7 replies to this topic

[Veratyr]

I'm in an environment where I build new pc's all day and manage many more. I miss the oldschool AP, as i would just deploy the exe and a macro script out to all the computers and schedule it to run. Not that simple anymore.

My suggestion, is to have an autopatcher server software, that downloads all the updates from microsoft (i like that idea better than the old way; always up to date), and then hosts them via a folder share or ftp or something.

In the client, would be relatively small, and would check the local server rather than microsoft for its updates saving ungodly amounts of bandwith in my situation, plus it would be quicker for people who need to do several pc's at a time.

this would rule

edit:
before anybody says anything, SMS server is not an option for our setup here. (which is why I use AP)

Edited by Veratyr, 27 March 2008 - 03:51 PM.

[nitred]

 Veratyr, on Mar 27 2008, 04:37 PM, said:

My suggestion, is to have an autopatcher server software, that downloads all the updates from microsoft (i like that idea better than the old way; always up to date), and then hosts them via a folder share or ftp or something.

In the client, would be relatively small, and would check the local server rather than microsoft for its updates saving ungodly amounts of bandwith in my situation, plus it would be quicker for people who need to do several pc's at a time.

Just on top of my mind: Isn't that the reason Microsoft stopped the older autopatcher? Cuz then Autopatcher would be distributing Windows updates and Windows didn't like that...

[darthyoda6]

Why can't you do it the old way? All apup does is download the software to your computer, then you use autopatcher like normal. If you want it as an installable exe, you can always build one yourself.

[nitred]

 darthyoda6, on Mar 27 2008, 07:26 PM, said:

Why can't you do it the old way? All apup does is download the software to your computer, then you use autopatcher like normal

The way I see it:
In the old way you downloaded updates from Autopatcher which weren't approved of by Microsoft. That's why they shut the old autopatcher down
Now, apup is just a glorified download manager. You still download from the Microsoft servers (and thus bypassing the restrictions Microsoft laid upon the old autopatcher) but you have then an easy way of updating all your other pcs(by using autopatcher.exe) and so sparing bandwith and time.

The end result is the same but you do nothing that Microsoft can disapprove off

Edit: referral to autopatcher.exe

Edited by nitred, 28 March 2008 - 12:41 PM.

[Veratyr]

When the dev team releases AP, it does not come with any patches from microsoft, taking responsibility off autopatcher and therefore legal. By having it download directly from microsoft its legit.

The way its setup now, is for one computer to download all the patches on its own, its not a small easy to distribute file; which is fine, cant do that anymore because of MS. But by having server software that comes without any patches, downloads them after you install it, then you have a centralized place to get your patches from thats on your local network, meaning when i send out patches to 30 computers, it only needs to download them once.

Right now, I made a directory with apup and 2k3 patches, and one for xp32 patches, and copying the whole directory out. Its messy but it works and for beta cant complain too much.

The server/client setup would be availible along with the normal standalone on the download page.

One thing i'd like to add though, is the client, I'm really liking the no installer, much easier to manage on a number of pcs.

ANOTHER IDEA: just thought of, command line control. hell with that, could set it up to automatically distribute the whole directory to each pc, and then deploy a batch file to run, If it had that, i could live without a server/client platform.

Just ideas to make the final release better

[Cyrus]

 Veratyr, on Mar 29 2008, 09:30 AM, said:

The way its setup now, is for one computer to download all the patches on its own, its not a small easy to distribute file; which is fine, cant do that anymore because of MS.

ANOTHER IDEA: just thought of, command line control. hell with that, could set it up to automatically distribute the whole directory to each pc, and then deploy a batch file to run.

There are a number of things you could do here. First, you can build one large executable by using the autopatcher installer. I fogot where I saw it but I know it exists. As a better alternative, you could set up file sync software on all of the computers on the network and have them keep an AutoPatcher folder updated to your server machine. If you need to do this over the internet, use Microsoft (never thought I'd say that) FolderShare. If you can do it over a LAN, use FolderClone (30 day trial, 30 USD to buy, but worth it) on the computer which downloads updates through apup to distribute them to the rest of the computers on the network.

[rhogue]

 Cyrus, on Mar 30 2008, 05:37 PM, said:

There are a number of things you could do here. First, you can build one large executable by using the autopatcher installer. I fogot where I saw it but I know it exists. As a better alternative, you could set up file sync software on all of the computers on the network and have them keep an AutoPatcher folder updated to your server machine. If you need to do this over the internet, use Microsoft (never thought I'd say that) FolderShare. If you can do it over a LAN, use FolderClone (30 day trial, 30 USD to buy, but worth it) on the computer which downloads updates through apup to distribute them to the rest of the computers on the network.

Can't you install autopatcher.exe and associated files on a shared directory on the server. Run apup.exe in that directory to update. Connect to the share and run autopatcher.exe with command line arguments to automaically update.

Or would that violate the Microsoft Policies on distributing the updates?

[Cyrus]

I tried that, but the application failed to run from the server, it wanted to be on the local computer. It could just be my setup (I didn't try to diagnose the problem) but FolderCLone works great for me because I don't even need to do anything other than a one-time settup on the client computers, just share a folder for AP and set a scheduled task. I then pass the latest updates and answer files to all clients automatically from the one server (actually just a desktop computer in my case) and all updates are installed without going to all 300+ computers!