Updated - Deploying the 2007 Office system by using System Center Configuration Manager
Thank-you everyone for your feedback. I'm now posting the most recent draft copy of this article. The final copy of the article will be published in the 2007 Office Resource Kit on Microsoft TechNet, located here: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc303401.aspx.
Deploying the 2007 Office system by using System Center Configuration Manager 2007
February 2009 – Draft Copy
Summary
This article provides detailed technical guidance on the processes and procedures when using Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 to deploy the 2007 Microsoft Office system in a medium to large enterprise corporate environment. This article includes the following sections:
· Overview
· Introduction to the deployment process
· Deploying the 2007 Office system in a test environment
· Resources for deploying the infrastructure
Overview
Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 is the solution to comprehensively assess, deploy, and update your servers, clients, and devices across physical, virtual, distributed, and mobile environments. This article provides detailed technical guidance for specifically deploying the 2007 Microsoft Office system.
Although this article illustrates the test network environment used for helping to describe the process of deploying the 2007 Office system by using Configuration Manager 2007, it does not provide information about how to set up the test network infrastructure, such as the Active Directory directory service, Microsoft SQL Server, and System Center Configuration Manager. However, it does provide links for setting up a similar network infrastructure. This information is located in the last section of this article, “Resources for deploying the infrastructure.”
Audience
The target audience for this article is IT professionals. These IT professionals could include network managers, consultants, and IT managers who work for or with medium to large enterprises.
Prerequisites
Prior knowledge and experience will help users understand and apply the information in this article, particularly experience in the following areas:
· Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 or Configuration Manager 2007
· Office Customization Tool (OCT)
· 2007 Microsoft Office system, Microsoft Office 2003, or Microsoft Office XP
Introduction to the deployment process
Once you have your supporting infrastructure in place for Configuration Manager 2007, the process for deploying the 2007 Office system involves creating and defining five primary areas:
· Collections
· Packages
· Programs
· Distribution points
· Advertisements
Collections Collections are groups of Configuration Manager 2007 resources, such as users, user groups, or computers, against which a software deployment is targeted. For additional overview information about collections, see “Collections Overview” located at the following link: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb680321.aspx.
Packages A package is the set of installation source files that Configuration Manager 2007 manages and distributes for software deployment. Some of the information included within the package is the distribution points and programs. For additional overview information about packages, see “About Packages” located at the following link: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb680855.aspx.
Programs Programs are part of the package configuration in Configuration Manager 2007. They contain any command-line switches and additional parameters to be run from the designated package source files, such as “Setup.exe”. For additional overview information about programs, see “About Programs” located at the following link: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb632775.aspx.
Distribution points Distribution points are Configuration Manager 2007 site systems that store designated packages for deployment to Configuration Manager 2007 clients. When the Configuration Manager 2007 client receives and processes a relevant advertisement, the client then contacts a distribution point to download the package and start the installation process. For additional overview information about distribution points, see “About Distribution Points” located at the following link: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb680614.aspx.
Advertisements Advertisements tie packages and programs together with collections, enabling administrators to target software deployment of specific or customized applications to collections of computers or users. An advertisement specifies a package and program, and the collection to which it will be advertised or deployed. For additional overview information about advertisements, see “About Advertisements” located at the following link: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb694110.aspx.
Deploying the 2007 Office system in a test environment
This section provides a diagram and description of the test network environment for the Configuration Manager 2007 infrastructure. It also includes procedural information of the steps for deploying 2007 Microsoft Office Enterprise by using Configuration Manager 2007.
Network environment
The test network environment for this article is shown in the following illustration.
All of the servers (A, B, and C) are running Windows Server 2008 and are members of the same domain (CPANDL.COM), including the client computers (D), which are running Windows Vista Enterprise. The applications and roles that each server is running, and the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) for each client computer, are listed as follows:
A. Active Directory, DNS, DHCP <DC.CPANDL.COM>
B. SQL Server 2008 <SQLSRV.CPANDL.COM>
C. System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2 (management point, distribution point) <SCCM.CPANDL.COM>
D. Windows Vista Enterprise, System Center Configuration Manager 2007 client <WVC01.CPANDL.COM>
Although in this simple test network environment the site server is performing multiple site system roles (such as management point and distribution point) simultaneously, this configuration is not recommended for production sites that have large numbers of resources.
Procedural steps for deploying the 2007 Office system by using Configuration Manager 2007
In this example, deployment scenario detailed information is provided for deploying 2007 Office Enterprise in the previously defined Configuration Manager 2007 test environment. By following these steps, you can use Configuration Manager 2007 to deploy a silent installation of the 2007 Office system, where the users do not interact with the installation process.
Note: In a production environment to minimize the load on your network, you can use Configuration Manager 2007 to deploy (precache) the local installation source of the 2007 Office system separately, before you deploy Office. Precaching allows most of the installation activity to occur on the local computer instead of over the network. Precaching also allows you to coordinate the upgrade to the new version. You can distribute the local installation source to groups of users over time and then schedule a simultaneous installation throughout the organization without over-taxing the network. For more information, see “Precache the local installation source for the 2007 Office system” located at the following link: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc179231.aspx.
In this example, the first step is to create a customization file for the silent installation of the 2007 Office system.
Create a Setup customization file for the 2007 Office system
In the 2007 Office system, Setup controls the entire installation, including processes that Windows Installer handled in previous Office versions. Customizing the default behavior of Setup allows you to control the process. In this example, you customize the installation for a silent installation of the 2007 Office system.
The Office Customization Tool (OCT) is used to create a Setup customization file (MSP file). Setup applies this file when Office is installed on the computers.
Note: It is also possible to use the Config.xml file to configure a silent installation of the 2007 Office system. For more information about using Config.xml, see “Configure a silent install of the 2007 Office system with Config.xml” located at the following link: https://blogs.technet.com/office\_resource\_kit/archive/2009/01/29/configure-a-silent-install-of-the-2007-office-system-with-config-xml.aspx.
To customize Office Setup, you use the command line setup.exe /admin to start the Office Customization Tool. In this example, using Configuration Manager 2007 to deploy the 2007 Office system, at a command prompt you run setup.exe /admin from the package source directory, \SCCMOffice2007Enterprise.
To ensure that the 2007 Office system is silently installed, you need to modify and configure the settings as follows:
On the Licensing and user interface dialog box, set the Display Level to None, which will then enable the Suppress modal check box. Verify that the Completion notice and No Cancel options are not selected. Enter a valid 25-character volume license key in the Product Key box located under Licensing and user interface. Select the I accept the terms in the License Agreement check box.
Save and name the newly created MSP file and place it in the Updates folder for the 2007 Office system on the computer that contains the package source directory, which in this example is \SCCMOffice2007EnterpriseUpdatesCustomFileOffice2007SilentInstall.MSP.
For additional information about how to customize the default behavior of Setup for the 2007 Office system, see “Customize Setup before installing the 2007 Office system” located at the following link: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc179121.aspx.
Create a collection
This section provides the details for using direct membership rules to create a collection in Configuration Manager 2007. This allows for selecting the computer resources of the targeted computers.
For additional information about the membership rules, including both query and direct, see “About Membership Rules” located at the following link: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb680821.aspx.
To create a collection, in the Configuration Manager Console, navigate to System Center Configuration Manager / Site Database / Computer Management / Collections.
Right-click Collections, and then click New Collection. On the General dialog box of the New Collection Wizard, enter a name for the collection. In this example, it is named “Target-Computers”.
On the Membership Rules dialog box, click the computer icon, which opens the Create Direct Membership Rule Wizard. Click Next.
On the Search for Resources dialog box, click the Resource class drop-down menu and select System Resource. Then, click the Attribute name drop-down menu and select Name. In the Value field enter % , and then click Next.
On the Collection Limiting dialog box, click the Browse button, select All Windows Workstation or Professional Systems, click OK, and then click Next.
On the Select Resources dialog box, select the check box for each of the targeted computer resources. In this example, TestComputer01 and TestComputer02 were selected. Click Next, and then on the Finished dialog box, click Finish. On the Membership Rules dialog box of the New Collection Wizard, click Next.
On the Advertisements dialog box, for now, do not assign an advertisement because it is not yet created. Click Next. On the Security dialog box, accept the defaults, click Next, and then click Close.
The next step is to prepare the source directory for the package.
For more information about collections, see “Collections in Configuration Manager” located at the following link: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb693730.aspx.
Prepare the package source directory
The package source folder contains all the files and subdirectories needed to run the programs in a package. In this example, the source directory is \SCCMOffice2007Enterprise, which contains a copy of the 2007 Office Enterprise installation CD.
Note: It is possible to reduce the
Comments
Anonymous
January 01, 2003
Hi Andrew, I'm happy to hear you got it working correctly. Thank-you again for sharing your information. And, please disregard MY last post. :-). It looks like there was a lag between when I posted my previous comment and when I was notified (via e-mail) that you were able to figure out why it was failing. Cheers!Anonymous
January 01, 2003
Jesper, thank-you for the feedback. I will update this TechNet article "Deploy the 2007 Office system by using System Center Configuration Manager 2007" (see link below) to include this information and reference the TechNet article you included in your post. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd630737.aspx Thanks again, this is great input.Anonymous
January 01, 2003
This is an updated version of the orignal post "Deploying the 2007 Office system by using System Center Configuration Manager", which was posted 01/16/09.Anonymous
January 01, 2003
The comment has been removedAnonymous
January 01, 2003
Daniel, thank-you for your feedback.Anonymous
January 01, 2003
Andrew, thank-you for your feedback. I look forward to hearing from you regarding the results. Although it is difficult to notice, there are indeed some changes to this 2nd version, such as additional notes, links, and edits - nothing major but hopefully an improvement.Anonymous
January 01, 2003
This post looks good, but I didn't notice anything different in this post that was different fropm the previous (Jan). Anyways, I'm testing this out as we speak and will keep you posted on the results. AndrewAnonymous
January 01, 2003
Disregard my previous post. I figured out why it was failing. In my OCT file, I configured ACCESS as "Installed on 1st use", but it required "Visual Basic for Applications", which needed user intervention. That's why the Setup.exe was hanging in the process. I reconfigured the program to "Allow users to interact with this program", re-deployed the package, ran the advertisement, saw what the problem and fixed it. Your post was fantastic! Thank you for all your help. AndrewAnonymous
January 01, 2003
Hi Andrew, I'm sorry to hear the initial installing attempt was not successful. Here are some troubleshooting steps to hopefully help isolate the problem.
- Make sure you are using a volume license - requisite for silent install
- On the targeted client computer(s) in the WindowsTemp directory there should be a log file (if setup.exe started) for the attempted installation of Office. It would be named: SetupExe(20090310xxxxxxxxx).log - where year, month, and day are the first 8 digits within the enclosed parenthesis. If you are not seeing a .log file for Office setup then the troubleshooting should be within SCCM, which contains multiple log files for troubleshooting.
- If you do see the SetupExe(xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx).log then open the file to see if there are any errors indicating why setup did not complete.
- One possible reason would be if you are testing in a lab environment without internet access and there are update files from the Office DVD source in the Updates folder which require access for validation.
- Another possible reason is if you import the "EnterpriseWW.msi" file when creating a program for SCCM but are actually installing Office Professional Plus (ProPlus), which was referenced when you created the .msp file using setup /admin.
- Finally, as a troubleshooting step you can try creating a new .msp file with only one product (such as MS Word) from the Office 2007 Suite. This is done when using setup /admin (using the OCT). You can select which products to install under Features | Set feature installation states.
Anonymous
January 01, 2003
The comment has been removedAnonymous
March 11, 2009
Hi, Congratlations! The article is very good! DanielAnonymous
March 25, 2009
Hi.. Thanks for wonderful post Regarding my query, I did precache on local PC as adviced in article. After pre-caching, when i tried to run setup.exe to install, it is again asking for 1716 MB of space requirement. We are installing enterprise edition of Office 2007. If pre-cache is there, why it is still after space for entire package? Any idea? how i can push Office 2007 sliently through sccm to clients in our environment of more than 10,000 user base. Is after precaching , i need to run different command or different msi or exe to get full enterprise edition to get installed?Anonymous
May 11, 2009
"CustomFileOffice2007SilentInstall.MSP" may not be processed if a Service Pack is extracted to the UPDATES folder. See http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc178995.aspx "If you use the Office Customization Tool to create a customization patch, we recommend that you rename the customization patch file so that it is installed first. Setup.exe processes only one patch during installation; all other patches contained in the folder are chained at the end of the installation. You can rename the customization patch by adding a “1” at the beginning of the file name to ensure that it is processed first."