Components of Installation Manager

Components of Installation Manager

Installation Manager is made up of four components, whose configuration and deployment are based on the type of environment within which Installation Manager is intended to run. The four components are the package management server, network share point server, package server, and target servers.

Package Management Server

One of the MetaFrame Presentation Server 3.0 Enterprise Edition servers in your farm is designated as the package management server and has both the Installation Manager component and the Management Console for MPS 3.0 installed. The package management server does not need to be run on a dedicated MetaFrame server in the farm. It can also be one of the target servers, which are described later. The package management server is used to configure and deploy the application packages via Installation Manager.

Network Share Point Server

The application packages deployed through IM are not maintained within any kind of special MetaFrame repository, but are in fact stored on one or more file servers accessible from the Package Management Server. The network share point server can be any server in the environment that is accessible using the universal naming convention (UNC) name (\\<server>\share name). This server is not required to be running MPS, and in fact is not even required to be running Windows. As long as the file server supports standard Windows file sharing access, it can be configured for use through Installation Manager. The package management server can be used as the network share point server, but a UNC name must still be used to access packages for deployment. IM does not allow you to define a drive-letterbased path to packages (c:\folder\packages, for example).

In addition to the UNC naming requirement, the network share point server has some additional basic system requirements:

• Sufficient disk space for the application packages and associated files must exist on the server.

• The server must be accessible to all target MetaFrame servers. It is not recommended that target servers be configured to access a network share point through a firewall. Instead, a network share point should be configured on the same local network as the target servers. Installation Manager supports the use of more than one network share point server, allowing servers to be positioned geographically close to the target servers.

• Two types of access privileges must be defined for the network share point and underlying folder:

  • A minimum of read and write access must be granted to an account to allow the copying of packages to the network share point server.

  • An account must have read access to the network share point (and administrative privileges on the target servers) to retrieve packages and install them on the target server. The credentials for this account are entered and maintained as the default network credentials for Installation Manager. The configuration of IM is discussed further in the "Installing and Configuring Installation Manager" section of this chapter.

Package Server

In an Installation Manager environment that also employs Citrix's Packager application to create custom ADF packages, a MetaFrame server must be designated as the package server. When a MetaFrame server is employed as the package server for IM, Citrix recommends that this server be dedicated to package creation, and not used for any other purpose, including MetaFrame client connections. Because the Packager "records" the installation steps for an application, it is important that the package server reflect as closely as possible the configuration of the production servers, right down to the operating system. Citrix recommends that the package server meet the following requirements:

• It should run a clean installation of Windows 2000 Server or Windows Server 2003, whichever is required for the target servers. Multiple package servers can be created if the target servers are a mix of Windows 2000 and 2003. Packages created on one operating system should not be used for deployment onto a different target operating system. The package server should not be tasked with any additional functions not found on the target servers (web page serving, file and printer sharing, and so on). The operating system should match what is found on the target servers as closely as possible.

• The partition on which the operating system is installed should not contain any additional applications or data not in use on the target servers.

• The Packager application should be installed on the same partition as the core MetaFrame files. The default location is the same partition as the operating system.

You can find details on the configuration and use of the Packager application on the package server in the "Creating ADF Packages Using the Packager Utility" section of this chapter.

Alert

A package server is required only if you intend to create ADF packages for deployment. If your environment uses only MSI and MSP packages, a package server is not required.

Target Servers

All MetaFrame servers on which Installation Manager packages are deployed are known as target servers. To be a valid target server for IM, the server must be running MetaFrame Presentation Server Enterprise Edition and have the Installer service component (called ADF Installer Service) of IM running. The account used to perform package deployment must have administrative privileges on all target servers.