How To Create, Manage, and Deploy an Application
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Step 1:

Choose an application to deploy! For this guide, we will be using Chrome.

If you’d like to use Chrome as well, please go to this website: Download bundle – Google Chrome Enterprise Help and download the 64 bit bundle.

 

Step 2:

Right click the zip file that downloaded and extract the contents. The .msi installation file that we’re going to use will be stored under \(Where you extracted the file)\GoogleChromeEnterpriseBundle64\Installers and will be called “GoogleChromeStandaloneEnterprise64.msi“.

Move the installer msi over to a shared network folder that the account logged into CM has access to. For me, I’ll use a folder I created called \\CM1\Packages$\. This is where I host all of my packages for deployments. 

Step 3:

Launch your Config Mgr console > Overview > Application Management > Right click on “Applications” and click “Create Application“. 

 

Step 4:

1. Leave the “Automatically detect information…” radio button selected. 

2. Click “Browse” and navigate to your GoogleChromeStandaloneEnterprise64.msi”. Make sure to use the UNC \\Server\Share\File format. For me, I need to specify \\CM1\Packages$\ at the beginning of the file location name to specify my network share… 



3. Click “Next“. 
4. Click “Next” when you see the application information was successfully imported on the following page…

 

5. Under “General information“, I recommend specifying the “Software Version” field which you can find if you right click the Chrome installation msi > choose properties > select the details tab > and look at the comments section. 

Then click “Next“. 



6. Click “Next” again to confirm the application settings. 



7. When you see that the wizard has completed successfully, you can close the window. 


 

Step 5:

1. Under applications, highlight “Google Chrome“. 
2. Under the “Deployment Types” tab at the bottom, right click “Google Chrome – Windows Installer“. 
3. Select “Properties“. 
4. We’re going to leave most of the settings here default to make it as basic as possible, but know that these tabs are where you can add many custom configurations for your installations… click on the “Programs” tab…
5. Where you see “Product code” at the bottom, browse to your Chrome install file. This will help out with installation source management down the road if needed. 


6. Click “OK“. 

Nice! Your deployment package has been configured for Chrome! Woot! Woot! 

 

Step 6:

1. Under applications, right click “Google Chrome” and select “Deploy“. 

2. Click browse next to “Collection:“, and choose the collection that you’d like to deploy your Chrome package to. I’m going to select a device collection that I created for my workstations. 

 

3. Click “Next“. 
4.  Click “Add” > select “Distribution Point“, check the box for your distribution point and click “OK“. 

5. Click “Next“. 
6. If you change the “Purpose” from “Available” to “Required” it will force the installation. We’re going to leave this setting on “Available” and click “Next“. 

 

7. Click “Next“, or schedule a time for the deployment… 

8. Leave everything default and click “Next“…

9. “Next“…

10. “Next“… 

11. When you see that the wizard has completed successfully, you can close the window… This means that the deployment has started. 🙂 



Note: You can verify the content distribution status under “Monitoring” > “Overview” > “Distribution Status” > “Google Chrome” within your Configuration Manager console… Green is good! 

 

Step 7:

Congratulations! You have completed your first deployment. Chrome should now start showing within Software Center for machines that were in the deployment collection after they’ve been powered on and connected to the network for an hour or so. This will allow the client actions to run automatically. 

Here’s how we can force them to run manually and verify all everything works okay on one of the machines…

1. Connect to one of the machines that was targeted in your deployment. 
2. Open “Software Center” click on the “Applications” tab and verify if “Google Chrome” is available yet. 
It’s not yet available for me on this machine: 

3. So we’re going to speed up the process of making it available on my machine… Open “Control Panel” > “System and Security” > “Configuration Manager“… and click on the “Actions” tab. 
4. Select and click “Run Now” > “OK” each of the highlighted actions in the screenshot below. 

Application Deployment Evaluation Cycle” re-evaluates your deployments requirements rules. 
Machine Policy Retrieval & Evaluation Cycle” essentially forces your CM client on the machine to check for policy retrieval instead of waiting for the scheduling polling interval to take place. 
User Policy Retrieval & Evaluation Cycle” is similar to the machine policy retrieval but checks for User Policy instead.

And… voila! It is now available in Software Center for the user to install. 🙂 




Keep in mind that this was a very basic deployment and you can do a lot more in regards to customizing your deployment settings for specific applications later on. If you have any questions at all, don’t hesitate to reach out on twitter @brandenhammann. Take care!