RollBack Rx Professional Deployment Whitepaper (for version 10.x and up)
(please see attached for version 9.x)

Five Ways to Deploy RollBack Rx Professional

RollBack Rx Professional is designed with enterprise requirements in mind. To meet the demand of various scale enterprise clients, RollBack Rx Professional provides five deployment methods ranging from individual workstation setup to company wide deployment.

1. Single Setup: Install RollBack Rx Professional on individual workstations with the setup CD or electronic download.

2. Network Setup: Install RollBack Rx Professional from a network share folder with pre-configured program settings, or using a network software deployment tool to distribute RollBack Rx Professional.

3. Script Setup or Unattended Setup: Push out RollBack Rx Professional with a client script which runs automatically when the client PCs log onto the network.

4. Deploy RollBack Rx Professional In a System Image: Include RollBack Rx Professional in a system image and roll it out with the operating system deployment using a drive imaging utility such as Symantec’s Norton Ghost.

5. Create and Deploy Using an MSI: Install RollBack Rx Professional with an MSI executable using preconfigured settings.

Single Setup

To install RollBack Rx Professional on individual workstations, follow these typical setup procedures:

1. Unzip the installer package.

2. Go to folder “Rollbackv1(x)” and run setup.

3. Select Typical or Custom Setup at the setup selection menu and follow the on-screen instructions.

Network Setup

If you need to setup RollBack Rx Professional on multiple PCs on a network, to eliminate the hassle of carrying a CD around to setup each PC, RollBack Rx Professional allows you to run the setup from a network share. Follow these general guidelines to install RollBack Rx Professional over the network:

1. Copy all RollBack Rx Professional files from the extracted zip files into a folder on your server and create a share for the folder.

2. Create a Setup INI File (SETUP.INI) with the SETUP INI Wizard utility provided in the Deployment Tools folder of the RollBack Rx Professional installer package. Place the SETUP.INI file into the folder containing RollBack Rx Professional program files created in Step 1.

3. Open the SETUP.INI file in Notepad, scroll down to [Advanced.Partition], delete all lines underneath it and write in “ProtectDrives=systemonly” to have the SETUP.INI file protect the C: drive, or enter “ProtectDrives=all” to cover all drives. This is important, as when the INI file is created it will read the drive it was created on, including specific information related to that drive. By editing in either of these lines it ensures deployment onto any other drive will be successful.

4. To install RollBack Rx Professional on a workstation, access the shared folder from the workstation and run Setup.exe

5. Select “Unattended Setup” option at the setup selection menu. Unattended Setup will read-in the setup parameters (such as product ID, password, protection type, program settings and installation directory) from the SETUP.INI file that has been configured in Step 2 above. At the end of the setup the user will be asked to restart the computer.

If you use a network software deployment tool such as Microsoft SMS server, Novell ZENworks, etc., to deploy our software, please follow these guidelines:

1. Create a BEFORE snapshot of the system with the software deployment application.

2. Create a folder called Setup on the root of the C drive and copy all of the RollBack Rx Professional program files into the folder.

3. Create a SETUP.INI file as aforementioned in Step 2.

4. Place SetAutoSetup.exe (which can be found in the Deployment Tools folder on the installer package) into the Setup folder and double click to run it. SetAutoSetup.exe will write some deployment settings into the system registry.

5. Run the software deployment application again to create an AFTER snapshot and create the software deployment package.

6. Deploy the software package and reboot the client system.

Setup with Scripts (Unattended Setup)

For some network administrators who prefer to use client side scripts to deploy new applications to workstations, RollBack Rx Professional can also be easily integrated into their custom scripting install scenario. Follow these general guidelines to deploy RollBack Rx Professional within a network script:

1. Copy RollBack Rx Professional files from the installer package into a folder on your server and create a network share for the folder.

2. Create a Setup INI File (SETUP.INI) with the SETUP INI Wizard utility provided in the Deployment Tools folder of the RollBack Rx Professional installer package. Place the SETUP.INI file into the folder with the RollBack Rx Professional program files created in Step 1.

3. To use a client side script to install RollBack Rx Professional when clients log on, include “setup.exe /s” within the setup script. Setup /s allows RollBack Rx Professional setup wizard to silently read-in the setup parameter from the SETUP.INI file configured in Step 2.

4. Open the SETUP.INI file in Notepad, scroll down to [Advanced.Partition], delete the lines underneath it and write in “ProtectDrives=systemonly” to have the SETUP.INI file protect the C: drive, or enter “ProtectDrives=all” to cover all drives. This is important, as when the INI file is created it will read the drive it was created on, including specific information related to that drive. By editing in either of these lines it ensures deployment onto any other drive will be successful.

5. Please test the installation file and ensure it works as intended by running an installation with the SETUP.INI file.

No user intervention is required during the silent setup. Setup will restart the computer automatically at the end. If you do not wish to restart the computer automatically at the end of the setup, add “/norestart” to the “setup.exe /s” command.

Deploy RollBack Rx Professional In a System Image

RollBack Rx Professional can also be included in a system image and rolled out with the operating system deployment, such as one created with Norton Ghost or a similar utility. However, due to RollBack Rx Professional’ security design, some of the program’s features do not exist in a visible file format. Instead they exist as bits and bytes on the physical sectors of the hard drive. Therefore the typical Ghost approach of imaging all files on the hard drive to create a system image will not be able to include all RollBack Rx Professional components. Please follow these guidelines to prepare a hard disk for imaging including RollBack Rx Professional:

1. Copy RollBack Rx Professional program files from the installer package into a folder on the hard disk that you will use to create the system image (master image). Rename the folder as Setup.

2. Create an Advanced Setup Configuration File (SETUP.INI) with the SETUP.INI Wizard utility provided in the Deployment Tools folder of the installer package. Place the SETUP.INI file into the setup folder created in Step 1.

3. Open the SETUP.INI file in Notepad, scroll down to [Advanced.Partition], delete the lines underneath it and write in “ProtectDrives=systemonly” to have the SETUP.INI file protect the C: drive, or enter “ProtectDrives=all” to cover all drives. This is important, as when the INI file is created it will read the drive it was created on, including specific information related to that drive. By editing in either of these lines it ensures deployment onto any other drive will be successful.

4. Place the SetAutoSetup.exe utility, provided in the Deployment Tools folder of the installer package, into the Setup folder and double click to run it. SetAutoSetup.exe will write some deployment settings into the system registry.

5. Now the hard disk is ready for imaging. Image the drive with a Windows based imaging application or reboot the PC to a CD to create an image of this hard disk containing RollBack Rx Professional setup files. DO NOT reboot into Windows after running SetAutoSetup.exe which had created some registry entries to automatically start the RollBack Rx Professional deployment process, rebooting into Windows will kick off the RollBack Rx Professional auto-setup process.

The master image contains the RollBack Rx Professional deployment package rather than the already-installed RollBack Rx Professional program. Once the master image is dumped onto a hard disk, at the first startup, SetAutoSetup.exe generated registry entries will trigger the RollBack Rx Professional deployment process. This process is silent and transparent to the users. Setup reads in the program parameters from the SETUP.INI file configured in the previous step without any user interaction. At the end of the setup, SetAutoSetup.exe will automatically remove the RollBack Rx Professional setup files and restart the system.

MSI Deployment

If the best option for you and/or your organization is to create and deploy using an MSI file, then please click on the following links for a full set of instructions.

You will need to download the MSI creation tool, AppDeploy, by clicking on this link

Please follow this link for full instructions on creation and deployment of an MSI package: http://support.horizondatasys.com/Troubleshooter/Step/View/7

NOTE: Be sure to follow this guide's System Image Setup.INI file creation instructions for use of the ini file in the MSI package.

Contact Us

If you encounter any issues or have additional questions please contact our support team at http://support.horizondatasys.com and Submit a Ticket.