If you work as a network administrator, you always have loads of things to do during your work hours. For instance, you have to manage the programs used in the network. It’s not an extra-difficult job, but it takes time and energy. Fortunately, a correctly chosen remote software installation tool is able to really ease your life.
Today, we’re going to talk about a relative newbie in the software deployment market: Total Software Deployment (TSD). The program was released in 2015 and has already earned quite a lot of favorable feedbacks from network administrators around the world.
So let’s see what the program really does and whether it’s worth using it to manage your local network.
What Does TSD Do?
TSD is a new software product created for managing software inside corporate local networks. In fact, it helps to deploy software and detects all programs installed on the machines that comprise your network. To cut the long story short, TSD assists with putting new workstations into operation and finding dated versions of various software products. Such an option gives network administrators an opportunity to make all necessary software changes in their networks on a regular basis.
The program is of course also able to scan the network. The network storage is a folder that contains records about all network nodes. The data is stored in files of a special format (each device has its separate file). The number of such folders is unlimited, but you may view only one such folder at the same time in the program.
The program storage is also a folder. It contains software product installers that will be deployed.
Peculiarities of the Scanning Process
If you want to investigate your network using TSD, you may add either a separate computer to the scanner (then you should enter its network name or IP address) or a range of IP addresses or search inside Windows work groups and Windows domains.
The scanning process may be done in several ways:
- SMB protocol scanning (this scanning method is automatic);
- Manual scanning (with this scanning method, you just start a special agent on the computer and copy the data file made by this agent into the TSD storage).
Automatic scanning using the RPC protocol and Windows Management Instrumentation used in Total Network Inventory is not available in TSD because you cannot deploy software over this protocol.
Working With the Software Storage
When the scanning process ends, you may start working with the software storage. Here, you may add the various programs to be deployed on workstations in the network. You may sort the detected software according to various categories or use the search function to find a necessary program.
Using the Assistant feature, it’s possible to find out which programs are already installed in the network as well as identify if there are any malicious or dated programs.
Deployment Process
What I really like about TSD is that it really makes the installation process easy. You may use three deployment methods while using this program:
- Silent installation;
- Macro deployment;
- System snapshot.
The Silent method means that as soon as you load an application in your software storage, TSD will try to identify the installer type from a list of 21 commonly-used installers. I think it’s really handy. Depending on the installer type, different commands can be added to the silent command line. If you’re having problems with the installation process, it’s also possible to add and revert back to the default command line.
The macro deployment method means that TSD will ‘memorize’ the installation process and create an installation macro. During remote deployment, the macro is played back and chooses the installation options that you’ve recorded earlier.
The SysShot method means that the computer state will be recorded, and then the application will be installed and customized. After that, the snapshot is made one more time and compared with the first one. The differences are put into the package.
Summary
TSD designed by Softinventive Lab is an effective solution for the entire application life cycle. It’s able to monitor all software products inside the corporate networks. I totally recommend it as it really works well.
