The Push/Run feature allows the UMP administrator to copy and run an application on highlighted systems. This feature can be used to install programs and service packs remotely among other things. An application can consist of one or multiple files. The first setup page is shown below.
Enter the Destination path of the application in the top field.
Note: Use caution when entering a network path in the Application to run field, or the task may fail. This is because User Manager Pro creates an AT task to run the specified file that is set to run to the nearest minute. The AT account is the Local System account and thus only has access to the local system. If the AT account has been modified to run as a privileged domain account, then this will not be a problem. The command line parameters box allows entering an arbitrary number of additional command line arguments for running applications with customized settings. The task must be able to run quietly and
passively, that is to say without any form of user interaction whatsoever. While the options to perform these tasks are specific to the application or patch being run. More information about command line arguments can be found here:
http://www.liebsoft.com/index.cfm/whitepapers/Undocumented_Command_Line_Options. If the file should simply be copied to the remote system without running anything, then leave the box marked Run an application on the remote system unchecked.
Using this interface, enter any files to copy from the current system to all selected remote systems prior to running the remote application. The application that to run can be one of the files included in this list or can depend on one or more of these files. To add a new file to the list, click the Add button to bring up the following window.
Path of File on Local Machine - this is the local path relative to the UMP host system to where the files being copied can be found. Use a local path, UNC path or network drive as the source.
Path of File on Remote Machine(s) - this is the network location the files are being copied to. This will always be a network location. Use the %system% variable to represent the target system's name when this operation will affect multiple systems. If copying a single file, specify the name of the file in the destination path. If copying a file called "q2345678-enu.msp" to a folder called "updates" at the root of the C drive on the target system, the UNC path would then be
\\%system%\c$\updates\q2345678-enu.msp. Copying Multiple Files and Directories:
While it is possible to add as many entries for individual files as needed, the file copy process supports the use of wild card characters such as * and ?. To use wild cards, the syntax is slightly different than when specifying a single file. While the source can be specified as would be expected, "path\*.*" or "path\*.exe", when inputting the destination path, do not not provide any file name as would normally be done for a single file copy.
For example, to copy every file from the updates folder at the root of drive C to the updates folder at the root of the C drive of the target systems, the source and destination paths would be input as follows:
Source: c:\updates\*.*
Destination: \\%system%\c$\updates\
When specifying a wild card file copy by using the * or ? characters in the source path, the option to Include subdirectories for wild card operation will become available. Enabling this option will also copy every subdirectory in the specified source directory to the target machine as well as every file.
When done specifying the file list and application path, click OK to begin the copy and run. Notes and Limitations about Push and Run:
This method utilizes the AT service account on the remote machine as the account the application will run under. This means that the Scheduler Service must be installed and running on the remote system. All versions of Windows 2000 and later contain the Scheduler Service. Windows NT 4 must be SP 4 or later. If the AT service account on the remote machine does not have sufficient privileges to run the application on that target machine, the application may fail to run or exit with an error.
Some applications require command line arguments or switches in order to run successfully. Other applications require command line arguments to run in an unattended, quiet, or non-interactive modes. The AT service account runs in a non-interactive logon session, so if the application requires an
interactive session, the application will not run successfully. If the application can run in a non-interactive mode, make sure to supply the correct command line switches in order to run the application in a non-interactive mode. These command line switches are application specific and should be found with the application documentation.
In the event of an error running a task on a remote machine, the error code information that is returned and logged is the exit error code of the application on the remote system. The exit error code is application specific and the documentation for application exit codes should be found with the application documentation.
Push and Run in User Manager Pro is not a fully featured application distribution tool. It is intended rather to be an easy mechanism to push out and run simple programs like batch files or scripts. It can be used to push patches and applications, but user feedback and failure logging is minimal. For a more fully-featured patch distribution solution, see Task Scheduler Pro