Re: Massive Client Access Install -- MIDRANGE-L

Carole Miner gave a session on this very thing a few years ago at COMMON. I tried to find my handout or locate a manual but, alas, have so far been unsuccessful.
The main thing that I remember about Carole's session was that it "silently" updated the PC whenever a new service pack was installed, or PTF's for CA were installed in the QIBM whatever folder in the IFS. Slacker that I am, I never got around to implementing that process.
* Jerry C. Adams
*IBM System i Programmer/Analyst
B&W Wholesale Distributors, Inc.* *
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Paul Nelson wrote:

I forget where it is now, but in a Redbook regarding CA, there is a section
about creating a silent install/custom install image. What you essentially
do is tell the program to record your answers about the installation, and
then save those in something akin to a script. I did this a few years ago
and saved it onto a CD that got mastered onto 30 other CD's along with a
little .bat file.

All the user had to do was to insert the CD into his PC, start a dos prompt,
and issue the command to run the batch file. The script rebooted the PC at
the end of the install routine. It took about 5 minutes per PC from start to
finish.

We updated/installed 300 PC's in 20 locations in one day. The manager at
each location was responsible for performing the installs.

Paul Nelson
Office 512-392-2577
Cell 708-670-6978
nelsonp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jerry Adams
Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2008 4:38 PM
To: Midrange-L
Subject: Massive Client Access Install

By massive I mean that there are going to be about 30-40 PC's purchased and installed from ground zero. The questions du jour relate to Client Access.

I think we can save the \Program Files\ibm\client access\emulator\private folder to a network drive (defining each user uniquely, of course) and just copy that back onto the PC once C/A is installed. That should keep all of the user's session Ids, printer emulations, keyboard mappings and colors, etc. If that is erroneous, I would certainly like to know.

The bigger question right now, though, is: Is there an easy way to see what each user currently has selected for other stuff, such as ODBC. I know I can go into "Selective Setup" off of the iSeries Access for Windows option in the PC's Start menu, but I have been looking for either a report (don't I wish!) or an .ini or such file. I've found a few files of that nature but none that appears to contain that stuff.

It would seem apparent that I will have to do a full blown re-install rather than just copy some folders because of the entries in the Windows Registry, including re-defining the connection to the production machine. But any simple and easy to understand short cuts would be appreciated because I think their going to farm this PC set-up out to a couple of PC geeks who look cross-eyed at me when I say AS/400, iSeries, System i, or anything that doesn't sound like "PC".

Thanks.