To ensure that the distribution of software is not 'fitness administration' (i.e. valuable employees running from PC to PC), a client PC must independently recognize that new software packages or updates are available for it, and install them. These requirements are implemented with opsi via the opsi client agent: the opsi client agent must be installed once on the client PC. Supported as clients are the current Windows versions (Windows 7 - 10 and Server 2008 R2 - 2016) as well as Linux clients from different distributions.
The software deployment runs:
With the automatic software deployment opsi distributes:
The opsi client agent checks, based on configuration information on the opsi server, whether the respective client PC needs Software packages to be reinstalled, uninstalled, or updated. This usually happens after every boot and before the user can login into the system.
If there is an action request, the script controlled installation program starts opsi script. The necessary scripts and software packages are kept on a network share. For the user, there is neither the need nor the possibility to change or alter the process during the entire installation process.
In order for software packages to be installed without interaction via the opsi script program, they need to be prepared first. The program opsi script offers different alternatives for this:
In practice, a combination of the three variants will surely meet most needs, if not all of them.
