Pushing OCS Inventory NG Agent installation on remote computers

OCS Inventory NG Agent Deployement Tool allows you to remotely push installation of OCS Inventory NG Agent on computers. You just need to have administrative credentials on remote comuter and it will do the job for you.

Note: To push setup on Windows Computer, it requires administrative shares enabled (no simple file sharing) and Microsoft SysInternals PsExec free utility (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897553.aspx).

To push setup on Unix computer, it requires PuTTY SSH and PuTTY PSCP free tools (http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/).

Installing and configuring OCS Inventory NG Agent Deployement tool

To install OCS Inventory NG Agent Deployment Tool, download zip archive from our download page.

Uncompress the zip file and run OCS-NG-Agent-Deployment-Tool-Setup.exe on a Windows Computer.

Click [ Next ] button

Validate license agreement by clicking [ I agree ] button

Choose destination folder, C:\Program Files\OCS Inventory Agent Deployement Tool” by default (“C:\Program Files (x86)\OCS Inventory Agent Deployment tool under Windows 64 bits), and click [ Next ] button

Choose start menu folder, OCS Inventory NG\Agent Deployement Tool by default, and click [ Install ] button.

Click [ Finish ] button to close OCS inventory NG Agent Deployment Tool Setup. Setup can start the tool for you if you the box Start OCS Inventory NG Agent Deplyment Tool is checked

Click on [ Options ] button of Agent Deployment Tool main window to display settings.

You have to provide path to:

  • Microsoft SysInternals PsExec.exe tool (click on the link to open your browser with SysInternals Home page and download PsTools suite from here).
  • PuTTY.exe SSH and Pscp.exe tools (click on the link to open your bowser with PuTTY Home page and donwload tools from here).

Click [ OK ] button to save changes.

Pushing OCS Inventory NG agent for Windows setup

Note: To push setup, administrative shares have to be enabled on remote computer. Moreover, on computers not members of a Windows domain, you have to disable “Using simple share (recommended)” using “Folders options”.

Click on [ Windows Agent ] button of Agent Deployment Tool main window to start deploying on Windows computers. You can choose to deploy Agent on

  • all Windows computers within the specified IP range,
  • a list of manually selected computers: select them in the network neighborhood using button "Browse Network", or specify them using UNC notation (\Computer_name or \IP_Address) or select multiple computers into Active Directory using button "Browse AD", or import them from a file (file have to contain one IP or computer name by line)

Click [ Next ] button.

  • Select Windows Agent installer file to push,
  • Select optional plugin files to copy into plugins directory of the agent,
  • Select additional files to copy into Agent's data folder, like certificate file,
  • Enter OCS Inventory NG server URL http://your_ocs_server/ocsinventory or http://your_ocs_server:ip_port/ocsinventory or https://your_ocs_server/ocsinventory or https://your_ocs_server:ip_port/ocsinventory,
  • Check Enable verbose log to activate OCS Inventory Agent logs (same as /DEBUG parameter)
  • Check Do not register service if you do not wish to use service for launching Agent (same as /NO_SERVICE parameter)
  • Check Do not register Systray applet autostart if you do not wish to display OCS icon into Systray (same as /NO_SYSTRAY parameter)
  • Check Force inventory just after setup to force inventory launch after OCS agent installation (beware to OCS server load if you install a lot of computers at the same time !)
  • Enter additional parameters in Other options for Agent (/HKCU for example)
  • Check Change Agent setup directory to modify OCS Inventory agent installation directory
  • Other Commandline options will also work, for all Options see below.

and click [ Next ] button

Provide credentials of an Administrator account on remote computers with associated password and click [ Next ] button.

Note: If computers are in an Active Directory or Samba Domain, you have to specify account like DOMAIN_NAME\Administrator. Otherwise, only the account name without domain name is enough.

You are now ready to process. Choose the number of computers to push installation simultaneously (up to 10 computers) using the slider and click [ Start ] button.

Note: WARNING !!! Increasing the simultaneous connections will increase the memory and CPU use on the computer which is running OCS Inventory NG Agent Deployment Tool.

Agent Deployment Tool will first check if remote computer is up and running Windows OS, copy installation files to remote computer through administratibe shares, uses PSEXEC to execute installation on remote computer and display logs into listbox.

If Agent Deployment Tool encounter errors on one or more computers, it will prompt you to save the list of failed computers into a CSV file, and you will be able to import this file later to restart installation process on these computers.

You can stop at any time the process using “Stop” button and also, when deployment is finished, save logs to a file using “Save logs” button.

Windows command line options

Command Line Options: Meaning:
/S Silent Mode
/NOSPLASH disable splash screen when installer starts
/NO_SERVICE to not register OCS Inventory NG Agent into Windows Service Manager. Agent can only be launched manually or through a script/GPO
/NO_SYSTRAY to not create a shortcut into "All Users" startup folder to start systray applet when user log in.
/NOW to launch inventory just after setup
/NOSOFTWARE to ignore software installed
/work_dir="path to directory" Agent have to use "path to directory" as working dir (this directory may included configuration file). Default is "%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\OCS Inventory NG\Agent" or "%PROGRAMDATA%\OCS Inventory NG\Agent"
/local[="path to folder"] Agent do not contact communication server, and store inventory in xml compressed .ocs file into folder "path to folder". If no "path to folder" provided, agent assume folder as data folder
/debug[=level] Generate a very verbose log file "ocsinventory.log" into agent's install folder.0 => disable verbose logs (default),1 => enable default verbose logs (default when no level provided provided),2 => enable debuging logs
/notag Agent must NOT prompt user for TAG in any case
/tag="my value" Agent have to set "my value" as TAG value
/xml=["path to folder"] Agent have to store inventory in uncompressed xml format into folder "path to folder". If no "path to folder" provided, agent assume folder as data folder. If no server is configured, you need to use it in conjonction with parameter /local
/force Always send inventory, even if server do not ask for it (use only for debugging purpose !)
/ipdisc="network number" Agent have to launch IP discovery on network "network number" (use only for debugging purpose !)
/ipdisc_lat="number of milliseconds" Set latency between 2 IP Discover requests to "number of milliseconds"
/fastip Never wait for latency between 2 IP Discover requests (use only for debugging purpose !)
/hkcu Search also for software under HKEY_CURRENT_USER registry hive (do not work with service as LocalSystem !)
/uid Agent have to generate a new unique device ID
/server=http[s]://server.domain.tld[:port]/ocsinventory Agent try to connect to Communication Server address and port Listening on http[s]://server.domain.tld[:port]/ocsinventory
/ssl=0,1 When usng SSL connections: 0 => SSL without certificate validation, 1 => SSL with server certificate validation required (needs CA certificate)
/ca="path_to_cabundle.pem" Path to CA certificate chain file in PEM format, for server certificate validation
/user=username /pwd=password Communication Server authentication credentials
/proxy_type=0,1,2,3 Agent proxy use 0 => no,1 => HTTP proxy,2 => Socks 4 proxy,3 => Socks 5 proxy)
/proxy=proxy_address Proxy server address (without protocol !)
/proxy_port=port Proxy server port
/proxy_user=username /proxy_pwd=password Proxy authentication credentials
/D=< directory installation> specify the directory where your want to install ocsinventory agent (default %PROGRAMFILES%\ocs inventory agent)