Product retirement notice. IS Decisions announces the product retirement of RemoteExec. Here is how the end of life process and dates has been defined.

How to deploy SP1 for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 outside of office hours

RemoteExec can easily deploy the Windows 7/2008 R2 Service Pack 1. This can be useful if you have to update servers without an Internet connection or workstations with the Windows Update engine turned off.

Direct deployment

You can update your system directly following the 6 steps below. Before getting started, check to see if the Targets Computers are being used as this operation will consume resources and will require at least one reboot.

  1. Open RemoteExec and go to Remote Jobs/New Remote Job/Update installation through the Configuration tree.

    RemoteExec configuration tree

  2. In the first section Settings, browse to the Service Pack installation file in File field.
    RemoteExec will detect automatically the name, type, architecture and operating systems concerned. We advise you to keep the option Don’t reboot disabled1: this update needs at least one reboot to process fully. There is nothing else to set.

    RemoteExec settings

    1: The reboot will be initiated only if no session is open on the target computers. If a session is opened or locked, RemoteExec will notify the user through a popup inviting him to reboot the computer . If you want to force the reboot, you need to create a Multiple actions with first this Update installation and then a Reboot System action. Make sure that the following options are enables for this reboot: Force applications to close and Reboot only if needed.

  3. As you see below, the second section called Filter that RemoteExec automatically configures the required conditions. You can set additional filters such as the target OS level since this Service Pack can address both Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2.

    Filter

  4. Go to the Target Computers section and select the computers on which you want to deploy this Service Pack.

  5. You can now start your update by clicking on Launch

  6. The Progress window will open in a new tab to permit you to follow the remote operation process.


Schedule this update

The size of this new service pack needs to be taken in consideration for this operation:

  • 32 bits version: 537 MB
  • 64 bits version: 903 MB

The time taken for this deployment can fluctuate (depending on the target computer system and the bandwidth available) between 15 minutes to more than half an hour. As in every Windows Service Pack installation, hardware resources will be impacted. That is why we advise to schedule this operation during off business hours. In the example below, we have planned it for Sunday evening

  1. Follow the previous steps 1 to 4.

  2. Instead of launching the deployment directly, click in the Quick Access Pane on Schedule button.

  3. Enter a name on the Schedule Wizard for this new Task.

  4. Validate the new Task name and the Windows scheduler pop-up window will appear. Set the task to Once and choose the Start time settings. Validate by clicking OK. You will be prompted to set an administrative account for this Task.

    The RemoteExec Scheduler now displays our new scheduled job.

    RemoteExec scheduler


Want more?

In this example we have scheduled the SP1 update on Sunday evening. You can also schedule the results report of this deployment in order to find it into our mailbox2 Monday morning when coming back to work.

  1. Go to Reporter/Execution results through the Configuration tree.

  2. Set the Report as wanted. In the Time section, leave the Execution combo list to the last Execution done3.

  3. Click in the Quick Access Pane on Schedule button

  4. Select the Task we previously created and click OK.

    The Report will be added in the chosen Scheduled Task.

  5. In the Configuration Tree, go to the Scheduled Task.

  6. Select the Report node Execution results. The report configuration form will be displayed into the Central Window. Go to the Document Generation section and check the box for The first file to generate.

    Choose the path and format settings for the report.

  7. Click on Add notification in the Quick Access pane. It will be added just after the Execution results report into the Scheduled Task.

  8. Double click on the Notification line to display its parameters. Check the box Send documents by E-mail and fill in the different fields as needed.

    The report will be available in your email box when you will come back to work on Monday morning and you will be able to check if the SP1 deployment was successful.

    2 : The SMTP information used for the email expedition needs to be set in the Console Options available at the bottom of the Configuration tree.

    3 : When you schedule a report, if you select the latest execution, the report will always be generated for the latest execution.

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