Network Deployment Notes

Deployment Scenarios

You may deploy the SMP Client to multiple users.  Depending on how you manage your network, you will likely follow one of the following approaches:

1. Let each user download SMP from www.salesmanagementplus.com and install it themselves.  This approach is usually taken by organizations that do not have dedicated IT personnel and requires that users have administrative rights on their computers.  This document does not apply to this approach.
2. Download the installation files yourself, place them on a network share, and then go to each machine and install SMP from the network share.  This is practical for organizations that have only a few SMP users.  As the number of SMP users grow, you will want to switch to a more manageable deployment method.
3. Download the installation files yourself, place them on a network share, and then use a login script or a third-party deployment tool, such as Microsoft Systems Management Server or Symantec Packager, to install the files on the users’ machines.

Installing the Access Runtime

If you want to install the Access Runtime on users’ machines, download the runtime package and run it.  Uncheck the box to run Setup.exe and extract the files to a network share. 

All SMP users should have read access to the installation files, even if you use a deployment tool that will install the files under an administrative account.  The Office installer will want to make some updates to the user’s profile the first time the user launches the Access Runtime and will need access to the installation files to do so.  (The user does not need administrative rights to run the Access Runtime.)

As long as the Access Runtime is in use at your organization, you should leave the installation files on the network share.  If you later apply service packs to Office, or when a new user logs onto a machine and launches the Access Runtime, the Microsoft Installer will want access to the original installation files.

To install the files run Setup.exe from the network share.  Do not copy the installation files to the user’s computer, run the installer, and then delete the installation files.  If you do this, the installer will not be able to locate the original installation files at a later date. 

For mobile users, you may wish to copy the installation files to the user’s computer, run the installer from the local computer, and leave the installation files on the local machine.  This will ensure that the Microsoft Installer has access to the files even when the user is away from your network.  (Alternatively, on Windows 2000 and XP clients you can configure the network share where the installation files are for offline access.  This will allow mobile users to cache a copy of the installation files on their local computer.  See Microsoft’s documentation on how to use this feature.)

If you are upgrading the Access Runtime from a previous version, do not overwrite the original installation files with the new version.  Instead, place the new files in a separate directory.  Leave both sets of installation files on your network until you are sure that the earlier version is no longer installed on any machines.  At that point, you may delete the installation files for the earlier version.

If you are upgrading from Access 2000 SR-1 Runtime to the version on our website that has Service Pack 3 already applied, uninstall the existing version before installing the new version.  Otherwise, both versions will be installed on the machine and you will not be able to tell them apart in the Add/Remove Programs control panel.

To perform a silent install, use the “/qn” switch on the command line.

Installing the SMP Client

Download the SMP Client installer to a network share.  We recommend always using the full install so that the same installation files can be used for both upgrades and new installations.  Install SMP from this location.  As long as a particualar version of SMP is in use at your organization, you should leave the installation file for that version on the network share.

For mobile users, you may wish to copy the installation file to the user’s computer, run the installer from the local computer, and leave the installation file on the local machine.  This will ensure that the Microsoft Installer has access to the files even when the user is away from your network. 

To perform a silent installation, use the “/S /v/qn” switches on the command line if the installation file in an EXE, or "/qn" if the installation file is an MSI file.

Known Issues

Some versions of the SMP installer do not properly set file permissions, preventing non-administrative users from running SMP.  This has been corrected with 6.03a.

When deploying SMP with Symantec Packager, the SMP shortcut may not be placed on the start menu.  Instead, it ends up in the root of the C: drive.