation.

Thanks,
Holger


---------------------------------
wpkg-users mailing list archives >> http://lists.wpkg.org/pipermail/wpkg-users/
Paul McGrath
2016-12-15 14:11:00 UTC
Permalink
Hi Holger,
Even for our wired connections we have the WPKG Service running in 'Automatic (delayed start)' so it doesn't run until a couple of minutes after the client has made a connection usually via logon.
Paul

-----Original Message-----
From: wpkg-users [mailto:wpkg-users-***@lists.wpkg.org] On Behalf Of Holger Kröber
Sent: 15 December 2016 13:42
To: wpkg-***@lists.wpkg.org
Subject: [wpkg-users] Wifi-Only Clients & Software Deployment

Hi,

more and more clients in our environment no longer have a LAN cable plugged in regularly.
Most of the time, they have a wifi connection. This has some side effects for software deployment with WPKG.
WPKG is executed in the context of the system account trough Group Policy startup scripts (Active Directory), before user login.
But this will only work, if the client already has established a connection to the LAN at this time.
With WIFI, the connection is established after the user has logged in - this is too late :)

How do you manage this in your environment?
Do you use tasks that run in the system context after the user has logged in and are executed as soon as the WIFI connection is established?
How do you avoid conflicts (user tries to execute the program that you want to upgrade right in the middle of the installation process etc.).
How do you give the user feedback about the installation process? If you install software in the system context, the user normally won´t see any messages because of session 0 isolation.

Thanks,
Holger


---------------------------------
wpkg-users mailing list archives >> http://lists.wpkg.org/pipermail/wpkg-users/
_______________________________________________
wpkg-users mailing list
wpkg-***@lists.wpkg.org
https://lists.wpkg.org/mailman/listinfo/wpkg-users
---------------------------------
wpkg-users mailing list archives >> http://lists.wpkg.org/pipermail/wpkg-users/
Dave Evans
2016-12-15 16:25:30 UTC
Permalink
Post by Paul McGrath
Hi Holger,
Even for our wired connections we have the WPKG Service running in 'Automatic (delayed start)' so it doesn't run until a couple of minutes after the client has made a connection usually via logon.
Paul
-----Original Message-----
Sent: 15 December 2016 13:42
Subject: [wpkg-users] Wifi-Only Clients & Software Deployment
Hi,
more and more clients in our environment no longer have a LAN cable plugged in regularly.
Most of the time, they have a wifi connection. This has some side effects for software deployment with WPKG.
WPKG is executed in the context of the system account trough Group Policy startup scripts (Active Directory), before user login.
But this will only work, if the client already has established a connection to the LAN at this time.
With WIFI, the connection is established after the user has logged in - this is too late :)
How do you manage this in your environment?
Do you use tasks that run in the system context after the user has logged in and are executed as soon as the WIFI connection is established?
How do you avoid conflicts (user tries to execute the program that you want to upgrade right in the middle of the installation process etc.).
How do you give the user feedback about the installation process? If you install software in the system context, the user normally won´t see any messages because of session 0 isolation.
Thanks,
Holger
We've set something up for our roaming users where wpkg runs off a local
copy of the wpkg folder.
so at startup, wpkg runs and processes any updates
then after wpkg is finished (it could be a wpkg package but we didn't do
it that way) another process runs which rsyncs the latest copies of the
updates from the central server.
the downside is that the client needs to have a local copy of all
packages (is about 1GB at present) and this feels to me like an ugly
kludge, but at less than 1% of the hard drive size it's not worth
investing time to make it cleaner.
the upside is that wpkg runs OK, before the user starts their work (as
it should), and then if the rsync fails, we can try again in the
background later.
this works for offsite laptops, and would work for your wifi connected
users.

Dave
---------------------------------
wpkg-users mailing list archives >> http://lists.wpkg.org/pipermail/wpkg-users/
Geoff Brown
2016-12-15 17:10:54 UTC
Permalink
We use 802.1x authentication.

Our computers can logon using their machine accounts (via MSCHAPv2) in Active Directory before any user logs in.


---
Geoff Brown
IT Services, SFU Surrey Campus

_______________________
Simon Fraser University Surrey
250 - 13450 102nd Avenue
Surrey, BC
V3T 0A3
Post by Paul McGrath
Hi,
more and more clients in our environment no longer have a LAN cable plugged in regularly.
Most of the time, they have a wifi connection. This has some side effects for software deployment with WPKG.
WPKG is executed in the context of the system account trough Group Policy startup scripts (Active Directory), before user login.
But this will only work, if the client already has established a connection to the LAN at this time.
With WIFI, the connection is established after the user has logged in - this is too late :)
How do you manage this in your environment?
Do you use tasks that run in the system context after the user has logged in and are executed as soon as the WIFI connection is established?
How do you avoid conflicts (user tries to execute the program that you want to upgrade right in the middle of the installation process etc.).
How do you give the user feedback about the installation process? If you install software in the system context, the user normally won´t
see any messages because of session 0 isolation.
Thanks,
Holger
---------------------------------
wpkg-users mailing list archives >> http://lists.wpkg.org/pipermail/wpkg-users/
_______________________________________________
wpkg-users mailing list
https://lists.wpkg.org/mailman/listinfo/wpkg-users
---------------------------------
wpkg-users mailing list archives >> http://lists.wpkg.org/pipermail/wpkg-users/
Loading...