Scheduling Tasks

Along with the option of creating preconfigured tasks for performing installs, uninstalls, repairs or software scans, Remote Installer comes with a range of features targeted at automated execution of preconfigured tasks on schedule. The tasks can be scheduled to be executed either once or on a regular basis. The results of such tasks execution are displayed in the Execution Results view.

You can schedule the following tasks:

• Deploy Software – allows you to install, uninstall and repair any number of programs and updates on remote Machines;
• Smart Uninstall and Repair – should be used to uninstall or repair software on remote Machines choosing the products to be uninstalled or repaired from the inventory;
• Scan Software – should be used to perform a software inventory.

It is possible to schedule a task directly from the Scheduling area using the New Task or New Recurring Task menu item from the pop-up menu or on the toolbar. Another way of scheduling tasks is using the Scheduled Task buttons from the New Ribbon group on the Home page or on the Deployment and Software pages. For example, if you would like to schedule a Deploy Software task, you should use the Deploy Software item from the Scheduled Task button drop-down list. Also, it is possible to schedule a new task from any view that displays available Machines, i.e. the Network view or the All Machines view. The actions for scheduling tasks of specific types are available from the New Scheduled Task pop-up menu item; so to create a new Deploy Software task, you should choose the New Scheduled Task > Deploy Software menu item. If you would like to schedule a task to install, uninstall or repair a specific Bundle or Bundle Group, you can use the New Scheduled Task item from the Software Bundles view pop-up menu. For example, to schedule a task for installing a Bundle, you should select that bundle and choose the New Scheduled Task > Install menu item. Smart Uninstall and Smart Repair tasks can also be scheduled based on the scanned software using, for example, the Smart Uninstall/Repair > New Scheduled Task menu items from the Software Inventory view.

Along with scheduling a new task, you can also schedule any task from those already created but not scheduled yet. To schedule such a task, select it in the Tasks area and choose the Schedule Task menu item or press the corresponding button on the view toolbar.

In any case, the wizard will appear on the screen to guide you through the process Pic 1.

For each task, you can provide the task name, comment and description. Providing the comment and description values can help you to mark the task as the one to be executed in the future. You can schedule the task to run once or on a regular basis. The task recurrence is configured using the Recurrence button on the first page of the wizard. To get more information on the recurrence options, refer to the Configuring Recurrence section. The other wizard steps are used to configure additional task properties, which vary depending on the task type, along with the scope of Machines to operate. For example, while creating a new Deploy Software task, you can provide a list of deployment packages to be executed on remote Machines, and for a new Scan Software task, you can define the properties to be applied to the snapshot created while executing the task.

Detailed information on configuring deployment packages is available in the Deployment Operation Configuration section of this document; and for information on editing the Machine Queue, refer to the Defining Machines to Operate section.

Once you are done with configuring the task, press Schedule to proceed to its scheduling. The scheduled task will be added to the Scheduling area Pic 2.

A scheduled task is executed when its start time comes. It can also be executed manually using the Run menu item from the Scheduling area pop-up menu.