Microsoft Management Summit 2008
I totally forgot to post this a few weeks ago…I was pretty much laser focused on SCCM implementation at the time…but I found out that I am going to get to go to MMS this year! I went to MMS in 2006 and 2007 in San Diego, and it is hands down the best technical conference I have ever been to. I was concerned because our training budget got slashed this year, but I was able to persuade those who control the $$$ that this is critical to the success of some of the direction that we are heading. Basically I know that I am weak in a couple of areas that we are going to be rapidly moving into, and I will be able to get excellent instruction in these areas at MMS.
To say that I am excited is an understatement. I’m not all that enthusiastic about where it is being held this year (Vegas), but I will get access to probably the best training available, and will get to spend time with a couple of really good friends as well.
Silent VPN Auto Installer
Years ago a co-worker worked on creating an EXE that we could distribute that would set up a VPN connection for our users in an unattended fashion…no user input other than to click “Yes” and to acknowledge the completion notice.
Well I’ve been looking for a way to make that auto installer completely silent. Because it is a user based setting, I can’t throw it into my SCCM Task Sequence. It needs to run after a user logs in. But I don’t want the user to see it run. It needs to run silently in the background…no user intervention at all.
I knew that Philip had used the Connection Manager Administration Kit (CMAK) to create the original EXE. The auto installer includes a batch file that I co-wrote back in 2000 to remove any HOSTS file entries for our e-mail server as well as another batch file that modifies the routing table. It’s a pretty slick little file. If it didn’t resolve someone’s VPN issue, then there was something else wrong with their computer or internet connection.
When you run CMAK, it creates a folder that contains any files that you added to the package (the batch files I mentioned, logo/icon files, etc), the EXE that is the file you can distribute (named according to what you called the connection profile), and several settings files (.CMP, .CMS, .INF, .SED…also named according to the connection profile).
But…how to make it silent? I finally found the info in an entry in the help file for CMAK. It was buried down in a section of the help file titled, “Including Connection Manager in custom applications.” The syntax listed there is:
ServiceProfileFileName.exe [/q:a] /c:”cmstp.exe ServiceProfileFileName.inf [Parameters]”
Since I am wanting it to be completely silent, and not include a shortcut to the connection on the desktop, this is my command line to throw into SCCM:
VPN.exe /q:a /c:”cmstp.exe VPN.inf /s /ns”
Works like a charm.
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