The DOI and USGS MECM teams develop applications that can optionally be deployed by MECM administrators at their sites. These applications reside on the primary site server and can be distributed and deployed to local sites. The following instructions explain how to distribute an application to a MECM distribution point and create an advertisement to deploy the application to clients.
Changes to the application library are announced in the weekly “Available Applications Change Notice” emails to IT All. See ACIO Communication Library – USGS – Applications for archived notices. (Note – the page available MECM applications is not currently functioning and is being rebuilt). These instructions use the DOI Adobe Flash Player NPAPI 19.0.0.226 application as an example, although they can be used with any DOI/USGS MECM application
Distribute Content
Most enterprise-created applications will already be distributed to all of the USGS Distribution Points, so you can generally skip the Distribute Content steps for all but your own Center-built applications.
Open the MECM console, depending on OS: Start → All Programs → Microsoft System Center → Configuration Manager → Configuration Manager Console or Start → All Programs → Microsoft System Center → Configuration Manager Console
Browse to Software Library → Overview → Application Management → Applications → _DOI → Tier 2
In the right pane, find the application 2-DOI-Adobe Flash Player NPAPI 19.0.0.226, right click on it and choose Distribute Content
The Distribute Content Wizard will launch.
On the Welcome Screen, click
Review the content to distribute and click
In the specify the content destination window, click and choose If you have a Distribution Point group setup, you may also select that here.
In the Available distribution points window, choose your Distribution point and click
The specify the content location window should change to now show the selected Distribution Point.
Click
Confirm your settings and click
When the wizard completes, click
To verify the software has been deployed to your distribution point, browse to Monitoring → Distribution Status → Content Status and select your application.
Click on
When the distribution is complete, you will see the DP you selected listed under the Success tab as shown above. Now you can Deploy the application to your clients.
Deploy Application
A new deployment can either be assigned from a collection group or from the application itself. In this example, we will be assigning the deployment from the Software Library.
Browse to Software Library → Overview → Application Management → Applications → _DOI→ Tier 2 . Right click on the application and choose Deploy
The Deploy Software Wizard launches. Click to select the Collection you would like to deploy the application to. In this example, we will deploy Adobe Flash to a Device Collection.
Browse the Root tree on the left to find your OU and corresponding Device Collection. Highlight the Device Collection you wish to select and click
The Device Collection will now be populated in the Deploy Software Wizard.
Click
In the Specify the content destination window, make sure your distribution point is listed. Highlight it and click
In the Specify settings to control how this software is deployed window, you have the option to choose Install or Uninstall under Actions and Available or Required under . Since we would like to install Flash and have it become mandatory once it reaches its deadline, we will choose Install and Required. Click
Next we can specify when we would like the software to deploy. In this example, we will choose As soon as possible after the available time. Selecting this in conjunction with Required will force the software to install as soon as the software becomes available and the system checks in. You can also choose a time to make the software available and a deadline for when it becomes mandatory. Click
Select if you would like users to see any sort of notifications and click
Leave the defaults here and click
Review your Summary for any errors and click
The Deploy Wizard has successfully completed. Click
You can monitor the status of your deployment in the Deployment tab found either in the Software Library or under the collection you deployed to.
