Deploying using SMS

If you are using Systems Management Server (SMS) from Microsoft as your deployment method, you can distribute IBM® i Access for Windows by creating a new SMS package.

1. Decide where to store your source installation files. SMS uses this location as the source for the package.
2. Find the installation image to be tailored.
3. Optional: Tailor the installation image to modify the default behavior of the installation.
4. Make your installation image available to SMS. You can either copy the entire contents of your source image to a network share, or you can create an administrative image.
   If you are applying transforms to the base installation, copy the .MST files to the location of your source image.

   Note: The SMS server must be able to access the image source.
5. Create the SMS package and define an associated program that includes the command line options that you need. These instructions describe the most basic settings for creating your package:
   1. Open the SMS Administrator Console.
   2. Right-click the Packages folder and select New > Package.
   3. On the General tabbed page, enter a name for the package.
   4. On the Data Source tabbed page, select This Package Contains Source Files.
   5. Click Set. The Set Source directory dialog opens.
   6. Browse to the location of your source image.
   7. Create a program in the new package.
   8. Right-click the new program and select Properties.
   9. On the General tabbed page, specify these properties:
      • For Command line, enter setup.exe.
      • From the After running list, select No Action Required.
   10. On the Environment tabbed page, set these options:
       • If you want your users to be able to interact with the installation wizard , select Only When A User Is Logged On for the Program can run field.
       • Make sure that you select the Run with administrative rights option. If you do not select this option, IBM i Access for Windows does not install for users that do not have administrative rights.
   11. On the Advanced tabbed page, in the When This Program Is Assigned To A Computer field, select Run Once For The Computer.
   12. Click OK to save your program settings.
6. Distribute the package to distribution points.
   1. Expand your new package, right-click Distribution Points and select New > Distribution Points. The New Distribution Points Wizard starts.
   2. Click Next to display the Copy Package page.
   3. Select servers from the Distribution points list to act as distribution points for the software package.
   4. Click Finish.
   5. Verify that the distribution of the package to the distribution points has been completed:
      1. In the SMS Administrator console, expand System Status > Package Status.
      2. Select the package for IBM i Access for Windows. The Installed column should have a value of 1.
7. Advertise the package. To create an advertisement of your package, you first need to configure the collections where the package is advertised.
   1. Go to the SMS Administrator Console, right-click the Advertisements folder and select New > Advertisement.
   2. From the Package list, select the package.
   3. From the Program list, select the program.
   4. In the Collection box, select the target collection. To include subcollections, select Include Members Of Subcollections.
   5. On the Schedule tabbed page, set the schedule properties for the advertisement.
   6. Click OK to save the advertisement.
   7. Verify that the package advertisement has been completed:
      1. In the SMS Administrator console, expand System Status > Advertisement Status.
      2. Select the advertisement for the IBM i Access for Windows package. From the summary information panel, verify that one program was received and started.