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Microsoft SCCM

Deploying WhatPulse Professional with Microsoft SCCM (System Center Configuration Manager)

Microsoft SCCM (now part of Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager) allows centralized deployment of MSI or EXE installers to Windows clients. Using SCCM's Application deployment model, you can silently install WhatPulse Professional across multiple computers. The steps below assume use of the MSI installer (preferred for SCCM), but an EXE can also be used with the proper silent command-line switches.

Prerequisites​

  • WhatPulse MSI Installer: Download the latest WhatPulse Professional MSI from the downloads page. Place the .msi file on a network share accessible to SCCM (e.g. \\SCCMServer\Sources\WhatPulse\whatpulse-win-latest.msi)
  • SCCM Application Deployment: Ensure you have appropriate permissions in the SCCM console and that client machines are enrolled.

Deployment Steps​

  1. Create a New Application:

    • In the SCCM Administration console, go to Software Library > Application Management > Applications.
    • Right-click and choose Create Application. In the wizard, select Windows Installer (.msi) and provide the UNC path to the WhatPulse MSI (for example \\SCCMServer\Sources\WhatPulse\whatpulse-win-latest.msi). SCCM will import the MSI and pre-fill information about the app.

  2. Configure Installation Command: On the General Information page, verify the installation command. By default it may show the MSI with basic options, edit it to ensure a silent install. For example, add the /qn switch for a fully silent MSI installation. The field might read:

msiexec /i "whatpulse-win-latest.msi" /qn

If you are deploying the EXE installer instead, use the command-line options that are documented here. For example:

whatpulse-win-latest.exe --root "C:\Program Files\WhatPulse" --accept-messages --accept-licenses --confirm-command install InstallForAllUsers=true

This ensures no UI prompts during install.

  1. Detection Method: SCCM should auto-generate a detection rule (for MSI, it uses the product GUID). Verify the detection settings so SCCM can confirm the app's presence on clients.

  2. Distribute Content: After creating the Application, distribute the content to your Distribution Points. In the SCCM console, right-click the WhatPulse application and select Distribute Content to send the MSI/EXE to SCCM's distribution servers. Monitor the content distribution status to ensure all DPs have the file.

  3. Deploy the Application: Right-click the WhatPulse application and choose Deploy. Select a target collection (e.g. “All Company Workstations” or a test collection). On the Deployment Settings page, set Action to Install and Purpose to Required for a silent, automatic installation. (Use Available if you want admins/users to install via Software Center manually.) Ensure the schedule and user experience settings are configured (for a required install, you might hide all notifications for a truly silent deployment).

  4. Automatic Activation (Org ID): For a fully hands-off deployment, prepare the organization identifier file so new installs show up in your WhatPulse dashboard automatically. Create a simple script or package to drop a file named wp-pro-org-id.txt in %ProgramFiles%\WhatPulse on the client machine with your organization ID inside. This text file allows the WhatPulse client to register itself with your org and appear as a “pending” computer in the dashboard. In SCCM, you can implement this by:

    • Including a custom Post-install Script in the Application's deployment type to create the file after installation, or
    • Deploying a separate small Package/Script to create wp-pro-org-id.txt on targets. For example, a PowerShell script with:
New-Item -Path "$Env:ProgramFiles\WhatPulse\wp-pro-org-id.txt" -ItemType File -Force -Value "<Your Org ID>"

Ensure this runs with admin rights on the client so it can write to Program Files.

  1. (Optional) Default Settings Overrides: If you want to pre-configure certain WhatPulse settings (like enabling specific logging features), you can also deploy settings-overrides.ini files in the same manner as the org ID file. See this documentation for details on the format and options.

  2. Monitor Deployment: Use Monitoring > Deployments in SCCM to track installation progress and success rates. Clients in the target collection will download the content from a distribution point and execute the installation silently. After deployment, you should see WhatPulse running on those PCs (it auto-starts for all users by default). Any machines with the wp-pro-org-id.txt file will appear on the WhatPulse Pro dashboard ready for activation by an admin.