Silent update?
Is it possible in any way, to run a silent update?
I磎 testing a new version of Deep Freeze, where i can turn off Deep Freeze, through a wake on lan, for opdates (windows, anti virus program, adobe reader, java and so on), but i cant figure out how to get java updates without user interference.
There is about 800 computers in the network I磎 administrating, so I would really like it if it磗 possible to make java updates through wake on lan.
os: Win 2000, Win XP
java: Version 1.5.0 (build 1.5.0_09-b03)
Thanks in advance
Martin
[571 byte] By [
datameka] at [2007-10-3 8:07:21]
There is a silent install switch on the installer, one of my network guys recently packaged up the SUN JRE 1.4.2_6 so that we can silently deploy it to our SMS clients.
Thanks for your reply.
I have figured out how to make a silent installation of Java. It磗 pretty easy to be honest, but the thing is; We are using some programs wich are Java based, and everytime there are updates for java, our programs stop working until we have updated our java RE on each computer.
I was hoping it would be possible to make some kind of automated silent update that could be activated through a batch job, just as the installer.
Otherwise I will have to watch java.com every day for updates. Download the new version of the offline installer. Make a new batch file for deploying the new java to the clients.
Anyway. Thanks again for your reply.
Martin
You may be in luck, as there is already an auto-update engine built into the JRE. If you click the java icon in the control panel, then click on the updates tab, click check for updates automatically, click the advanced button and you can tell you clients to check every day then they will get the new JRE immediately, obivously this would need to be on every client setup the same way though.
Thats true. There is an auto-update function in Java, but it prompts the user for an action (press the OK button or simular).
My plan was to run these updates at night when no one is at work or using the computers.
The new Deep Freeze I磎 testing, can be set to allow updates at a certin hour (like 3 a.m.).
Don磘 get me wrong. I love my job, but not enough to get out of bed at 3 a.m. to go and press 800 OK buttons :)
Martin
That's fair enough, I see where you are coming from now....
To be honest, based on my expereince with JRE's this year, the last thing I want it the users getting new versions at all, as I want to test my apps and effectively certify them against version 1.x.x.x, and then not take any new versions of the JRE until I really have to.
Therefore, in my automated deploment kit, I got some settings built in to disable the update tab, so that the users will not get any automatic JRE udpates until we decide that we want everyone to move on together....
I磛e removed the update tab aswell. There磗 no need for it to be active when I can silently deploy java with the settings I want.
As for the users getting the newest version of java when it is released, I haven磘 got the option not to give them.
We are a larger school in Denmark, and we are part of a testing project launched by the danish government, where students and teachers can share information online on a java based homepage (timetable, essays and such), and the company hosting this homepage, is extremely fast to update the page everytime java has a new update. This puts stress on us, because we have to update JRE on our computers for that homepage to work again, and lately there has been a lot of updates for java, so we are eager to figure out how to automate java update to take some of the stress away.
Martin
I would speak to the people hosting the applicaiton as they should be working with you to ease the support and manageability of the users of the application.
I could be wrong, but I thought that there are some application server settings that can be made prior to the application launching that look on the client for a particular version of the JRE, and if it is not there, then it automatically downloads and installs it.
If they are changing versions every couple of weeks, then they should make the deployment and updates seamless, and not give system administrators in the user base sleepless nights on how to keep up with constantly changing requirements.
Just my thoughts ......
I agree with you completly. The support from the hosting company leaves us with more questions than answers, but I hope it will get better when we are done with this testing period.
I haven磘 really been looking into an application server, to be honest, but perhaps thats the way to get around this problem.
Thank you for helping me out.
Martin
