Chris Ricks wrote:
Hi all!

I'm looking for a method of doing the following, given that I'm taking care
of a network with a Samba 3.0.6 box (running Mandrake 10.0) acting as a PDC
for about 15 W2K boxes:

. There is a share full of program files and data files on the Samba box
. These files are currently synchronized at logon - all movement is from the
server to the clients via a logon script using XCOPY /D

I want to engineer a solution that would allow updates of the share to have
changes propagated out to clients as the share is updated without the users
being made aware. Essentially, the software vendor is demanding that
everyone run their software from the network share as to ensure consistency,
but I hardly think a 300 MB application with 15 MB (!!) executables (about 8
of them) is really suitable for being "deployed" in that fashion.

All comments appreciated!

I would say that your vendor is being unreasonable, and that you are correct to want to run these locally.


A few questions to think about :

How often do you update the application ? If it's only every few months, then there's no problem.

Do you ever do it while users are working ? Well you shouldn't be ! And what does the vendor propose to do about the problem of changing a binary whilst it is in use ? Having said that, I have done in-place upgrades on Unix systems by MOVING the original file and slipping the new one into place - if it's in use then the system will continue to use the old file (referenced by inode no, not file name) until it is closed.

Do you have (or do you ever expect to have, any remote workers ? If so then there is no way (even on Broadband/ADSL) that you want users sucking that sort of file size down the pipe.

One way of dealing with the issue is to make all the users log out and back in again when you upgrade. Another might be to run a scheduled task that periodically does an XCOPY, but then you'll run into problems of the program crashing when you change the binary running (or more likely a file in use error).

Simon

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Simon Hobson MA MIEE, Technology Specialist
Colony Gift Corporation Limited
Lindal in Furness, Ulverston, Cumbria, LA12 0LD
Tel 01229 461100, Fax 01229 461101

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