Snap ins - Dumb down the details for me...

[BiologyBen]

I an a non-techie that runs a large afterschool program for kids. FOG is setup and working fine for PC images, but now I’m trying to learn Snap-ins for adding some programs (Inkscape, LanSchool, Scratch (and some odd ball programs for our Makerspace for the CNC machine, Vinyl cutter & laser cutter)

Just some clarifications - Specifically for MSI installations (I’ll dig into .exe’s and packs at a later time):

• Do I still need to increase PHP memory limits?

  • Wiki instructions are for PHP 5 (and who knows what version of FOG) - I currently seem to have PHP7.

• Do I need to place the files on the server for PC’s to access, or do I just select it from my local download file after downloading

• Is there a list of appropriate Snapin Run With Arguments? or just always use /i and nothing else?

• Is there a list of appropriate Snapin Arguments? or just always use /quiet and nothing else?

• When would I or would I not hide the arguments?

• What is a reasonable Snapin Timeout?

• What does ‘Replicate’ mean and when would I use it? When would I not?

• This is where I’m at and I would assume will work. Any recommended changes?

• What needs to happen with programs that may need some per PC configuration settings?

[Avaryan]

FOG runs snapins as the local SYSTEM account. This gives it the administrative privileges that it needs to install the applications. If the applications requires user input during setup, then you may not be able to make it a Snapin. You could also look into something like AppDeploy to repackage an application into a silent installer.

I tend to google “<application name> silent install” for applications that I am unfamiliar with.

• If you’ve installed FOG with the defaults, you should have the correct PHP version.
• Select the files from your computer and they will upload to the FOG server. FOG will deploy them from the server.
• /i is for msi based installers. You won’t use that for exes.
• These vary depending on the application. Google “<application name> silent install” and you’ll likely get what you need.
• I’ve never used this option.
• I’ve never used this option. I just left as 0.
• Again, I just leave this as the default option.
• Since that’s an MSI in the picture, that will probably work.

[THEMCV]

You don’t need to increase your PHP memory limits unless you are getting error messages, but if you do wan to increase them mine are set to 512 under Memory Limit

When you upload the files to the FOG server from the Snapin interface, it keeps them up on the FOG server, so they don’t need to be anywhere else.

The arguments depend on the program. /i for MSIs should be fine (IIRC), but other program .exe installers might have a specific flag that they need (/silent, /s, etc)

I don’t know that you need to ever hide the arguments, but I don’t have an answer for that one.

Default has been okay for me. May need to set it higher for bigger installations like Office, but for what you’re installing I think it would be okay.

Replicate is for when you have storage node/secondary FOG servers, so if you don’t have those setup you don’t need to worry about them.

Looks good to me.

Hope that helps!

[Avaryan]

I know that Scratch and Scratch 2 are deployable via FOG Snapins. I’ve made them for both.

This installs Adobe AIR, which is a prerequisite for something in here. Haven’t looked at this in a year.

Will need to add all of the files shown above to a zip archive and then upload.

[Avaryan]

Since I don’t currently have any important work to do while at work…

Inkscape. Newer versions have a MSI file. Should be very easy to make a Snapin with.
Download link: https://inkscape.org/en/gallery/item/11263/inkscape-0.92.2-x64.msi

LanSchool. No idea what this is, but it does offer silent installation options so you should be able to script something.
https://helpdesk.stone-ware.com/portal/kb/articles/install-uninstall-lanschool-via-the-command-line-cmd
https://helpdesk.stone-ware.com/portal/kb/articles/scripting-or-mass-deploy-switches-for-lanschool-install

Scratch 1.4. Use the msi file available here. It has an ini file with it, so upload the entire zip file as a SnapinPack and choose the msi template.
http://download.scratch.mit.edu/Scratch1.4.msi.installer.zip

Scratch 2. Already showed you that one, but there are newer versions available.
https://scratch.mit.edu/download