Transcript Document

Case Studies in Application
Management
David Cristini
Microsoft
Technology Solutions Professional
Why are we here?
Why Application Management?
Applications introduced into your environment, by default,
have the following characteristics:
Inconsistent, proprietary, closed legacy formats
Built for a single-user interactive install
Not customized for your environment
Not thoroughly tested for your environment
Do not reflect your organizational standards
Do not support Windows 2000/XP architecture
Provide no means for mass targeted deployments
Why software delivery tools?
 Plan, test, deploy, and analyze
– Enables the complete lifecycle of application deployment
from planning through verification
– Provides complete inventory and usage tracking to be able
to plan for such a rollout
 Reliably and easily
– Deploys successfully and reliably to locked down Windows
environments
– Enables rich targeting
– Reduces overall costs
 Right place at the right time.
– Delivers all of these applications to highly distributed and
complex enterprise environments
Customer Data Point:
A Powerful Combination
 AMS/SMS solution was very flexible
when it came to the Bank’s needs
– 60,000 users
– 750,000 groups
– Moved replication to their own
customized DFS process
Application Management - Today
ESD Solutions
Setup.exe
Manual Process
snAPPShot file
WinINSTALL
Other 3rd-party
tools
FTP
Home Brew
System
SMS 1.0 file
Email
“Sneaker net”
Internal
Applications
Self-serve
External
Applications
 Inconsistent,
Proprietary, & Closed
Legacy Formats
Win
2000
SP 4
Win
95a
Win NT
3.51
Win NT
4 SP6
Win 98
SE
Win Me
Win
XP
Win
95b
Mobile
Users
Current & Legacy
Platforms
 Tedious Manual
Verification of
Application Conflicts
and Application
Compatibility
 No Tools Available to
Automate Conflict
Testing
 Disparate Application
Packages Require Addon Modules and
Adapters to Integrate
 Multiple Operating
Systems
 No Lockdown in Legacy
Operating Systems
 Multiple Conflict Tests
Application Management – where we’d like to be
ISV Applications
Internal Applications
MSI
Centralized
Conflict
Database
Robust Enterprise-Wide
Application Library and
Conflict Database
Enterprise-Wide
Management Solution
 Standardized set of
packaging and validation
rules
 Integrated Management
and Deployment
System
 Conflicts Identified &
Removed
 Automatic Deployment
Package Generation
 Shared Files Isolated
 Reliable Software Push
Win 2000/XP
Legacy Applications
 Common Industry
Standard
 Open & Editable
Format
 Self-Repairing
 Uniform Operating
System
 Role-Based Application
Deployment
 Locked Down PCs
 Lowest TCO
Customer Data Point: Deploying in a
distributed environment
 You never really understand your own
infrastructure, in someone else’s region
– Infrastructure is always the same, but business
process is different in every region.
 AMS bolting on to SMS was beneficial,
because at the end of the workflow process
they were just distributing an SMS package
Common Customer Scenarios
The reality of today
What administrators tell us they deal with
– Vendor installations seem to be getting worse, more complex
• Not uncommon to spend a week trying to figure out package
– Find themselves doing the same actions time and time again
• Repetitive actions on every package
– General lack of understanding about the installation contents
• No way to gauge impact to environment
– Fight constant balancing act of quality testing versus end user demands
• No time to test but always time to fix failed deployment
– Very little understanding from senior management regarding packaging
• “Why can’t you just install the thing”?
What do administrators REALLY want?
– Exercise complete control over the installation package
• Truly deploy a package that meets all internal install standards
– Common elements across packages automatically applied
• Standards applied across each and every package
– Detailed application impact analysis performed
• How will adding this new application affect my production environment
– Understand what shared components exist across the enterprise
• If I change this DLL, what applications are affected
– Shorten testing cycles while improving quality
• Test more of the application while knowing less about it
– Document efforts to show value to organization
• Help educate management about the impact they have
And if they DON’T get what they want?...
– Applications fail to coexist
– Applications compete for different version of
the same resource
– Unstable systems
– Critical LOB applications stop working
– Productivity Lost
– IT credibility is damaged
– Support costs escalate
Some ideas to get started
Packaging Goals
 Improve the Reliability of




Applications
Decrease Costly Deployment
Failures
Reduce Software Rollout Times
Standardize the Application
Preparation Process
Increase Employee Productivity
Benefits of standardization
Windows Installer (MSI)
– A standard installation system to support the installation of all
packages and software on Windows systems
Advantages
– Almost all vendors have begun to move their own installations
to this format
– Easy to use tools such as AdminStudio to repackage
installations into this format
– Staff only needs to be familiar with a single installation format
MSI features
– Self healing
– Standardization of file versioning rules
– Standard customization approaches to installations
Simplifying software packaging
Use a clean system for packaging
– Only base OS and service packs
– Leverage virtual environments
Packaging environment closely mirror production
– Reduction in number of base images
Utilize a template
– Reduces repetitive tasks
– Enforces corporate standards
– Embeds required standards into package
Utilize global exclusions
– Reduces the time spent removing unwanted,
unnecessary data
Common Customization Requests
Resource modification
– Files, registry entries, shortcuts
– Configure ODBC
– Environment variables
Apply company standards
– Add/Remove program behavior
– Implement templates
Custom Actions
– Extend the functionality of the installation
– Launch an executable during the installation
How to handle customization requests
 Use Transforms for existing MSI packages
– Simplified Windows Installer database with
extension .MST
– Modifies the MSI “as it is being installed”
– Requires command line options or EXE-Style
launcher
– Nearly all aspects of the install can be modified
 Never “repackage” vendor authored MSI
Package Testing

Tester may not know the application
 Testing instructions are typically incomplete
– What instructions were provided up front to packager

Application too complex
 Time is always a factor
– Never time to completely test but always time to react to
problems

UAT
– Some say single biggest challenge to complete testing
– No control of user availability
– Often times unwilling to “sign-off” on completed application
Customer Data Point – End Result
 The net benefit was AMS + SMS
was far more efficient and cost
effective, and a huge enabler
(doing more with less)
 Having a workflow meant right
information at right time
– Gating step a to step b made sure
all information was present)
Divide and Conquer
Customer Data Point: Segregation of
Responsibility
 Easy to outsource parts of the
process
– Packaging to MSI
– Quality Control
– UAT in a read only area
– Handoff back to internal teams for
distribution
AMS – Managing People and Process
Putting metrics in place
SLA – Report Summary
Software delivery progress
Detailed software delivery status
Looking forward
What’s next? – A Customer View
 “Entitlement”
– IT needs to be able to look at lifecycle of application
• What’s the best way to determine if a user needs an
application?
– When a user falls out of entitlement, what is the next
step?
• How do we manage the removal process – uninstall?
Reimage? Group Policy?
– Software asset management – how to track usage?
• Can I turn it off for a week, if they don’t complain, do I leave
it off?
• IT needs to think about managing software as an
investment, and the most efficient way to do that.
– Often more of a political battle than a technical one…how
can technology ease the process?
Summary
 Applications have changed over the years
to become much more standardized
 Software deployment tools will only be as
successful as your packages
 You can significantly reduce TCO by
implementing some basic workflow
management and tools to support software
packaging & deployment and leveraging
the OS for lockdown. Additionally, there is
a lot of Microsoft guidance with MOF in this
area for ITIL.
Thank you!
[email protected]