Webex App Update process for Per Machine Installations

[shockocisco]

I'm looking at rolling out the Webex app as a per machine installation as per this guide. What's not clear to me is the update process when the app is installed per machine. If I install per machine the binaries do not get placed in the users profile but rather under %PROGRAMFILES%. How then does the update process work for the app ? We also have our 2 Webex instances federated with Azured for logon with 2 domains/AzureAD tenants (one for prod and one for test). We also control the update cadence with ControlHub. All traffic in our org goes through a web proxy including Webex ( I know it's not optimal!): 

Consider the following:

1. A single user signs in into Webex with a single AzureAD domain and hence a single ControlHub update policy. Does the app attempt to update and pull the update binaries via the users proxy session? 
2. A single user signs in into Webex with a multiple AzureAD domain and hence multiple ControlHub update policies. Does the app attempt to update and pull the update binaries via the users proxy session? Which one 'wins;' in terms of updates?

[ngosney01]

@shockocisco , I am not sure if you have ever gotten a response to this but I wanted to weigh in on what has worked for me in my organization.  Here is my installation command that I use:

msiexec.exe /i "C:\Utilities\Webex.msi" ACCEPT_EULA=TRUE ALLUSERS=1 ROAMINGENABLED=1 TARGETDIR="C:\Program Files\" DELETEUSERDATA=1 /qn /norestart

After the installation, when a user logs in it creates the CiscoSparkLauncher folder in the local app data.  With each update a new folder is created with the version number.  In that folder is where you will find the CiscoCollabHost.exe file.  This allows Webex to be installed at the machine level but it allows the end user to be able to update the client without admin permissions.  My biggest complaint with this approach is that you will often see an old version of Webex in the install programs list because the version at C:\Program Files\ is whatever version you originally installed with the command above.  This makes it difficult to track which version of the app people are actually using but I consider that a fair trade off for allowing end users to get the latest version without redeploying the entire app to everyone.  I hope this helps.

[shockocisco]

Hi @ngosney01 thanks for the reply. I came back to this after some time and I am now using version 44.5. I tried the ROAMINGENABLED=1 switch even though I don't see it mentioned in the documentation (any link would be helpful!) but I still do not see CiscoCollabHost.exe deployed to the user profile folders like it is during a per user install. Can you confirm in your environment?

[Robert Casipit]

Give this a try and see if it works for you. It runs in quiet mode and when you see the shortcut appear on the desktop it's done. Good luck.

1. Download the Webex App and desktop meetings installation package and save it to C:\

Package Download: https://binaries.webex.com/Webex-Desktop-Windows-x64-Combined-Gold/WebexBundle_en.msi

2. Open a DOS window as admin, navigate to the C:\ directory then paste the installation command below and hit Enter:

msiexec /i C:\WebexBundle_en.msi INSTALLWV2=1 ACCEPT_EULA=TRUE EMAIL=$userPrincipalName ALLUSERS=1 AUTOSTART_WITH_WINDOWS=false /quiet

If you're a Webex FedRAMP customers use the command below:

msiexec /i C:\WebexBundle_en.msi INSTALLWV2=1 FEDRAMPENABLED=1 ACCEPT_EULA=TRUE EMAIL=$userPrincipalName ALLUSERS=1 AUTOSTART_WITH_WINDOWS=false /quiet

[shockocisco]

This does not work I'm afraid adn does not deploy to the user profile on 1st launch. Can you confrim in your environment/version? 

[dtibbe]

IIRC correctly, the per-machine installer puts a template installation into that directory. Whenever a user logs in, it copies that templates into the %LOCALAPPDATA% folder and can be updated there by the user himself. So each Windows user would have its own Webex copy.

[shockocisco]

I don't see this behaviour on version 44.5 or the releases in the last year

[shockocisco]

I've seen this mentioned few times on the forum but I have tested this and it does not appear to occur. Is there any reference for this? The MS team machine wide installer does this exact thing but when I run the Webex desktop app installer as an admin and with ALLUSERS=1 it installs but when my test standard users logon the Webex .exes are not copied to their profile and when they launch Webex it shows as the .exe from %PROGRAMFILES% when viewed in Taskmanager.

[shockocisco]

Anyone?