Distribute Novell Client for Windows using Zenwork for Desktop 4

The Novell Client document does not provide the details how to distribute the Novell Client for Windows using Zenwork. It gives a sample of using the login script to run the Automatic Client Update (acu.exe), but it requires the user has administrator right on the workstation. I also do not have Automatice Update Agent enable.

The following steps are how I get around the problems above and deploy the Novell Client for Windows by Zenwork for Desktop:

  1. Use Novell Client Install Manager (nciman.exe) to create the unattend file for installation
  2. Modify acu.ini for your need
  3. I want to run the acu.exe as a system user on an application object. The system user can not see files in the server, so all the installation files need to be copied into local hard drive. I use snapshot to capture the copy operation. For example, the files are copied into C:\Novell\ClientLocalInstall
  4. Create a simple application object to the acu.exe (C:\Novell\ClientLocalInstall\acu.exe), make it run as unsecure system user. For application files, ini file and macro, import it from the axt file from step 3. Make the application object never reboot, the acu.exe can prompt for reboot depend on the unattend file setting.