An administrator can use the Distribution Manager to control distribution of INFOConnect installations and patches from MCS. After a Windows Installer file (.MSI, .MS, or .MST) is uploaded from the client to MCS using the Distribution Publisher utility, the administrator can use the New Distribution wizard to create a distribution.
You can also get predefined distributions by installing distributable .MSI files from the INFOConnect Emulation Options CD when you install MCS. For details, see the Installation section.
A distribution contains information about the product installation or patch, such as the name of the Windows Installer file, the product version, the access code, and whether a patch will be automatically downloaded to the user. The Distribution Manager is also used to copy, rename, delete, or edit a distribution.
In addition to INFOConnect installations and patches, Distribution Manager can be used to distribute an executable file published to MCS by the Distribution Publisher utility.
End users on your network can download distributed files by accessing the Products and Updates page. You can send them the URL (http://servername:portnumber/mcs/distribute), or they can choose Update INFOConnect from the Help menu when they have an open INFOConnect session.
From the Products and Updates page, users can see which distributions have been assigned to them, and they can install or remove installations, install patches, or run executables, depending on the type of distribution.
For executable distributions, clicking on Run results in the file downloading to the client and executing. The .exe file will be saved to the following location:
drive_letter\Documents and Settings\Attachmate\Documents\filename_without_extension\
If you are creating a distribution for a product installation, you must select a Windows Installer file (.MSI, .MS, or .MST), and you may also select a transform file (.MST) or patch (.MSP). If a product and patch will be distributed together in the distribution, the patch will run after the product install. It is the distribution (not the product or patch) that appears in the Products and Updates page. As a result, the Products and Updates page will only show that the distribution is "installed" if both the product and patch have installed successfully.
To see which files are included in a distribution, use the Properties button in Distribution Manager.
If you are creating a distribution for a product update or patch, you must select a Windows patch file (.MSP). You can make patches available on the Products & Updates page, or push them out to users. Also, by selecting the Silent Install check box, you make the patch run on the user's computer without any user intervention required.
To see which options were selected for distribution, use the Properties button in Distribution Manager.
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Managing INFOConnect |
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Distributing Installations from MCS |
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Installation Overview |
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Publishing Installations to MCS |
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Assigning a Configuration or Distribution to Users |
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