Bulk Installation of Vembu Clients

Bulk Installation of Vembu Clients

MSI Client installation in multiple machines under the same network can be automated through GPO(Group Policy Object). Please follow the below steps to do it.

Steps to push MSI through GPO

Step 1: Download the MSI client builds

Download the latest client build - here

Step 2: Copy MSI file to a shared folder

  1. Copy the downloaded MSI file to a newly created folder and share the folder via right-click over the folder ? ‘Share with’ ? ‘Specific People’.

  2. Type ‘Domain Computers’ in the search box and give read permissions for ‘Domain Computers’ account and click ‘Share’.

Step 3: Open or Install Group Policy Management

  1. To open Group Policy Management, go to: ‘Start ? Administrative Tools ? Group Policy Management’.

  2. To install Group Policy Management, open command prompt with administrative privileges and type the below command:

ServerManagerCmd -install gpmc

  1. Once installed, open Group Policy Management as described above.

Step 4: Go to existing policies and create a new GPO

  1. Navigate to ‘Domains’ ? ‘YOURDOMAIN’ ? ‘Group Policy Objects’.

  2. Click Action ? New and provide a name for GPO to be created.

  3. Once created, it'll be listed under ‘Group Policy Objects’.

  4. Click on the new GPO you created in the navigation pane.

  5. On Right Pane, a box titled ‘Security Filtering’ can be found under ‘Scope’ tab.

  6. Click ‘Authenticated Users’ under ‘Security Filtering’ and click ‘Remove’.

Information Note:

This is to ensure the policy is applied to a specific set of users(as mentioned in below step) 

  1. Now click ‘Add’ and under ‘Select User, Computer, or Group’ Dialog Box, provide specific computer names or usernames you want the GPO to be applied.

Step 5: Add MSI builds

  1. Right-click on the newly created GPO and click ‘Edit’.

  2. ‘Group Policy Management Editor’ dialog box will open, navigate to ‘Computer Configuration’ ? ‘Policies’ ? ‘Software Settings’ ? ‘Software Installations’ in the navigation pane.

  3. Right-click over empty pane on right and go to ‘New’ ? ‘Software Package’.

  4. In the window that pops up, navigate to the share created earlier(Under Step 2) and select MSI clients.

  5. Click the ‘Assigned’ bubble and click OK.

Step 6: Deploying MSI Guide

Follow steps in below user guide for deploying, redeploying and removing MSI on target machines:

  https://www.advancedinstaller.com/user-guide/tutorial-gpo.html

Information Note:

  • This will work only when the Windows Server you run and target workstations are in the same domain.

  • In addition, you need to install Group Policy Management feature in server manager.

  • This works only for MSI files and not for EXE or any other installer types.