1. NT Applications Support – Status and Future Developments
Christian Trachimow, DESY
11/30/2018
The DESY WindowsNT Group

2. The DESY WindowsNT Group
The Product
NetInstall 4.2 / 5 from InstallShield / NetSupport
more than 500,000 clients in Germany
cooperation with InstallShield for worldwide distribution
price: $18 / client
Technical highlights
“Software on demand”: This feature provides a synchronization between user part and workstation part. If a user launches an application for the first time, NetInstall checks, which part is missing and installs it
“Local security management”: All commands which needs administrative privileges are executed through a service without splitting installation script
11/30/2018
The DESY WindowsNT Group

3. Classification of Support
The Fully Controlled PC
positioned for task oriented user
Centrally installed, configured, maintained and managed
Full responsibility for the PCs
The User Configurable PC
positioned for sophisticated user
Centrally installed, locally configured and maintained
Partial responsibility: availability of services, applications, etc.
The non-maintained PC
if you think you need it, OK, but abide by the rules
no responsibility taken at all, “good NT-keeping” rules enforced
11/30/2018
The DESY WindowsNT Group

4. The DESY WindowsNT Group
The Yellow PC
User can be local administrator
PC is managed by user or group administrator
User can install all programs at his owns risk
NetInstall is just a AddOn Service
Basic Setup can be installed on every PC
installed applications are not affected
setup takes minutes
Application Service with NetInstall
Install and uninstall whatever you want
During installation the user is asked for a local path
When applications have to be updated the user is asked at logon if the update should be installed right now, at next logon or never
shared responsibility
11/30/2018
The DESY WindowsNT Group

5. The DESY WindowsNT Group
The Green PC
User is not allowed to be local administrator
only group administrators or domain admins are in administrators group
Basic setup has to be installed on plain PC
local security restrictions to OS (parts from the ZAK)
User can only install applications, which don´t override existing files
some tools cannot be used, e.g. regedit, Service Manager, ...
Application Service with NetInstall
Some applications are preinstalled
Install / uninstall with interactive installer whatever you want
every installation restricts the file access to the files which are installed
Updates are done automatically at logon, but user can delegate it to next logon
group admins or central services are fully responsible
11/30/2018
The DESY WindowsNT Group

6. The DESY WindowsNT Group
Status
The use of NetInstall Number of PCs
Red
NetInstall PCs
Green 18 %
Yellow 82 %
Total Number
Green PC
Hera controls (50), administration (80), other people (70)
3 NetInstall databases with 50 packages
Hamburg / Zeuthen / Hera Controls
11/30/2018
The DESY WindowsNT Group

7. The DESY WindowsNT Group
Support
Yellow PC
precondition: trust between users and service providers
user has control about updates (!!!)
application support is an AddOn service
widely accepted service
Green PC
centrally supported
no trust to the user (but to group administrator)
only accepted by some groups
important for public PCs
11/30/2018
The DESY WindowsNT Group

8. Psychological Aspects
What PC users said (and still say)
“This is my PC !” / “I need full control !” / “I need this application now!” / “You have to support me !”
PC is a universal tool that has a voice on the daily work
The key of success and the challenge was to loose the users distrust in central services ...
accusation: domination / dictate
... and to establish a group administrators structure
They are the natural speakers of their groups
They focus the needs of their users
Help us to keep users under controls / educate their users
11/30/2018
The DESY WindowsNT Group

9. The Role of Central Services
Democratization of the Desktop
The user has become more powerful and more independent than before the arrival of the PC. This must actually be seen as a good thing!
Service Provider
Central Services have to offer the user community services that it needs and that it wants to use. The services must be “sold” to the community.
Primus inter Pares
Central Services will remain an important service provider, but it will not remain the only one, or, for a given user, the most important one. The focus should be on services that a computing center excells in naturally.
Cooperative Computing
Rules, service designs and implementations have to be defined in close cooperation with the user groups. An important role in future will be as facilitator of services between local groups and as information broker.
11/30/2018
The DESY WindowsNT Group

10. Building Application Packages
Easy installation of local packages
1. Scan PC configuration
2. Install and configure application
3. Scan PC configuration again
4. Test the script
Green PC
find out which files and directories need write access
Shared installations
separate read only from write data, reengineer application
Do we need shared applications and Green PCs ?
NetInstall script
amount of time
11/30/2018
The DESY WindowsNT Group

11. Building Application Packages (cont.)
Configuring application
Needs expertise of application
Maintaining applications
problem: how to migrate user settings between different versions
Problems with special applications
IE4: setup is dynamic, more a operating system upgrade than an application
Office 2000: Installation with Windows Installer provides new functionality (installation on demand, auto check, ...). This functionality is lost when using a “static” NetInstall script.
11/30/2018
The DESY WindowsNT Group

12. Migration to NetInstall V5
Problems with NetInstall 4
synchronization between 3 sites / databases
replication of packages between 3 sites
test / production database are separated setups
laptop support
NetInstall 5 features
Multi-Database
Multi-Server support which includes
Load balancing / fail over
Replications
11/30/2018
The DESY WindowsNT Group

13. NetInstall 5 Site Structure
ORG - DESY
OU - DESY Hamburg
SITE - backoffice
SERVER A
SERVER B
OU - DESY Zeuthen
SERVER C
11/30/2018
The DESY WindowsNT Group

14. The DESY WindowsNT Group
NetInstall 5 at DESY
NetInstall 5 is used by “Hera Controls”
Each packages had to be migrated
Two servers hold packages for redunancy
Clients are migrated automatically
Migration of packages and databases in Hamburg and Zeuthen will start in October
Add features to standard behaviour
Every package builder gets own database
Laptop support
11/30/2018
The DESY WindowsNT Group

15. Application Support in the future - based on Windows Installer ?
Package contains information to install/uninstall an application
consists of .msi file and some source files / cabinet files
.msi consists of
Installation database
Summary information stream
Data stream
Packages organized around features and components
Feature:
Component:
11/30/2018
The DESY WindowsNT Group

16. Windows Installer Features
Installation mechanism
Installer (service) is instructed to install a feature
Installer queries database to generate installation script
Installation can be performed by a process with elevated privileges
Rollback: during installation a rollback script is generated
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Assigning
application appears to the user (shortcut)
Publishing
Application appears to other application (published to shell: installed by file accociation / MIME association)
11/30/2018
The DESY WindowsNT Group

17. Windows Installer Features
Installation on demand
User can call functionality in abscence of the files itself
Resiliency
Idea: recover gracefully from broken components
But: a set of API functions which has to be implemented by software  will be used only for vital components
Customization
databases can be merged or transformed
Will be used for patches / customization
 database contains a state description of the application
11/30/2018
The DESY WindowsNT Group

18. Example: Registry tables
11/30/2018
The DESY WindowsNT Group

19. Installing application with W2000
Applications will come with a description of the installation state (.msi database)
Less intallation problems / less inconsistencies
repackageing or reengeneering is not needed
Software management will be package oriented
Local as well as shared installations can be mixed
It will take time until the spirit of the Logo program reaches the programmers ( „Local security management“ / „Software on demand“)
During the next two years most software will come with „good“ databases
 Installation process itself and the consistency become less important
11/30/2018
The DESY WindowsNT Group

20. The DESY WindowsNT Group
Software distribution
Additional tool to is needed for
Configure / maintain versions !!!
Pakete erstellen, die kein .msi mitbringen
Anpassen
Patches
Migration / Pflege der Usereinstellungen
Policy based management not clear
Depends on the programs
Green PC is dead / Nice concept is dead
Think of functionality (define collections ...)
More degrees of freedom:
many features are availabe/ shared vs local / on demand vbs preinstalled
11/30/2018
The DESY WindowsNT Group

21. The DESY WindowsNT Group
11/30/2018
The DESY WindowsNT Group