Software Distribution Woes (Tivoli)

[William Walseth]

I am working at a large international company that is using Tivoli to distribute Visual C++ applications to end user workstations. We are running into several problems:

1. It takes weeks to get the software to our user base of 3,000 users. As a result, I keep answering questions about bugs fixed weeks ago.
2. There appears to be no way to detect if a distribution failed. Tivoli only detects if the software was distributed, but doesn’t offer any means of detecting if the actual installation was sucessful.
3. Tivoli does not support dial-up users. As a result, our dial-up users are several versions behind, and continue to submit out of date information that we have to clean up on our database.
4. Individual distribution takes a long time. We bundle our software using InstallShield and Package For the Web. The self-extracting .EXE is ~25MB. Even though InstallShield only installs files that have been updated, I still need to distribute the entire 25MB application in order for InstallShield to figure out that I only changed one file. (This is really painful for dial-up users.) We have tried building packages that only include the upgrades, but we don’t have accurate enough records to know who can get upgrade package 5, which requires all previous upgrades.
5. We have no means of tracking who is using our application. As a result, many users do not get upgrades. Some users continue to get upgrades for the application, even though they do not use it anymore.

Any solutions to these problems would be much appreciated.

BTW, do any of you know how I could make my application self-upgrading, like Real Audio?

[Bob Clarke]

I don't know anything about Tivoli, so I'm no help to you there, but I would suggest this:

1. Look at a product called RTPatch from PocketSoft (www.pocketsoft.com) and use it, or something like it, to make patches for your product versions.
2. Make the users responsible for upgrading their software by making the patches readily available for download from an internal Web site.
3. Be sure your software is under tight version control, and that the users can go to the About screen (or its equivalent in your product) to find out what version they have so they can know if it's the latest.
4. Keep a version summary available for viewing on your web site so users can determine if they want the upgrade or not.
5. Many major bug tracking software programs come Web-enabled, so set up a program for users to report bugs that way so that they'll see if what they found has already been reported.

[Bernd Holz]

Hi,

I cannot tell you how to solve the problems with Tivoli... it's the same with SMS and therefor we wrote a new Software Distribution System...

To make your application auto-updating I would suggest to use a distribution directory where you place the updates. Now you only have to write an intelligent update program which runs during the user logon to validate the existance of the most recent files... if not recent, get them.
This way you only have to care about accurate version information in your files...

Regards,

Bernd