Setting Up Your Environment for Deployment

Applies to Reflection Desktop, Reflection 2014, and Reflection 2011

This video shows one way to set up an environment that you can use to customize and test your Reflection deployment, including how to set up an Administrative Installation Point, how to install Reflection on a workstation that you can use to create session document files and other files to customize Reflection, and introduces administrative tools that you can use to create transforms, package custom and .msi files, and "lock down" Reflection features for your users.

Audio Transcript:


0:10 - 0:14
In this video, we'll show one way to set up an environment that you can use to customize and test your Reflection deployment. First we'll show how to set up an administrative installation point.

0:20 - 0:25
This is typically a network share that has an image of Reflection and all of the custom files you want to deploy.

0:25 - 0:29
We'll show how to install Reflection on a WorkStation that you can use to create session document files and other files to customize Reflection.

0:35 - 0:50
We'll also took a quick look at the Reflection administrative tools that you can use to:

* Create transforms that modify the installation.

* Package your custom files in MSI files.

* And lock down Reflection. 

0:50 - 0:52
To create an administrative installation point, first you create a network share on a file server. 

0:52 - 0:54
Then, from the folder that includes the installation files you downloaded, open the Setup tool.

1:00 - 1:03
After you accept the license terms, open the Advanced tab and choose to create an administrative install image.

1:10 - 1:15
Then, under File Location, enter the network share that you want to use for the install image.  

1:15 - 1:18.
Be sure to use a UNC path for this share, like we're showing here, so that other computers can access this point on the network. And then, install.

1:22 - 1:24
Now from a workStation that you plan to use to configure Reflection, navigate to the administrative installation point and open Setup.

1:34 - 1:39
We can use Setup defaults to install on the workStation.

1:39 - 1:43
Using Setup has several advantages over installing with the MSI directly.

1:44 - 1:50
The big one is that Setup checks to make sure that all correct prerequisite software is installed and automatically installs it if it needs to.

1:57 - 2:02
Now that we've used the Setup tool to install Reflection, let's take a look at Reflection's other deployment tools.

2:04 - 2:07
First, we'll set up a desktop shortcut of the administrative installation point to make it easier to open these tools.

2:11 - 00:02:16
In the shortcut properties dialog box, first we make sure that the shortcut has a UNC file path.

2:21 - 2:27
Then we add the admin command line switch. This configures the shortcut to open our main deployment tool, the customization tool.

2:32 - 2:34
Now we need to copy the shortcut from the administrative installation point to our workstation.

2:34 - 2:36
When we click the shortcut on the workstation, it opens the customization tool on the administrative installation point.

2:45 - 2:55
This tool has two modes. The mode for creating Setup customization files is used to create Microsoft transforms.

2:55 - 3:02
The other mode is used to create a companion installer and is used to package your custom configuration files into Microsoft MSI files.

3:02 - 3:07
Let's look at the Creating Setup customization files mode first. 

3:07 - 3:18
Use this mode to create transforms that specify where to install, chain with other installations, add or remove features, and make other changes to your primary install.

3:19 - 3:23
Now let's look at the Companion Installer mode.

3:23 - 3:28
Use this mode to package your custom files into Microsoft MSI files.

3:28 - 3:31
You can deploy these files along with your primary install or independently.

3:34 - 3:41
If you want to lock down Reflection features, you can access Permissions Manager, from the companion installer tool.

3:41 - 3:44
Permissions Manager allows you to restrict access to individual controls and settings.

3:47 - 3:54
The settings you configure with this tool are saved to access files that are automatically included in your MSI package.

3:56 - 4:01
If you're using Active Directory, you can import the Reflection MSI along with any transforms or packages you create into group policy.  

4:07 - 4:12
You can also import Reflection templates and then use the group policy editor to select which features to restrict access to.

For more about this, see the Reflection deployment guide.

Product Support

Setting Up Your Environment for Deployment