With the command-line installer and optional parameters (described in Command-line installer for Windows agents below), you can use Microsoft Group Policy to deploy mass agent installations. See the Microsoft Group Policy documentation for details on downloading and using the Group Policy software.
To deploy the Windows agent by using Group Policy
| 1 | An Active Directory domain is needed. Begin by creating a new Group Policy Object (see Microsoft documentation for details). |
| 2 | When the object has been created, select and edit it. If using the Group Policy Management Console, this action invokes the Group Policy Object Editor. |
| 3 | Determine whether the Group Policy Object will be a computer configuration or a user configuration. Depending on the configuration selected, expand the Software Settings folder and select the Software Installation option. |
| 4 | Right-click Software Installation, point to New, and then click Package. |
| 5 | In the Open dialog box, type the full Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path of the shared installer package. For example: |
\\fileserver\share\fileName.msi
Important! Do not use the Browse button to access the location. Make sure to type in the UNC path to the shared installer package.
| 6 | Click Open. |
| 7 | Click Assigned, and then click OK. The package is listed in the right pane of the Group Policy window. |
| 8 | Close the Group Policy snap-in, click OK, and then quit the Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in. |
| 9 | Link the Group Policy Object to the domain by dragging the object to the domain name. |
| 10 | Double click the Group Policy Object name to add computers or users to the object. |
| • | If the computer configuration was selected, the agent will be installed on the specified computers when the computers are restarted. |
| • | If the user configuration was selected, the agent will be installed on any computer in the domain where the specified users log in to the domain. |
| • | Once installed, an entry for the application displays in the Add/Remove Programs interface of the Microsoft Windows operating system. |
| 11 | For assets running Windows Vista and earlier operating systems, reboot the asset. (A reboot is not required for newer operating systems.) |
Command-line installer for Windows agents
With the command-line installer, you can install, remove, and repair the Windows agent. This method installs the following:
| • | The Windows core agent. |
| • | The Windows Volume CBT driver (used to enable incremental image-level backups). To enable the Volume CBT driver, you must reboot the Windows server after the agent has been installed. |
| • | For Hyper-V servers or Windows servers with the Hyper-V role enabled, the Hyper-V CBT driver is installed. This driver is used for faster Hyper-V incremental backups. (You do not need to reboot to enable this driver.) |
| • | For Microsoft SQL and Exchange servers, SQL and Exchange components are installed. You can then run application backups to protect these databases. For more information, see Exchange backup requirements and considerations and SQL backup requirements and considerations. |
The agent installer utilizes the msiexec command to manage the Windows agent from the command line. However, not all of the msiexec default parameters are supported with the installer. The following msiexec parameters are available:
/I - Installs and updates the software.
/f - Repairs the software.
/uninstall - Removes the software.
/quiet - Installs software in quiet mode with no user interaction.
/l* - Enables logging.
FORCE_BOOT - If set to True, restarts the Windows machine after installing the agent. If set to False, does not restart after installing the agent.
The following table describes the optional command-line parameters. These parameters are case sensitive and must be entered in upper case on the command line. The values specified for the parameter are not case sensitive. These options can also be used in conjunction with Microsoft’s Group Policy methodology to deploy mass agent installations.
|
Parameter name |
Parameter value |
Default value |
|---|---|---|
|
USNAPS |
True | False |
False |
|
BARE_METAL |
True | False |
True |
|
REMOTE_ADMIN |
True | False |
True |
|
ODM |
True | False |
True |
|
SQL_AGENT |
True | False |
True if SQL Server is installed on the asset, otherwise False. |
|
EXCHANGE_AGENT |
True | False |
True if Microsoft Exchange server is installed on the asset, otherwise False. |
|
INSTALLDIR |
|
"C:\PCBP" Note: Directory name must not contain spaces and must be enclosed in double quotes. |
|
IP |
|
127.0.0.1 |
|
FIREWALL |
True | False |
False |
Following are Windows agent installer command-line examples:
| • | Example 1 — Install Unitrends_Agentx64.msi with default values, where<Deploy> is the path of the downloaded agent: |
msiexec /i "C:\<Deploy>\Unitrends_Agentx64.msi"
| • | Example 2 — Install Unitrends_Agentx64.msi with default values and turn on logging, where<Deploy> is the path of the downloaded agent and C:\temp\Unitrends.log is the path of the log file named Unitrends.log: |
msiexec /quiet /l* "C:\temp\Unitrends.log" /i "C:\<Deploy>\Unitrends_Agentx64.msi"
| • | Example 3 — Uninstall Unitrends_Agentx64.msi, where<Deploy> is the path of the downloaded agent: |
msiexec /quiet /uninstall "C:\<Deploy>\Unitrends_Agentx64.msi"