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PDQ Deploy deploying itself?

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Mike P.

"A new version is available."

So can I just update my client, and leave the server alone? Do I need to update the server first? When I update the server, will non-upgraded clients have issues if versions don't match? After updating the server, can I just deploy the PDQ update to the clients?

I tried running the installer with /?, but that doesn't have any information about declaring Local, Server or Client during install. I forget if that was an installation setting or a First Run option.

I'm just curious because the idea of using the software to spread itself is humorous to me...

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  • Avatar
    Stephen Valdinger

    This is a pretty good question. You'll want to make sure to update your "Server" first. If you try to update your client to a new version without doing that, it will tell you to update the server side first. Once you have done that, and you launch your client console, it will talk to the server, and the server will present the client with the new version and it will update. So yes, in a sense it is using the software to "Spread itself", but no more so than any other Client/Server software packages you may use.

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  • Avatar
    Mike P.

    Perfect. So it's not necessary to "Deploy" the program to existing installs, because the client will prompt to update itself when it connects to the updated server.

    Alright. Can the Local/Server/Client option (and for clients, the server name) be set during install though for the purpose of rebuilding a machine in the future? Or is that just "Step 2 is to pull the settings from HKLM\Software\Admin Arsenal\PDQ Deploy\Protocol for the Mode, ServerHostName and ServerPort and put them in the registry yourself"?

    This is more just my curiosity than an intent to actually deploy it that way. I just wonder if the people who make automating easy made it so the installer itself can accept these arguments to make automating automating easy.

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    Permanently deleted user

    You are correct that you must update the Server first, but Clients will not automatically update themselves. They will present the user with this window:

    If you want to deploy the update you can just use the /S switch with the exe installer. Deploying this to targets that already have Deploy will just perform an upgrade.

    If you want to install Client consoles on new machines you just have to add a step to set some registry values.

    $License = Get-Content "\\Path\To\Your\License.txt"

    New-Item -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Admin Arsenal"            -Name "PDQ Deploy" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Out-Null
    New-Item -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Admin Arsenal\PDQ Deploy" -Name "Protocol"   -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Out-Null

    Start-Sleep -Seconds 5

    New-ItemProperty -Force -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Admin Arsenal\PDQ Deploy"          -Name "License"        -PropertyType "String" -Value "$License" | Out-Null
    New-ItemProperty -Force -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Admin Arsenal\PDQ Deploy\Protocol" -Name "Mode"           -PropertyType "String" -Value "Client"   | Out-Null
    New-ItemProperty -Force -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Admin Arsenal\PDQ Deploy\Protocol" -Name "ServerHostName" -PropertyType "String" -Value "NAME OF YOUR PDQ DEPLOY SERVER" | Out-Null
    New-ItemProperty -Force -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Admin Arsenal\PDQ Deploy\Protocol" -Name "ServerPort"     -PropertyType "Dword"  -Value "6336"     | Out-Null
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    Stephen Valdinger

    Your first picture is what I meant Colby. After I re-read my reply I should have explained that better.

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