To initiate the scheduler-based installation, follow the steps below:
Creating or provisioning network share
- Login to your Windows Server as an Administrator user.
- Open the Server Manager Console from the Administrative Tools menu.
- From the Server Manager Dashboard, select File and Storage Services.
- Open the Shares tab, click on Tasks and select New Share.
- On clicking, a "New Share Wizard" opens up. In the wizard, click on "Select Profile", select the option "SMB Share - Quick", then click Next.
- In the Shared Location tab, enter the file path to the shared folder for deploying the agent installer, and then click "Next".
- On the Specify share name tab, enter a name for your share. Enter a share description, if needed. The wizard will now automatically create the local and remote file paths in the share.
- After this, click Next to configure the settings.
- On the Configure Share Settings wizard page, accept the default options in Other Settings (Allow caching of share) and click "Next".
- On the "Specify Permission to control access" page, accept the default permissions and click Next.
- On the Confirm Selections page, review your selections, and then click Create. The new public share is now visible in the Shares pane.
- Now, right-click on the share and select Open Share.
- Download the OpManager Agent zip file from OpManager web console by navigating to Settings > Discovery > Deploy Agent. Extract the OpManagerAgent.msi and OPMAgentServerInfo.json files from the zip file and place them in the local directory.
NOTE: It is mandatory to download a fresh copy of the OpManagerAgent.zip file and use the files within it for the installation process.
- Also, download the script from this page Copy SHA256 and save it as InstallOPMAgent.vbs.
- Place OpManagerAgent.msi, OPMAgentServerInfo.json and InstallOPMAgent.vbs file in the share.
Note: Take a note of the full network path (not just the local path) as we will be using this later in the installation process.
Create a GPO to identify targets for deployment
- Open the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) by opening the Run window (Windows key + R) and typing gpmc.msc.
- After opening the GPMC, right-click on your target organizational unit (in our case, a domain), and select Create a GPO in this domain, and link it here option.
- Enter a name for the new GPO. For example, "OpManager_agent_install".
Note: By default, the GPO applies to all users and computers that successfully authenticate to the Active Directory domain that you selected.
- Once the new GPO is created, you can see it in the GPMC in the left navigation pane, under Group Policy Objects.
Note: You can modify the scope of computers to which the agent is deployed and installed by changing the Security Filtering values of the new GPO.
Creating a scheduled task to execute deployment and installation of our Agent
- Open the Group Policy Management Editor by right-clicking on the new GPO you created, and select Edit.
- In the editor navigation tree, under Computer Configuration, click Preferences → Control Panel Settings and then right-click on Scheduled Tasks.
- Now, click on New and select Immediate Task (At least Windows 7).
- This opens the New Task dialog box. Enter a name and a description (if needed).
- Under Security options, click the Change User or Group button.
- In the following dialog box, enter "system" in the text box, then click Check Names. Confirm that you have the correct values and click OK.
- Make sure that the system object resolves to the value "NT Authority\System," as shown in the Security Options group.
- Also ensure:
- that "Run whether user is logged on or not" is selected.
- that "Run with highest privileges" is selected.
- that "Configure for:" is set to Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008.
- Click on the Actions tab and then click New.
- In the New Action dialog box, set the action drop-down to Start a program. In the Program/script text box enter the network file path of the shared folder that you just created, along with the name of the script file.
- Provide the arguments, and provide the folder details in the 'Start in' field and click OK.
Program/script:
\\computer_name\<Shared_folder_name>\InstallOPMAgent.vbs
Add arguments:
OpManagerAgent.msi
Start in:
\\computer_name\<Shared_folder_name>\
- In the "Conditions" tab, select the checkbox for Start only if the following network connection is available, then select Any connection.
- Finally, click OK to initiate the agent installation. It might take some time to install the agent in all your devices.
- Finally, open the Inventory page and check if the selected devices have been added in OpManager.