Deployment with Desktop Central

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Retrospect Backup 16 includes improved support for deployment toolsets. With ManageEngine’s Desktop Central, you can deploy Windows clients throughout your infrastructure. Desktop Central supports Windows, Mac, and Linux deployments, but for this tutorial, we are going to focus on the Windows side.

Let’s walk through the process step-by-step.

Configure Retrospect Client

  1. Download the Windows client installer and extract the "Installer" folder with the Retrospect Client.msi file and the public_key folder.

  2. Place the appropriate pubkey.dat file created by the engine in the public_key folder.

Configure Desktop Central

  1. Create a network share under "Software Deployment → Software Repository".

  2. Place the "Installer" folder in the DesktopCentral Software Repository directory.

  3. Under "Software Deployment", click on "Add Package" and select "Windows".

  4. Fill out "Package Name", select "MSI/MSP" radio button, select "Commercial" for "License Type".

  5. For "Locate Installable:", choose "From Shared folder" which will see the Installer directory in the SoftwareRepository.

  6. Under "Installed", click on "Browse MSI / MSP File Name". You do not need to choose a .MST file. Those correspond to languages.

  7. Click on "Add Package".

  8. Deploy the Retrospect client to the appropriate set of Windows machines.

Uninstallation

You can also uninstall the client with msiexec and the MSI file that was used for installation:

msiexec /x "path to .msi file" /qn

With this command, you can silently uninstall clients from machines.

Last Update: 05 mars 2019