Create Silent ISL AlwaysOn Installer

 

To set unattended access for multiple computers (mass deployment) you can create a custom silent installer for ISL AlwaysOn. The silent installer will NOT display the installation wizard or the installation progress windows. During the installation, the installer will grant ISL AlwaysOn access to a selected user or group and set the access password.

Important: The following instructions require ISL Light version 4.4.2031.82 or newer.


To prepare a custom silent ISL AlwaysOn installer please follow the steps bellow:

Step 1

Open ISL Light and click "Set Unattended Access" from "+" button dropdown.


Step 2

Click the "Link" radio button to open the link for ISL AlwaysOn installer.


Step 3 (optional)

Click "Show Options" to expand the "Set Unattended Access" overlay.


Step 4 (optional)

  1. Select the desired "Computer Groupfor the new computer(s). 
  2. Select "All Computers" if you do not want to assign computer(s) to any computer group, but instead want them to be added to the current user's list of computers.
  3. Leave the "Alias" and "Tags" input fields empty. If you wish to use the Alias or Tags functionality or other parameters please see Command Line Arguments.


Step 5

"Copy the link" of the ISL AlwaysOn installer. 


Step 6

Paste the link of the ISL AlwaysOn installer in to a text editor (e.g. Notepad).

Select and copy the part of the link between the "grant+%22" and "%22" strings. We call this the "grant blob". Make sure that you do NOT copy the "grant+%22" and "%22" strings.

Example of a copied grant blob:

zeJxFjz1LA0EQQBmCXSory2sEIxh2dm%2f2o7MVRIu018zuzoYll7twHwQ7f7rRRl77iveOqWzg7fDefA59HaT5kOU6Tqd7ONa8gbZVKSUkF8igT6JZc0KPkYq0QRwJKYpoS3RKW8lUVDZWVGYNBAK77BITe9GolU2OObfZm4DWek2OKFkkNBKVDgZzCTbwzWuzccVob75hBuD%2byl%2fzOLw87%2bvcj3%2bd%2b0GWB1gBDuvlMk5L89R1k%2bRYT9It9fz6L6bxvHuE9fdGWwxB3XBGb%2bEOfgD17UjF


Step 7

Replace the parameters with the actual values in the silent installer link template: 

https://<server_address>/download/ISLAlwaysOn?cmdline=%2FVERYSILENT+grant_silent+%22<grant_blob>%22+password+%22<password>%22+ignore_system_account

  • <server_address> - Address of your server. For Cloud license use "www.islonline.net". For self-hosted license, use your server's address.
  • <grant_blob> - Replace this parameter with the link copied in Step 6
  • <password> - Replace this parameter with the access password for remote computers. The password you define will be used when connecting to the remote ISL AlwaysOn computers added using the prepared deployment file.

Important:

Before you include the password in the URL template, you will need to URL encode it. To URL encode the password, please use Link for URL encoding.


Silent installer link example:

https://www.islonline.net/download/ISLAlwaysOn?cmdline=%2FVERYSILENT+grant_silent+%22zeJxFjz1LA0EQQBmCXSory2sEIxh2dm%2f2o7MVRIu018zuzoYll7twHwQ7f7rRRl77iveOqWzg7fDefA59HaT5kOU6Tqd7ONa8gbZVKSUkF8igT6JZc0KPkYq0QRwJKYpoS3RKW8lUVDZWVGYNBAK77BITe9GolU2OObfZm4DWek2OKFkkNBKVDgZzCTbwzWuzccVob75hBuD%2byl%2fzOLw87%2bvcj3%2bd%2b0GWB1gBDuvlMk5L89R1k%2bRYT9It9fz6L6bxvHuE9fdGWwxB3XBGb%2bEOfgD17UjF%22+password+%22ChooseAccessPassword%22+ignore_system_account

Note: For server license users, if your server does not support https, replace it with http.

For other command line parameters used by ISL AlwaysOn, please see Command Line Arguments manual.

Step 8

Copy the finished template and open it in a browser to download the customized ISL AlwaysOn executable.

It is recommended to test the provided customized link on a few machines before you massively deploy it to all computers.

Note: You can use this generated template on a different operating system (macOS, Linux) to download a customized ISL AlwaysOn executable for the specific operating system.


Certain deployment tools (e.g. deploying using GPO) require the usage of .msi packages to be able to deploy the desired application on remote computers. This can be done by using a 3rd party MSI wrapper tool to wrap the .exe installer into a .msi package. 

For reference, please see Convert ".exe" Installer into a ".msi" Package

If you would like to adjust additional settings when deploying ISL AlwaysOn (such as enabling notification being shown when a connection is established to the remote computer), please see Deploy Settings Using Registry Files

Tags: gpo, deployment, deploy, silent, installer

Was this article helpful?