Distributing upgrades using Active Directory ... any tips
Does anyone have any documentation on how to distribute update.exe via Active Directory? I am charged with providing documentation and testing the deployment of update.exe.
I know ActiveDirectory cannot distribute .exe packages natively so I have to unpackage the msp file. However, from there I am not certain what I need to do to associate the .msp file with the Group Policy Object Software Installation.
I do agree Christopher, however, I don't have a say in the matter. Our sales team is reluctant to say "You cannot deliver this using Active Directory".
But I agree, SMS et. al. rocks.
So far I have not found a clean way to extract a msp file from update.exe. Do you know a way other than running update.exe with a bogus command line switch and then harvesting the msp from the temp directory?
So far /a does not work. There is no /extract all (used in Microsoft hotfixes, and some packages) for update.exe. I tried exploring the file using a resource editor, and opening the package using 7-zip. None of these expose the .msp to me.
My only other alternative is to publish both .exe and .msp files online as I really don't want to get into recommending 'hokey' methods for extracting the msp for GPO distribution.
