Distributing the GroupWise Client via ZENworks

If your organization has implemented ZENworks, distributing the GroupWise 7 client can be pretty sweet. With ZENworks and GroupWise 7, you now have two methods to distribute the GroupWise client:

• Integrate the GroupWise SETUP.EXE routine with a suitable SETUP.CFG into a ZENworks installation object. In the past this option was certainly one of the more interesting and successful ways to deploy GroupWise, but now we also have a very interesting new option.

  Tip

  One of the complications of the method just mentioned can be the fact that some part of an older version of the GroupWise client, like Notify, might still be running. With earlier versions of GroupWise, Novell therefore included a little application called SHUTDOWN.EXE, which will close all active GroupWise applications. This nifty little tool can be found in the CLIENT/ZEN folder of one of these earlier versions and can be useful for upgrades to GroupWise 7 from an earlier version.

  
  

• Integrate the GroupWise MSI file into a ZENworks installation object. If you're using a more recent version of ZENworks, you should probably already be aware of the many advantages of MSI-based installation packages. And if you're using an older version of ZENworks, this could certainly be a reason to upgrade. We mentioned some of the advantages in one of the earlier sections of this chapter; however, a further discussion of creating a MSI installation object in ZENworks does not fit within the scope of this book.

Note

In earlier versions of GroupWise, Novell also delivered ZENworks AOT files to deploy the GroupWise client. However, with the introduction of the new MSI-based installation routine, as described in one of the previous sections, this option has become obsolete and these files are not available anymore.