Deploy overview

Deploy is a software management module that you can use to rapidly install, update, and remove software across large organizations with minimal infrastructure requirements. You can create deployments to run during a maintenance window that is convenient for your IT operations.

You can deploy applications or a group of applications to a flexible set of targets, including computer groups, user groups, departments, locations, individual computers, and individual users. You can also update existing software installation to the latest available versions, and create custom packages to install, update, and remove applications.

Software packages

A Tanium Deploy software package is a combination of source files, metadata, detection logic, and actions that are used to detect, install, update, and remove software from Tanium managed devices.

Each software package contains the following elements:

Package Files

The files needed to install, update, remove, or configure an application. This typically includes installation files, but can also be any files that are used by the software package.

Package Details

The product vendor, name, version, and platform of the software package. A Self Service display name, description, or package icon can optionally be added.

System Requirements

The requirements to install or update the software package on a managed endpoint: minimum RAM and disk space, system architecture, or specific operating systems that are supported.

Deploy Operations

The changes that the software package can make when it is deployed to endpoints: installing, updating, or removing the package. Software packages can have any combination of these operations defined, or they can have no operations and be used only for reporting and auditing purposes.

Installation Requirements

The conditions that must be met to install the software package, such as prerequisite applications.

Update Detection

The conditions that must be met to update the software package. Typically, this is the presence of a previous version of the product.

Install Verification

The conditions that must be met to identify that the software package is installed.

For more information, see Create a software package.

Software bundles

A Tanium Deploy software bundle is a list of Deploy software packages that can be deployed and executed in an ordered sequence. Software bundles are used to deploy a list of packages that are used by specific departments or user types.

For more information, see Create a software bundle.

Predefined Package Gallery

The Tanium Deploy Predefined Package Gallery is a collection of software packages that you can use to distribute software package templates. These templates include all of the required information for you to import and deploy third-party software. The Predefined Package Gallery is updated hourly. For a list of packages in the Predefined Package Gallery, see Reference: Predefined Package Gallery.

For more information, see Import a software package from the Predefined Package Gallery.

Applicability scans

You can configure how often applicability scans run for the software packages that are in the Deploy software package catalog, and how frequently the applicability status cache is updated.

Applicability scans evaluate endpoints against the required operating system, minimum disk space, memory, and requirements. Applicability scans run under the following circumstances to determine if a Tanium managed device is eligible to install, is eligible for update, installed, or has failed requirements:

  • On a schedule according to the Scan Interval setting (Default: 24 hours)

  • When the endpoint receives a new deployment for the first time or a new or updated software package

  • When a deployment is about to run or has finished running a software package operation

  • When a user logs onto a Windows computer or opens the Self Service Client

Install Eligible

The count of systems where the software is not installed and system requirements are met.

Update Eligible

The count of systems where one or more of the previous versions of the application are detected, and the software package can update those systems.

Installed

The count of systems where the software package is already installed.

Update Ineligible

The count of systems where one or more of the previous versions of the application are detected, but the system requirements are not met.

Not Applicable

The count of systems where the system requirements or prerequisites are not met.

For information about how Deploy determines software package applicability, see View software package applicability.

Deployments

A deployment is a one-time or recurring action to install, update, or remove applications on targeted endpoints. For more information, see Deploying software.

Deployment templates can be used to save settings for a deployment that you can issue repeatedly. For more information, see Create a deployment template.

Maintenance windows

Maintenance windows designate the permitted times that the targeted computer groups are open for deployments to run. You can have multiple maintenance windows, even with overlapping times. Maintenance windows do not interfere with each other. For a deployment to take effect, the deployment and maintenance window times must be met. For more information, see Managing maintenance windows.

Self service profiles

With the Self Service Client application, you can publish software to Windows endpoints so that users can install software on their own without the need for IT to install for them. Deploy self service profiles and the Self Service Client application are used in conjunction with End-User Notification profiles in Tanium™ End-User Notifications 1.5 or later. For more information, see Managing End-User Self Service.

Interoperability with other Tanium products

Deploy works with other Tanium products to provide additional features and reporting.

API Gateway

Use API Gateway to access the Deploy API. For information about what features are available through the API Gateway, see Tanium API Gateway User Guide: Schema reference.

End-User Notifications

Deploy uses Tanium™ End-User Notifications to notify users about deployments to Windows and macOS endpoints, and to configure End-User Self Service capabilities. You can create a message with your deployment to notify the user that the system is about to begin a deployment, has completed a deployment, and if postponements are enabled, to give the user the option to postpone the deployment or restart now. For more information, see Tanium End-User Notifications.

Reporting

If you have Tanium Reporting 1.12 or later, Deploy uses Tanium™ Reporting to create the charts on the Deploy Overview page. For more information, see Tanium Reporting.

Trends

Deploy has built in integration with Tanium™ Trends to provide data visualization. The Deploy board displays metrics related to software deployment, including machines running Deploy and gallery packages that are installed. The following panels are in the Deploy board:

  • Summary
    • Deploy Coverage
    • Endpoints Missing Software Updates Released Over 30 Days Ago
    • Mean Time to Deploy Software
    • Software Installed by Self Service User Request
  • Gallery Updates
    • Top 25 Gallery Packages Installed
    • Top 25 Gallery Package Updates Needed
  • Endpoint Status
    • Online - Endpoints Running Deploy
    • Historical - Endpoints Running Deploy

For more information about how to import the Trends board that is provided by Deploy, see Tanium Trends User Guide: Importing the initial gallery.