Ninite Alternative
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@Aaron-Studer Oh duh. I'm thinking of something else. I was going to set up an update server, now I can't even remember what it's called! SMH Mommy brain.
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@Dashrender said:
I guess I need to learn scripting if I want to deploy packages using Cholatey.
Not really, there is only a handful of commands.
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Ninite is unbelievably simple. so $300 a year for 100 devices (WHY do I have to have 110?) I'm not sure it's worth dealing with any scripting.
That being said if I can't get management to give me the $300/yr I would want to use Chocolately at the full network level - it seems that it's more geared toward the end user use. So scripts will be needed to PSExec Chocolately on the machines and get reports.
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@Dashrender said:
I guess I need to learn scripting if I want to deploy packages using Cholatey.
cinst javaruntime
Doesn't require any scripting. Doesn't get any simpler
Update a whole system: cup all
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@Dashrender said:
Ninite is unbelievably simple. so $300 a year for 100 devices (WHY do I have to have 110?) I'm not sure it's worth dealing with any scripting.
One line is hardly scripting. Even updating every machine in the org can be done with a single command (a for loop).
It really doesn't get simpler.
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@Dashrender said:
That being said if I can't get management to give me the $300/yr I would want to use Chocolately at the full network level - it seems that it's more geared toward the end user use. So scripts will be needed to PSExec Chocolately on the machines and get reports.
Actually the opposite. It is geared towards enterprise UNIX admins and away from end users. It is effectively a Windows version of how the entire rest of the industry has handled software for decades and lacking it has been one of the key "mocking points" about how archaic and cumbersome Windows is.
Ninite with a GUI on the clients is end user focused. Chocolatey moves back to the command line so that you can install with interrupting the user, without a heavyweight network connection, etc.
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I'm a complete scripting NOOB... so a little help in what is needed would be cool.
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@Dashrender said:
I'm a complete scripting NOOB... so a little help in what is needed would be cool.
What do you want to accomplish? I provided install and update examples above.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
I'm a complete scripting NOOB... so a little help in what is needed would be cool.
What do you want to accomplish? I provided install and update examples above.
for a single workstation, what do you do with that for the entire network?
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@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
I'm a complete scripting NOOB... so a little help in what is needed would be cool.
What do you want to accomplish? I provided install and update examples above.
for a single workstation, what do you do with that for the entire network?
The most likely thing that you would do is put in a scheduled job for updates so that each machine updates itself weekly or so. That's the super easy way. Takes no special skills.
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A really simple script approach would be like this:
for %i in (desktop1 desktop2 desktop3) do PsExec.exe \%i cup all
That one line is all that you need. Just fill in the list of machines that you want to update in the paranthesis and you are good to go. You can make it more advanced by filling in that portion from a text file or whatever. But the basics are very simple. It's not really scripting, just a single statement that does everything. This command is the "cup all" which is the universal update command. All packages would be updated on every system.
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Similarly if you wanted to install the Java Runtime (JRE) on every machine you would do this command:
for %i in (desktop1 desktop2 desktop3) do PsExec.exe \%i cinst javaruntime
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I presume you have to provide credentials assuming your user is not a local admin.?
Ive never used psexecute before.
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@Dashrender said:
I presume you have to provide credentials assuming your user is not a local admin.?
Ive never used psexecute before.
psexec is awesome. If you are on a domain it, just works.
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I made an article about Chocolatey too: http://www.scottalanmiller.com/windows/2014/03/15/open-source-command-line-package-management-tool/
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And I wrote a guide to automating Chocolatey with PsExec: http://www.scottalanmiller.com/windows/2014/03/15/automating-chocolatey-with-psexec/
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Can you use chocolaty in a workgroup environment where there is a standard local user & common password?
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Can you set the chocolatey program to use a specific network share for the repository, instead of connecting to the same website on every machine? This would be really useful on networks behind firewalls with no internet access or really poor internet connectivity.
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Would it be possible to get Chocolatey to output it's results to a log file or somehow report on the progress / result of the update / install? It would be good to know for sure what programs got updated, or more importantly if any of the updates failed.
