GPO Software Deployment - DNS Alias

We have recently replaced our main file server, migrating all files\software.
Currently have 3 GPO's in place that were reponsible for deploying Office,
Visio STD and Visio Pro.

We should have used DFS, but that is water under the bridge right now.

I had thought that a DNS Alias would allow the GPO's to contact the new file
server, even though the server name was different...however this does not
appear to be the case.

I have put the entry in for disabling strict naming, and verified that the
server is at least listening for the Alias as well. However the GPO's will
not install. Keeps advising that the source location is not available. But
when I go to the path via UNC, I can access.

Is there anything I can do to resolve?? I don't want to re-create the GPO's
and have a couple hundred clients re-install.

Server in Question is running 2003 R2 SP2 Enterprise, 64bit edition.

Thanks,

Anthony
Tue Mar 25 09:59:14 PDT 2008

Hutch,
If you start a command prompt with the System account and then run the
install from the alias path, does it run?
Use "at 5:30 [or whatever] /i cmd.exe" or "psiexec -i -s cmd.exe" to start a
command prompt as the System account.
Hope that helps,
Anthony
http://www.airdesk.co.uk

"Hutch" <Hutch@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:DFC266E0-D559-4906-8F1B-7039015353D6@microsoft.com...
> We have recently replaced our main file server, migrating all
> files\software.
> Currently have 3 GPO's in place that were reponsible for deploying Office,
> Visio STD and Visio Pro.
>
> We should have used DFS, but that is water under the bridge right now.
>
> I had thought that a DNS Alias would allow the GPO's to contact the new
> file
> server, even though the server name was different...however this does not
> appear to be the case.
>
> I have put the entry in for disabling strict naming, and verified that the
> server is at least listening for the Alias as well. However the GPO's
> will
> not install. Keeps advising that the source location is not available.
> But
> when I go to the path via UNC, I can access.
>
> Is there anything I can do to resolve?? I don't want to re-create the
> GPO's
> and have a couple hundred clients re-install.
>
> Server in Question is running 2003 R2 SP2 Enterprise, 64bit edition.
>
> Thanks,

NewsGroups
Tue Mar 25 10:42:00 PDT 2008

Hi Hutch,

It is possible to change the path of an application however it's not easy.
I've encountered the same issue myself and I realised that changing the path
which updates the GPO version and hence re-deploys the application is not as
bad as it sounds.

From my experience if the application originally took 5 minutes to install
the re-deployed application takes less than a 30 seconds. I believe it
detects that the application has already been installed and terminates. Test
it on a few machines.

The alternative is to modify the path of the package in AD and regenerate
the .aas file for package. The .aas file is stored is sysvol.

Regards

Femi

"Hutch" <Hutch@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:DFC266E0-D559-4906-8F1B-7039015353D6@microsoft.com...
> We have recently replaced our main file server, migrating all
> files\software.
> Currently have 3 GPO's in place that were reponsible for deploying Office,
> Visio STD and Visio Pro.
>
> We should have used DFS, but that is water under the bridge right now.
>
> I had thought that a DNS Alias would allow the GPO's to contact the new
> file
> server, even though the server name was different...however this does not
> appear to be the case.
>
> I have put the entry in for disabling strict naming, and verified that the
> server is at least listening for the Alias as well. However the GPO's
> will
> not install. Keeps advising that the source location is not available.
> But
> when I go to the path via UNC, I can access.
>
> Is there anything I can do to resolve?? I don't want to re-create the
> GPO's
> and have a couple hundred clients re-install.
>
> Server in Question is running 2003 R2 SP2 Enterprise, 64bit edition.
>
> Thanks,

Florian
Tue Mar 25 10:57:53 PDT 2008

Howdie!

Hutch schrieb:
> Is there anything I can do to resolve?? I don't want to re-create the GPO's
> and have a couple hundred clients re-install.

An absolutely _not_ supported way to do this:
http://www.frickelsoft.net/blog/?p=78

I'd go for a re-install of the app-packages. As long as it doesn't take
ages (meaning 10 minutes and above) to re-install it on the clients, I'd
do this. The supported and in my opinion, the best way. You can try that
in a testing environment prior roll-out.

cheers,

Florian
--
Microsoft MVP - Windows Server - Group Policy.
eMail: prename [at] frickelsoft [dot] net.
blog: http://www.frickelsoft.net/blog.
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