need program deployment (GPO) suggestion... Not how to but more of a best practice.
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The application in question is Adobe Acrobat/Reader 11.
We have limited license of Adobe Acrobat XI so we can only deploy to xx amount of users. I have a list of users who will get it each month. Yes, each month. Reason is we as a recruiting agency have a team-based gameplan. Each month different person will be appoint a team-lead for those team to train leadership, which is awesome IMO. Problem is only team leads will get Adobe Acrobat and the rest will get Reader.Our agents use Acrobat for compiling PDFs, rotate, watermark, etc. Everyone has either Adobe PDF printer or PDFcreator to convert office/gdoc to PDF. Hope this explain WHY
We do not have any plan to purchase more licenses, nor the will to do so. Right now every month I have to wander around and uninstall/install Acrobat on various machines... about 10 PC (5 team) per month. 5 uninstall + 5 install.
I want to implement a solution through GPO (we don't have PDQ Pros so that's out of the question) where I only need to assign member to each profile to trigger installation of Adobe Acrobat, and uninstall when it falls out of scope. However, I heard that Adobe is picky and can corrupt various registry if use GPO and central deployment folder(thingy).
Suggestion?
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WOW! what a nightmare!
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@Dashrender said in need program deployment (GPO) suggestion... Not how to but more of a best practice.:
WOW! what a nightmare!
Not that bad. Luckily we only have one floor. But after a while it become a boring
I want to push GPO for acrobat per security group, but not sure if it's a good idea or ticking bomb.
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It is a nightmare though - changing who has software on a monthly basis. I've never heard of such a thing. Doesn't mean people don't do it, I've just never heard of it before.
This would be like saying, I have 50 employees, but only the manager of each team needs Office, oh and that manager it changing every 30 days.. so you need to move Office to a new PC every 30 days.. that just sounds crazy to me!
What a colossal waste of time. I suppose if you can automate it - I suppose it could work, but you'll want damned good auditing to show that it never is overlapping. Plus Adobe doesn't release a license until it's removed from the old machine first before being installed onto the new one (or so I understand).
Perhaps there's a cheaper PDF creator software out there that you can just deploy everywhere.
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Why don't you just look into free editors this is just insane
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@Jason said in need program deployment (GPO) suggestion... Not how to but more of a best practice.:
Why don't you just look into free editors this is just insane
Because "they" want to use what we already have.
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@LAH3385 said in [need program deployment (GPO) suggestion... Not how to but more
Because "they" want to use what we already have.
But, you don't really have it if you have to keep moving it around. I would not be surprised if this is a violation of the license as well.
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What if the leader has a leader computer? - then you don't have to move software, just users
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@aaronstuder said in need program deployment (GPO) suggestion... Not how to but more of a best practice.:
What if the leader has a leader computer? - then you don't have to move software, just users
I wish it is that easy, but unfortunately no.
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Well, if you're still keen on using GPO, you can set it to uninstall the software when the GPO is no longer applied.
Apply it to an OU of users and shuffle the people reside in that OU every month...
or
Apply it to a specific security group (instead of Authenticated users) and adjust the membership every month.
(OU/Group adjustment made on Friday arvo, applied when they boot on Monday) -
@aaronstuder said:
What if the leader has a leader computer? - then you don't have to move software, just users
Why did this get down voted? It's a legitimate question.
Also, it's probably more compliant with licensing. -
@nadnerB said in need program deployment (GPO) suggestion... Not how to but more of a best practice.:
Well, if you're still keen on using GPO, you can set it to uninstall the software when the GPO is no longer applied.
Apply it to an OU of users and shuffle the people reside in that OU every month...
or
Apply it to a specific security group (instead of Authenticated users) and adjust the membership every month.
(OU/Group adjustment made on Friday arvo, applied when they boot on Monday)Keep in mind an uninstall Isn't enough and It needs to be deactivated..
Also Adobe Acrobat breaks a lot with GPOs. Especially if you do an uninstall.
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Why not setup an RDS server, get 10 RDS CALs. Configure Adobe Acrobat as a remote app. Lock the RDS users down to a security group. Change users of said security group every 30 days.
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@Jason said in need program deployment (GPO) suggestion... Not how to but more of a best practice.:
Why not setup an RDS server, get 10 RDS CALs. Configure Adobe Acrobat as a remote app. Lock the RDS users down to a security group. Change users of said security group every 30 days.
Unless you're changing the computers as well, this won't work. At this level RDS is licensed to the machine/device. So if it's moving PC to PC, he'd need 50 RDS CALs, plus the server license. 40 more Adobe Acrobat licenses would be cheaper.
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@Dashrender said
Unless you're changing the computers as well, this won't work. At this level RDS is licensed to the machine/device. So if it's moving PC to PC, he'd need 50 RDS CALs, plus the server license. 40 more Adobe Acrobat licenses would be cheaper.
Not sure where you get that. RDS is device or user. The license server for RDS has no cost. RDS CALs can be reassigned once expired.
RDS user CALs are about $100. Adobe Acrobat pro is about $500 each
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@Jason said in need program deployment (GPO) suggestion... Not how to but more of a best practice.:
@Dashrender said
Unless you're changing the computers as well, this won't work. At this level RDS is licensed to the machine/device. So if it's moving PC to PC, he'd need 50 RDS CALs, plus the server license. 40 more Adobe Acrobat licenses would be cheaper.
Not sure where you get that. RDS is device or user. The license server for RDS has no cost. RDS CALs can be reassigned once expired.
RDS user CALs are about $100. Adobe Acrobat pro is about $500 each
It must be a different User CAL that can't be purchased under 200 or 250 users. I can't find anything in a fast search about this specifically.
True the RDS license server is free, but the Windows Server you'll install Adobe Acrobat on isn't - it's $800+.
As for reassigning the licenses:
In Per User or Per Device mode, a separate TS CAL is required for each user or device that accesses or uses the server software on any server. You may reassign a TS CAL from one device to another device, or from one user to another user, provided the reassignment is made either (a) permanently away from the one device or user or (b) temporarily to accommodate the use of the TS CAL either by a loaner device, while a permanent device is out of service, or by a temporary worker, while a regular employee is absent.
Moving these licenses monthly surely wouldn't be considered permanently away. On top of that, even if it was OK to move them, the licenses only release from their previous user after 60 days of non use, so the monthly change would require at least two full sets of RDS licenses, and the change would take place on the 61 day, not the 60th.Holy hell, Adobe Acrobat normal is $299. Damn that's expensive! Let alone Pro.