Teh Tech » cURL http://tehtech.com Being an Admin is Hard Enough Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:14:56 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 Service Pack 3 Rollout Options Switches and Scripts http://tehtech.com/service-pack-3-rollout-options-switches-and-scripts/ http://tehtech.com/service-pack-3-rollout-options-switches-and-scripts/#comments Sun, 14 Mar 2010 19:52:12 +0000 admin http://tehtech.com/?p=105 Okay so Service Pack 3. Scary I know, I am always weary of big service pack rollouts. However if you don’t update to SP3, you are open to contracting some nasty bugs. Here are some simple install possibilities if you don’t have it on your network yet.  I suggest that you take a look at some of the install articles on SP3 and some of the complications people have experienced before doing a mass rollout.  Below are some options that might be helpful to you, but as always test on a few computers before rolling out to a bunch.  You might also want to check out this link for a explanation of the switches and arguments for installation. In my scripts below the switches I use will force all aplications closed, and do a backup of of the replaced files, and make a log.  A progress window is displayed during the install and at the end the computer is rebooted.  I found this to be the best option for rollouts as you can see the progress bar to estimate time remaining, and you do have a log and a backup if things go wrong.  I suggest you find the right mix of switches that work for you though.

1. Windows Update:  Works on small networks, though it might not be the best option on any network with more than a few computers.  

2. Network Install:  The file is available from Microsoft here.  Then all you have to do is install it, or script it.   I used this script to accomplish this at a few of my locations.  Note that you can run it over the network, but I like to copy it locally, just incase there is a network failure or i need to rerun it later for some reason.

Title DO NOT CLOSE!!!
color 1f
echo off
net use x:  Serversp3
md c:downloads
md c:downloadssp3
copy x:windowsXP-KB936929-SP3-x86-ENU.exe c:downloads
net use x: /delete
cls
echo A UPDATE IS INSTALLING ON THIS COMPUTER. DO NOT RESTART OR CLOSE THIS WINDOW. WHEN THE UPDATE IS COMPLETE THE COMPUTER WILL RESTART AUTOMATICALLY.
c:downloadsWindowsXP-KB936929-SP3-x86-ENU.exe /passive /forcerestart /forceappsclose /d:c:tempbu /log:c:tempbuxpsp3.log

3. Kaseya with cURLing:  This will create a ton of bandwidth usage if you push this to more than a few computers on the same network, as every computer will be downloading it to their local disk.  So I don’t recommend this to a really large network, and it is also best done at night just so you don’t get any complaints of slowness.  Also note that you are going to have to have curl on your kserver to make this work.  Check out this post for a quick explination of cURL or just download it here    The script will check to see if the computer is running SP3 already, if it is it will stop, if not it will download it and run an unattended install followed by a reboot.  

Script Name: sp3 curl
Script Description: 
IF Check Registry Value
Parameter 1 : HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionCSDVersion
= :Service Pack 3
THEN
ELSE
Execute Shell Command
Parameter 1 : md c:temp
Parameter 2 : 0
OS Type : 8
Execute Shell Command
Parameter 1 : md c:tempsp3
Parameter 2 : 0
OS Type : 8
Write File
Parameter 1 : c:tempsp3curl.exe
Parameter 2 : admincurlcurl.exe
OS Type : 8
Execute File
Parameter 1 : c:tempsp3curl.exe
Parameter 2 : http://download.microsoft.com/download/d/3/0/d30e32d8-418a-469d-b600-f32ce3edf42d/WindowsXP-KB936929-SP3-x86-ENU.exe -o “c:tempsp3WindowsXP-KB936929-SP3-x86-ENU.exe”
Parameter 3 : 3
OS Type : 8
Execute Shell Command
Parameter 1 : c:tempsp3WindowsXP-KB936929-SP3-x86-ENU.exe /passive /forcerestart /forceappsclose /d:c:tempbu /log:c:tempbuxpsp3.log
Parameter 2 : 0
OS Type : 8

]]> http://tehtech.com/service-pack-3-rollout-options-switches-and-scripts/feed/ 0 Curling: Installing Adobe Reader With cURL http://tehtech.com/curling-installing-adobe-reader-with-curl/ http://tehtech.com/curling-installing-adobe-reader-with-curl/#comments Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:09:17 +0000 admin http://tehtech.com/?p=47 Don’t worry, you wont need a broom for this.  cURL is a free opensoure, crossplatform, tiny application used for file transfer over urls, and browser emulation form command line.  It is avaliable here http://curl.haxx.se/ .  I happened across this while back while looking for a way to remotely download files from microsoft without user intervention and this has proved to be very useful.  So heres how it works to do a basic download. In this example we are downloading Adobe Reader 9 from adobe.com.

http://ardownload.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/win/9.x/9.0/enu/AdbeRdr90_en_US.exe -o “c:tempadobeAdbeRdr90_en_US.exe”

Essentially you use the syntax <URL of file> -o <Destination of file in quotes> 

The  ’-o’ switch will output the file where you want it to go, the directory must already exist though.  Additionally this will work only for URLs that do not begin with HTTP.  Telnet, TFTP, FTP, and many other common protocols are supported.  If you need to curl from a HTTPS site you must also download the open SSL package from http://curl.haxx.se/.

Now to put it all together.  This script can be used as a batch file to download and install Adobe Reader 9 from Adobe.com without any user intervention.  The download is automated, and the necessary switches to completely automate the installation are below.  The instalation of adobe is completely silent, it installs for all users with no user input or display.  Give it about 5 min to complete the install after the curl finishes.   This script can be used in a login script on a domain, or pushed through a management application such as Kaseya.

md c:temp
md c:tempadobe
c:tempcurl.exe http://ardownload.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/win/9.x/9.0/enu/AdbeRdr90_en_US.exe -o “c:tempadobeAdbeRdr90_en_US.exe”
c:tempadobeAdbeRdr90_en_US.exe /sAll /rs /l /msi”/qb-! /norestart ALLUSERS=1 EULA_ACCEPT=YES SUPPRESS_APP_LAUNCH=YES

Note that you can change the path to your curl.exe to match where you have stored it on your computer.

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