Deploying packages and bundles

Overview

Use deployments to install, update, or uninstall software on a set of target computers. Deployments can run once or be ongoing to meet requirements such as:

Maintain operational hygiene and system baselines.
Manage systems which may be online for short periods.
Rerun packages which become applicable as system states change.

Deployments do not run outside of a maintenance window unless the Override maintenance window option is selected in the deployment options. You must create at least one maintenance window for other deployments to run. For more information about creating a maintenance window, see Managing maintenance windows.

Before you begin

Create a software package or bundle. See Managing packages and bundles.
If you want to notify the end users of your endpoints about the start of deployments or restarts that occur after deployments, install the Tanium End-User Notification solution. See Tanium End-User Notifications User Guide: Installing End-User Notifications and Endpoint restarts.

Create a software package deployment

To deploy a software package, click the name of your package and then click Deploy.

Provide the deployment details.
Select the software package operation.
Choose at least one target for the deployment.
Select deployment options.
1. Choose whether you want to base this deployment on a deployment template. To create a new deployment template based on this template, select Create Deployment Template. For more information, see Create a deployment template.
2. Designate the deployment time.
  You can choose from your browser time or local time on the endpoint.
3. Specify a deployment type. You can either do a single deployment with a specific start and end time, or an ongoing deployment that does not have an end time.
4. If you want the endpoints to download the deployment content before the installation time, select Download immediately.
  Files for the package are downloaded immediately only if the package is applicable.
5. You can enable end user notifications about the deployments. Select Notify User in the Pre-Notify User section. You can then configure settings that allow the user to postpone the start of the deployment. You must also configure the Message Content that informs the user about the deployment. You can select additional languages and provide translated title and body text for endpoints that are configured for other languages. To preview the window that displays the message and postponement options, click Show Preview.
6. To minimize concurrent CPU utilization and disk input/output, select Distribute over time and indicate the time.
7. If you want to ignore deployment restrictions, select Override maintenance windows.
8. Select whether to restart the endpoint. For more information, see Endpoint restarts.
9. You can enable end user notifications about the completion of a deployment with or without a restart. Select Notify User in the Post-Notify User section. If you enabled endpoint restarts, you can then configure settings that allow the user to postpone the restart. You must also configure the Message Content that informs the user about the restart. You can select additional languages and provide translated title and body text for endpoints that are configured for other languages. To preview the window that displays the message and postponement options, click Show Preview.
Click Create Deployment.

Endpoint restarts

Deploy can trigger a restart of any system after updates have been installed. You can choose between the following options for the restart:

Restart silently and immediately after deployment. This option is typically used for servers and production machines in conjunction with maintenance windows and change control processes.
Notify the system user about the pending restart and give the system user the option to defer the restart for a specified amount of time. Configure the following options:

Duration of Postponement
Specify the amount of time in minutes, hours, or days before the endpoint must be restarted. The deadline is calculated by adding this value to the time the deployment completed for each endpoint.
Countdown to deadline
Specify the amount of time in minutes to show the final notification before restarting the endpoint. This notification also shows a countdown until restart. If this notification is dismissed, it will reappear after one minute. Set a low value because this option is meant to signal a forced restart that cannot be postponed.
Allow User to Postpone
If you want to give the user an option to defer the restart for a specified amount of time, select this option. A user cannot postpone beyond the deadline.
User Postponement Options
Specify the amount of time in minutes, hours, or days that a user can postpone the restart.
Message Content
Specify the title and body of the notification message. You can use ||OPERATION||, ||PACKAGENAME||, or ||DEPLOYMENTNAME|| as variables in the title or body. If you are deploying a software bundle, the bundle name is used for the ||PACKAGENAME|| variable. Upload optional icon and body images for branding to avoid confusing users and to limit support calls. Enable additional languages and provide translated title and body text. Enabling additional languages requires End-User Notifications 1.6 or later and Deploy 1.3 or later. By default, the notification displays content in the system language on the endpoints. If you enable additional languages, the user can select other languages to display. Click Show Preview to preview the notifications.
This message is configurable, and might look like the following example:

After the deadline for restart passes, the user gets a message that they cannot postpone:

End user notifications can be added to existing deployments by stopping, reconfiguring, and reissuing the deployment.

If no user is logged into an endpoint, the endpoint restarts immediately after a deployment completion even if the deployment is configured for a notification.

Create a software bundle deployment

A software bundle is platform-specific and each software package evaluates and installs independently, but is available only for the specified OS platform. If an individual package fails to install during a bundle deployment, you can decide if the bundle should continue and install the remaining packages, or you can choose to stop on failure and report the failure.

To deploy a software bundle, click the name of your bundle and then click Deploy.

Provide the deployment details.
Verify the software bundle details.
Choose at least one target for the deployment.
Select deployment options.
1. Choose whether you want to base this deployment on a deployment template. To create a new deployment template based on this template, select Create Deployment Template. For more information, see Create a deployment template.
2. Designate the deployment time.
  You can choose from your browser time or local time on the endpoint.
3. Specify a deployment type. You can either do a single deployment with a specific start and end time, or an ongoing deployment that does not have an end time.
4. If you want the endpoints to download the deployment content before the installation time, select Download immediately.
  Files for all packages in the bundle are downloaded immediately. Applicability for each package is not checked until the deployment start time.
5. You can enable end user notifications about the deployments. Select Notify User in the Pre-Notify User section. You can then configure settings that allow the user to postpone the start of the deployment. You must also configure the Message Content that informs the user about the deployment. You can select additional languages and provide translated title and body text for endpoints that are configured for other languages. To preview the window that displays the message and postponement options, click Show Preview.
6. To minimize concurrent CPU utilization and disk input/output, select Distribute over time and indicate the time.
7. If you want to ignore deployment restrictions, select Override maintenance windows.
8. Select whether to restart the endpoint. For more information, see Endpoint restarts.
9. You can enable end user notifications about the completion of a deployment with or without a restart. Select Notify User in the Post-Notify User section. If you enabled endpoint restarts, you can then configure settings that allow the user to postpone the restart. You must also configure the Message Content that informs the user about the restart. You can select additional languages and provide translated title and body text for endpoints that are configured for other languages. To preview the window that displays the message and postponement options, click Show Preview.
Click Create Deployment.

Review deployment summary

You can get the deployment results by status, any error messages, and the deployment configuration details.

In the Deploy menu, click Deployments.
Select either the Active or Inactive tab.
Click the deployment name.
Review the sections.
- Install/Install or Update/Update/Remove Summary shows the package name, package size, and operations.
- Install/Install or Update/Update/Remove Status has the install status, number of online endpoints, and the date and time of the last status update. The results are split out by status with the Interact icon to see the results by endpoint.
- Error Messages include a brief description, the count of affected machines, and the Interact icon to drill down.
- Deployment Details provides all the configuration information.
- Targeted Computers lists the targeted computer groups for the deployment.

Reissue a deployment

You can restart a stopped deployment or reissue a one-time deployment. Reissuing a deployment creates a new deployment with the same configuration and targets.

From the Deploy menu, click Deployments.
On the Inactive tab, click the deployment name.
Click Reissue.
Make changes if necessary.
Preview the changes.
Click Create Deployment.

Stop a deployment

You can stop a package or bundle deployment, but it does not remove packages that have already completed installation.

In the Deploy menu, click Deployments.
On the Active tab, click the deployment name.
Click Stop.
Go to the Inactive tab and click the deployment name to verify the status.

Create a deployment template

You can create a deployment template to save settings for a deployment that you can issue repeatedly. You can either create a deployment template from the Deployment Templates menu item, or you can select an option when you create a deployment to save the options as a template.

From the Deploy menu, click Deployment Templates.
Click Create Deployment Template.
Specify a name and description for your deployment template.
Select deployment options. These options are the same as the options you can configure in an individual deployment.
Click Create Deployment Template.

You can use this template when you create a deployment.