Creating Software Packages

Thanks to Pandemic we have remote, roaming and Hybrid users working along with regular office going employees. In scenarios like these its difficult to distribute software to all the users alike. There's also different departments in the office to consider. Software deployment from Endpoint Central is flexible tool that can be used to deploy software across Windows, Mac and Linux automatically. Package creation is the fundamental step in software deployment. To install software in your network you would need an installer package which can be purchased along with the software (MSI) or can be downloaded from the Internet (EXE). IT admins can create and deploy both MSI and EXE packages using Endpoint Central. While a MSI is a Windows installer, with Endpoint Central the admin can install the MSI package silently. In case of an EXE package the admin has to enter the silent switches manually. Endpoint Central enables you to store the commonly used applications which can be installed on to the client machines as and when required. The common applications that include MSI, EXE, APPX and MSU files are stored in the Software Repository. The software packages that are added to the repository can then be used while defining the Software Installation Configuration.

Follow the steps below to create a software package manually:

1. On the main console click on Software deployment. Under the left tree, click on Templates.
2. Select the application of your requirement and select multiple applications if you want to create multiple packages and click on create package.
3. You have successfully created a package. The new package will be created and listed under the packages section. The package can now be modified or deployed to your target.
4. To modify or remove a package, you can click on Actions next to the corresponding package and perform the action of your choice.
5. Once a package is created you can proceed with pre-deployment and post-deployment activities.

Here's how you create packages for Mac computers.

Accessing the location of a package

When you create a package, you are required to download the binary from the vendor's web site. You can access the executable link for each package location through the application details. To access the executable links for the location of a package, follow the steps given below:

1. Navigate to Software Deployment -->Templates and click on the required application.

2. In the Application Details window, click on the link against Location for accessing the location of the application.

3. Ensure that the URL of the executable link is added to the exception list in the proxy server.

4. You can now recreate the package and deploy it.

5. These links will redirect you to the location from which the package is being downloaded. The possibility of getting a download error reduces if the link is accessible. However, if you get an error while trying to access the link, then you will get an error while trying to download the required binaries, from the Endpoint Central server. You should verify the functionality of the executable links for packages only from the system on which the Endpoint Central server is installed. Refer our KB document for error while downloading binaries.