duplication of installation on additional machines

[warren_scott]

I've got one machine that I have gone through and installed all the stuff that I want/need installed.

I now need to duplicate this installation of the set of (NI)software on several hundred additional machines.

I'm looking for a way to "dump existing installed items into a configuration" from my "golden" machine and then host this installer on a network shared drive that is accessible to all the systems, and then be able to launch the installation for each of the systems and have it run non-interactively (no prompts for additional downloads, accepting EULAs, etc) and not contact outside my network for additional updates, etc. (interpret this as user browses to and then double clicks on InstallMyNISoftware.bat and walks away)

It looks like I can maybe get there by using nipkg list-installed or nipkg info-installed and then wading through all those and building my own set of feeds hosted at my desired location, and then installing ni package manager on the target systems and then 1 by 1 having package manager install those items found in the earlier list.    This seems overly complicated, is there a better way to do this, or is this what I need to do?  Is there a better way?

Thanks

[Scott_Richardson · Accepted solution]

Hey Warren -

Using a "builder", like NI Package Builder, you can create a virtual package that includes all the installed visible packages as dependencies that you want to be included, and then build an installer, or feed/repository that includes the package. Doing the above with NIPKG is likely also possible.

[GreyGrey]

SystemLink has the ability to create states, which allows you to capture all of the packages that the system has installed on it. You then can apply that state to other managed systems as long as they're of the same architecture (Windows vs Linux RT).

[andre.buurman@carya]

Hi Brandon,

In case of state-replication would you recommend that the new system only has the SL client package installed from MAX, or does SL make sure it only has the packages as defined by state when it is finished?

[GreyGrey]

I assume you are talking about Linux RT, and in that case, it should only have the SystemLink Client installed from NI MAX. SystemLink does not have a way to detect software installed through NI MAX, and when a state is applied, will not touch anything installed via NI MAX. 

If using SystemLink for systems management on Linux RT targets, you should only use SystemLink for the deployment of software and should not be installing software via NI MAX. The only exception to this is the SystemLink Client package, however with 19.0, you have the ability to format Linux RT targets to the SystemLink base image which will also work. 

[warren_scott]

After a quick pass through NI package builder, I think this will work for me once I finish reading through the documentation and get the first few failed attempts out of the way. -- Thanks.

For other information, at this point my environment is entirely Windows based clients.  SystemLink is being considered in the future for other things, but is not going to be part of the installation solution based on the cost.  The YEARLY licensing cost for standing up these clients under SystemLink is multiples more than it would cost us in salary to pay people to do the installations manually.

[ryan_sheppard]

---

@warren_scott wrote:

After a quick pass through NI package builder, I think this will work for me once I finish reading through the documentation and get the first few failed attempts out of the way. -- Thanks.

For other information, at this point my environment is entirely Windows based clients.  SystemLink is being considered in the future for other things, but is not going to be part of the installation solution based on the cost.  The YEARLY licensing cost for standing up these clients under SystemLink is multiples more than it would cost us in salary to pay people to do the installations manually.

---

You would be surprised how much cost adds up if you push updates often, I am in the process of creating a business case for SystemLink at my company. The time savings with SystemLink will be more than enough to cover the yearly cost. And that doesn't take into account all the other benefits of SystemLink.

[warren_scott]

Following up on this:  NI Package Builder came through for me on this.  Thanks.

[APena]

Hi warren_scott,

Can you share how you are using NI Package Builder and how it has worked for you in this case? I'd be curious to understand the part of the product and the strategies you are employing. Thanks.

Aaron Peña

Product Owner, Package and License Management

National Instruments