SMS: Useful...stuff

Here's a few useful things to note when deploying packages:

- Use "CMD.EXE /C" in front your command to run it from the command prompt.

- Need to apply a patch to an application that you are deploying, but need a reboot in between? Try creating 2 advertisements, one for the main application and one for the patch. Set the main application install to run as soon as possible and set the patch to run at Logon. The machine will not receive the second advertisement until after they next log on to their machine.

- When deploying an MSI file use the ‘Create package from definition’ option. This will create attended and unattended installation programs, as well as an uninstall program.

- Good practice: Build an uninstall program for your package when you build the install program. You’ll thank yourself later when you don’t have to spend a few hours testing the install and determining the best route to uninstall.

- Suppress the annoying reboot notification box that still appears after a patch installation, even though the reboot has been suppressed with this command: net stop wuauserv

- A word on patches. In the event that your environment has a large number of individual patch packages with individual advertisements, try rolling all the patches into a single package with a single advertisements. The reason? The patch management system in SMS is intelligent enough to roll numerous patches into a single install. So in effect, if you have 15 patches in 15 packages with 15 associated advertisements, new clients in the environment are going to experience quite a bit of processing overhead b/c of those advertisements. Take those 15 patches and roll them into a single package with a single advertisement, and clients will install the patches faster and experience less of a slow-down.