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Is there a MSI Installer available?

VannT

Hi All,

I'm wondering if there will be a MSI Installer at some point in the near future?  This would be use to push the Sophos Cloud via Group Policy

This would benefit a lot of people I reckon where by we can just deploy the full offline client to end points

Currently the following KB https://community.sophos.com/kb/en-us/121318 is used to create a full offline installer.  However this is just a exe file and not a MSI File.

Yes we could go through and use third-party tools to convert it from exe to MSI but sometimes these tools are not 100% effective.



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  • 0

    my words. hate it to script myself, because we are paying for a enterprise product and have to run all the workstations along -.-

    Sophos Platinum Partner 
    Sophos Certified Architect
    (Ceritfied UTM Architect / Certified XG Architect)

  • 0

    Unfortunately,

    What To Do

    1. Download 'SophosInstall.exe' from Sophos Central Admin:
      1. In Sophos Central Admin, click on the 'Protect Devices' link.
      2. Download the Windows installer by clicking 'Download Windows Protection Agent'

        Notes        :
        • The workstation and server Windows installer is the same file.  The installer determines the platform at install to influence the downloaded software.  
        • There is no MSI file available, only the SophosInstall.exe is available.
        • Do not use a user specific 'SophosInstall.exe' as received via the 'Email Deployment' workflow for the below deployment methods.  If you do, all devices will be associated to the Sophos Central user sent the email.

    From KBA 120611

  • 0

    I know this isn't quite what you're looking for, but I did this with a simple batch script.

    1. create the batch script; here's mine:

    @echo off

    sc query SophosNetworkTrafficRelay | find "does not exist" >nul
    if %errorlevel% equ 0 (goto install) else (goto end)

    :install
    mkdir C:\sophos
    cd C:\sophos
    copy \\share\sophos\CSGInstall.exe C:\sophos\CSGInstall.exe
    CSGInstall.exe -q
    goto end

    :end

    2. Place batch script and CSGInstall.exe into a shared folder with permissions set to allow domain computer to access (the computers themselves)

    3. Set the script as a startup script via GPO

    4. Schedule a reboot via GPO

  • 0 in reply to ShaneHanson

    If you really want an MSI to bootstrap the client, I assume you can quite easily create one using WiX - http://wixtoolset.org/.

    You can embed the EXE in the MSI and have it quietly run the contained exe.

    Some reference material: http://wixtoolset.org/documentation/manual/v3/customactions/qtexec.html but it would just author some XML, same it as  example.wxs and run:

    candle example.wxs

    light example.wixobj -ext WixUtilExtension

    This will generate an MSI.

    Hope it offers something to try,

    Regards

    Jak

  • 0 in reply to jak

    Hi Jak & Shane,

    I've managed to find a free tool to wrap the EXE installer inside a MSI.

    It's called MSI Wrapper.  Version 7.1.11.0 (free version) website is http://www.exemsi.com

    Will do some testing and see if it deploys without any issues.

  • 0 in reply to VannT

    do you tried it? works good? any issues?

    hope for some feedback :)

    Sophos Platinum Partner 
    Sophos Certified Architect
    (Ceritfied UTM Architect / Certified XG Architect)

  • 0

    What can't you do with an EXE that you can do with an MSI?

    At one stage a few years ago with the 'classic' Sophos Endpoint client I too yearned for an MSI.  With the advances in Windows server and its associated tools, using EXE's to deploy software is quite easy.

    If you use SCCM, it's super simple.  Application target package using SophosInstall with the silent argument and you're done.

    If you still must use Group Policy to push software out, then use a combination of Startup/Login scripts to pull the software to the client machine and execute it.  Both the SCCM method and the Startup script with examples are covered in the following KB articles.

    https://community.sophos.com/kb/hu-hu/120611

    ==

    When in doubt, Script it out.

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