windows

http://www.mail-archive.com/unattended-devel@lists.sourceforge.net/msg02101.html

http://driverpacks.net/driverpacks/latest shows the latest versions of the DriverPacks.

Download the latest packs:

wget http://downloads.driverpacks.net/xp/x86/DP_Chipset_wnt5_x86-32_902.7z
wget http://downloads.driverpacks.net/xp/x86/DP_CPU_wnt5_x86-32_804.7z
wget http://downloads.driverpacks.net/xp/x86/DP_Graphics_A_wnt5_x86-32_906.7z
wget http://downloads.driverpacks.net/xp/x86/DP_Graphics_B_wnt5_x86-32_906.7z


Linux

Get the latest version of the server RPM from VMware's download page. At the time of writing, the latest version was 1.0.4:

Install the RPM:

Configure the software for your running kernel:

Management Console




Designing a Distribution Share

File Mangling

After getting the machines installed, i found that there were a variety of Windows XP patches missing from the Unattended scripts.

Download details for Windows patches can be obtained from the Update Lists of the Windows Update Downloader (WUD) program.

TextWrangler grep patterns
Find/replace patterns used in TextWrangler to convert the WUD list to Unattended .bat script format:
Find Pattern:

\t\t


These instructions are basically my adjustments to Unattended's step-by-step guide.

1. Create a directory for the install files
   
   cd <where you are going to put things>
mkdir unattended
cd uattended
2. Download Unattended
   • Zip file download

One thing I really appreciate about Macs and OS X is managing hardware drivers. Well, more that you generally DON'T have to manage it. Just pop in the OS X disc, install the OS onto the computer and that's it - you don't have to spend hours finding and installing a multitude of drivers for whatever hardware options that particular PC has.

With the addition of 22 Wintel desktops and laptops to an existing infrastructure of Windows XP and MacOS workstations, I figured it was worthwhile to see if it was possible to make managing the deployment and ongoing support of Windows workstations as easy as it was for the Macs.

http://alufis35.uv.es/OCS-Inventory-Package-deployment.html

Install the Apache SSL components:

A server.crt file is automatically created for your server in /etc/httpd/conf/ssl.crt/server.crt. That file needs to be copied to C:\Program Files\OCS Inventory Agent\cacert.pem. A login script that will do that is:

@echo off
REM Check if CA file exists
if exist "C:\Program Files\OCS Inventory Agent\cacert.pem" goto CA_END
REM CA file does not exist, install it


The Windows agent can be downloaded from here.

Once downloaded, unzip the archive. Then run the OcsAgentSetup program. The installer allows you to specify your server options and then installs the agent as a Windows service.

I noticed that the agent doesn't necessarily contact the server right away - it seems to wait until the machine's scheduled update time, which could be hours from when you install it. Force the agent to contact the server right away with: