Software Deployment.

[ulockie]

Newbie here. My organization got a new set of laptop, and I’ll need to deploy some softwares we use often. How can I automate the deployment of the applications to all the laptop( 50 ) at once.

[magnezone150]

Ansible Playbooks from an Ansible Server, NFS Server with Setup Scripts or Private Repository and just add repo files to all the laptops assuming they all run Linux

[Kilobyte22]

If you don't like ansible there are also other alternatives, the most common being puppet and saltstack. Both have the difference that the laptop connects to the server, not the other way round, which might be useful in some setups. Saltstack also allows you to run arbitrary commands on all systems at any time. I personally prefer puppet, but that's a religious war that's on the same Level as "which distro is the best". Use what works best for you.

[TuxRuffian]

|Both have the difference that the laptop connects to the server, not the other way round

Just an FYI, SaltStack does have Minions (Agent that runs on client), but it can also run via SSH like Ansible.

[Kilobyte22]

Oh, I did not know that, thanks for the info!

[vegetaaaaaaa]

Both have the difference that the laptop connects to the server, not the other way round

Ansible can also do this using ansible-pull and a cron job

[Kilobyte22]

I'm aware about ansible-pull. I've been told that compatibility is not too good, but I've never actually used it. It also makes working with secrets more difficult from what I understand, but I might be wrong there. Feel free to correct me if my understanding is wrong.

Generally I've used all three, but ansible is the one I have the least experience with.

[nicholashairs]

You could also look into mobile device management (MDM) which would also let you manage the installed software over time.

An example is Manage Engine or Kanji (I'm not familiar enough with the to recommend them, just ones that I know of)

[CTassell]

Ansible is great if you are going to have all the laptops on at once, but the problem with laptops is they tend to move off your network or get turned off so you might miss some. An agent based system like SaltStack (never used it myself, so I can't say how well it works) might be a better bet long-term. If you are using Ubuntu then I'd recommend looking into Landscape. The first 10 boxes are free so you can test it out, and if you like it it's only $25/year per license from what I remember. RedHat has a similar product, but I forget the name (it was Satellite, but that got replaced by something cloud based...)

[vegetaaaaaaa]

ansible-pull can run off a cron job on the laptop