Deploy Dell CCTK (Log file gets deleted after deployment)
Joshua A. Pirog
I'm using Dell CCTK to push out some bios settings through an exe package. I'm doing some testing right now and I'd like to see if the results are successful or not after the exe has been run. Where are the temporary files or the directory that the files are located at?
Just a background, CCTK creates an executable file that has bios settings, once that exe is ran, it creates an XML file that shows what was successful and what wasn't. I'd like access to that XML file.
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That would depend on where the Dell CCTK generates any log files. Are you using PDQ Deploy to push this out? I'm sorry for my ignorance. I haven't used the CCTK before. Many log files are stored in the %TEMP% directory. This is usually the %TEMP% directory of the user that installed the application. If you are using PDQ Deploy then look in the C:\Users\<deploy user>\AppData\Local\Temp directory.
I forgot to mention... I am speaking about the %temp% directory on the target machines, not on the PDQ Deploy console system.
Well the exe actually creates the file wherever the application is at, so wherever PDQ puts the exe, is where the log will be as well.
Just to make sure I understand... this log file is automatically placed in the same directory that holds the installation file. If there is no other way for you to tell the log file where to be written then you will probably need to modify the step where you call the exe. Create a batch file and place it in the same directory as the Dell CCTK install file. This batch file can have two lines. Let's say the you want to call setup.exe and pass it the /q parameter. The log file that is generated is LogFile.xml and you want to copy it to the Windows\Temp directory. Your .bat file could look something like this
Just make sure that you check the Include Entire Directory in your install step (the step that calls the bat file). This way the setup.exe file would be copied down along with the batch file.
The installation directory exists in the Windows\PDQDeployRunner folder. The exact location holding the install files is usually
C:\Windows\PDQDeployRunner\1\exec
Sometimes it won't be a subdirectory called 1 but it will in 2 or 3 etc. Here is an article explaining how PDQ Deploy performs the deployments.
http://support.adminarsenal.com/entries/21532386-Under-The-Hood-How-PDQ-Deploy-Installs-Software-to-Remote-Computers
Ok great, I'll give this a try. Thanks.
Cool. Please let us know how it goes.
Some results:
Since this was a custom exe package using the CCTK (updated version DCCU), I wasn't sure if there was going to be custom flags for it. But I did want to try the file.exe /q flag to see if would do anything. It failed, but it did show the help after executing.
There is a custom flag to let me change the directory of the log file to somewhere I want it to be.
All in all, I was able to change PDQ Deploy for this package to look like this:
BIOSSettings.exe /l="C:\Users\Public\BIOSSettings.txt"
Everything after /l is in the parameters field of course.
Thank you for all the help
Thanks for the update. I renamed this topic to help others trying to deploy the Dell CCTK.