Insight Mass Deployment Through Faronics Deploy
Overview
This document will detail the process for performing a mass deployment of Faronics Insight using the command line install options.
This document will use the Faronics Deploy product as a platform for pushing the Insight Student Application to the client computers, however, the general process can be adapted to any 3rd-party application that can push a command to a remote machine.
Requirements
To perform a remote install of the Insight Student application on a client device you will need to have the following prerequisite components in place:
A utility that can transfer files to and execute commands remotely on a client device. In this example, we will use Faronics Deploy.
A location that is accessible to the client systems that can host the install package for remote deployment. In our example, we will be using an S3 Bucket hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS), however, a publicly accessible network share or internally hosted web service will work.
The command line options are required to configure the Insight product according to the requirements of your deployment.
Hosting the Install Package
To start, the installation package for the Insight Student needs to be saved in a location where it is accessible to the client systems. Faronics Deploy supports the use of both public and private web servers to host the file, as well as SMB shares.
In our example, we will be hosting the file on an Amazon S3 bucket and using a URL that looks like this to access the file:
https://<bucketname>.s3.amazonaws.com/InsightInstallerStudent.exe
Once you have uploaded a copy of the Insight installer to your AWS bucket you will either need to set appropriate permissions to allow your computers to access the file securely from a specific location, or provide public access permissions to the file.
Note: Due to the nature of the Insight installer itself, no sensitive information is contained in the installer package, however, the command line options for the install process will potentially contain passwords and other information that should not be publicly accessible. As such, we do not recommend hosting the command line parameters in a publicly accessible location.
Determining the Command Line Options
The next step in preparing for deployment is to determine the command line options required for the deployment of the Insight Student. A full list of command line options can be found in Appendix A - Insight Student Command Line Install Reference.
The command line options allow the configuration of common install parameters such as the default Class ID, Administrative and Teacher passwords, as well as the address of the Insight Connector.
For example, the command line below will perform an installation of the Insight Student on a client machine:
InsightInstallerStudent.exe /classid Class101 /adminPwd Password123 /sharedSecret superiorsiegeweapon /installbrowserextension /enableWebHistory /connectorServer insight.example.domain.com /suppressreboot
This command will install Insight with the following options:
The Class ID will be configured to be Class101.
The Administrator Password to protect the settings will be set to Password123.
The Security Token for the Enhanced Security will be set to superiorsiegeweapon.
The Browser extension will be installed on the client.
The option to capture web history will be enabled.
The Student will be configured to communicate with the Insight relay located at insight.example.domain.com.
The Reboot at the end of the install process will be suppressed.
As the command line installation does require passwords and other sensitive information to be potentially visible to persons who can see the command being run, it is recommended that the command line options not be saved in a batch file or other script format that can be directly accessed by end users.
Creating the Custom Application for Deployment
To create the custom application for deployment, log in to the Faronics Deploy console and navigate to the Control Grid > Applications view and click on Custom App > Create Custom App.
In the Set up Custom App dialog, enter a name for the custom in the Package Name. This can be any specific string that you like to identify the application, in our example, we will use Insight Student. Next, enter the URL or path to the installer package in the Setup Installer field. Finally provide the command line options that you decided on previously in the Install Command Line field.
Once the options are set, click Next.
Now you will see a list of systems available to install the software on. Pick one machine to perform the deployment on to allow Faronics Deploy to inventory the application after installation. Select a machine and click Next.
The screen will show the individual machine; click Install to begin the installation process. Then click Install a second time to confirm the installation on the client system. While the installation is in progress, you will see the status of the install process reflected on the screen.
Once completed, the version of the installed application and the name of the program as it was detected in the Programs and Features list will be shown. Verify this information is correct, and click Next to save the application to the Control Grid.
Once saved to the control grid, click the Custom Apps header in the grid to view the custom applications. To deploy the application, click on the appropriate grid square for the computer that you are installing to and then click the Install button at the top of the screen.
While installing, a status indicator will be shown and when complete, the version of the Insight Student application will be displayed in the control grid, and the client system will be displayed in the Teacher Console.
Appendix A - Insight Student Command Line Install Reference
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