Egnyte Desktop App for Windows Mass Deployment

Mass deployment tools allow organizations to install and update software for multiple users at once. Common examples of tools include Microsoft SCCM (System Center Configuration Manager) or deployments using Group Policy Objects (GPO). Mass deployment tools can allow admins to control deployments of software and updates for larger customers. 

This guide will provide step-by-step instructions on setting up a Mass Deployment of the Egnyte Desktop App on Windows. 

Mass deployment of the Desktop App is split into two phases:

1. Installation/Upgrade: The app is installed on the machine using an account with admin privileges. If you're only setting up a single drive per user, you can specify command-line options during installation to specify details like the domain being connected to, the drive letter and label to use, and whether SSO is being used for signing the user in.
2. Configuration: Drives are configured on behalf of users after installation using a new command-line tool shipped with the product. If configuring more than one drive per user,  you must use the command-line tool.

Prerequisites

1. Download the latest version from the Desktop App Installers page
   OR
   use the static link for mass deployment script: Egnyte Connect for Windows
2. Review System Requirements.

Installation or Upgrade

To install or upgrade, ensure you run the installation in the context of a user with admin privileges on the machine when using your tool. When upgrading, we recommend you use the same command-line parameters that were used at install to ensure the same user experience. Do not use the msiexec option to prevent restarts, as some updates will force a system restart to ensure certain components properly startup.

Recommendation: if supported by your software distribution system, it is recommended to mass deploy using transform (.mst) file together with the original msi package. Transform takes the same parameters as msiexec command. 

Examples of command-line installation calls that can be used:

• Standard installation - users will be prompted to add their own drives.
  
  msiexec /i EgnyteConnect_v3.x.x.msi /passive
  
• Standard installation with silent launch - users will not be prompted to add drives, and admins will be adding drives using the command-line tool (see Configuration section below).
  msiexec /i EgnyteConnect_v3.x.x.msi ED_SILENT=1 /passive
• Standard installation using a non-standard installation directory with silent launch - installation on admin preferred directory; users will not be prompted to add drives, and admins will be adding drives using the command-line tool.
  msiexec /i EgnyteConnect_v3.x.x.msi ED_SILENT=1 INSTALLDIR="C:\ProgramData\Egnyte Desktop App" /passive
  
• Installation using the standard install directory where you want to add one drive for each local user account on the machine and force SSO login to the acme.egnyte.com domain.
  msiexec /i EgnyteConnect_v3.x.x.msi ED_DRIVE_DOMAIN=acme ED_DRIVE_LABEL=acme ED_DRIVE_SSO=1 ED_DRIVE_LETTER=Z
  

Any combination of the following command-line parameters can be used at install:

Property	Values
INSTALLDIR	Installation directory Default: 32bit Windows - C:\Program Files\ Egnyte Connect\ 64bit Windows – C:\Program Files (x86)\ Egnyte Connect\
ED_DATA_STORAGE_DIR	Defines data storage location. Default: %localappdata%\ Value: If the specified path under C:\Users\<username>, the structure will be C:\Users\%username%\<rest of chosen path>\<data> If selecting a path outside of C:\Users\<username>, the structure will be <chosen path>\<%username%>\<data>
Silent Launch
ED_SILENT	Defines whether login prompts should be suppressed when the application is started without drives. ED_SILENT = 1 suppresses all prompts, such as onboarding new features prompts. Note: This should not be used if using the install parameters starting with ED_DRIVE_ to configure drives. If using the command-line tool to add drives, this must be set to 1. Value: 0 or 1 Default: 0
Proxy settings
ED_PROXY_SERVER	By default, proxy settings are not used. To configure proxy settings by mass configuration proxy server must be defined.
ED_PROXY_PORT	Defines proxy port for connection settings (will be only applied if ED_PROXY_SERVER is defined). Value: Between 0 and 65535 Default: 0
ED_PROXY_PASSWORD_REQUIRED	Proxy setting required password (will be only applied if ED_PROXY_SERVER is defined). Value: 0 or 1 Default: 0
Drive settings Note: These options can be used if you're only adding a single drive for each user. For adding multiple drives for the same user, use the command-line tool detailed in the Configuration section of this article.
ED_DRIVE_DOMAIN	Default account domain.
ED_DRIVE_LABEL	The label that will be shown at the mounted drive. Forbidden characters: ? < > / , * + = | \ [ ] " Maximal characters length: 30
ED_DRIVE_LETTER	Drive letter at which default account drive should be mounted. Value: E:, F:, … X:, Y:, Z: Note: If the letter is already in use, an available letter will be used. Default: none
ED_DRIVE_MOUNT	Mounting point for the drive (e.g.,/Shared/). Case sensitive.
ED_DRIVE_SSO	Defines if SSO authentication should be used. Note: This will be only used if one of ED_DRIVE_DOMAIN, ED_DRIVE_LABEL, ED_DRIVE_LETTER, ED_DRIVE_MOUNT is defined. Value: 0 or 1 Default: 0
ED_SUPPORT_VDI	Enabling this flag allows Desktop App to disregard local machine configuration if it does not match the current user configuration. This is necessary if the VDI environment supports assigning machines at runtime. Note: Ensure that each of the possible machines has Desktop App installed. Values: 0 or 1 Default: 0
ED_SEC_ATTRIBS (Not available for versions prior 3.15.0)	Enabling this flag will make a drive mount as an NTFS instead of FAT32. Additionally, fixed folders attributes set in WebUI will be respected by Desktop App. This needs to be set only once and application updates will keep this setting. Values: 0 or 1 Default: 0
ED_ADMIN_ACCESS	Enabling this flag allows elevated processes access to files on Egnyte drives. This needs to be set only once and application updates will keep this setting. Values: 0 or 1 Default: 0
ED_MASS_CONFIG_FILE_PATH	Specify a filepath to a JSON configuration file that should be used to set up Desktop App drives. Please see Desktop App for Windows Mass Configuration Capabilities article for details on how to prepare configuration file. Example: ED_MASS_CONFIG_FILE_PATH=D:\Configuration\mass_config.json

Disabling Updates

You can control whether you want the app to notify and update users to the latest version of the Desktop App with the configuration setting in the web interface.

Configuration

The Desktop App includes a command-line tool that is run from the installation directory. The command-line tool can be used in the second phase of deployment to automatically add and configure drives on behalf of users. If the command-line tool is being used after a mass installation, you must use the ED_SILENT=1 flag to suppress the Desktop App prompting users to log in.

Any calls to the command-line tool should be run in the context of the user for whom drives are being configured. This allows different deployment strategies for different types of users on the same machine. For example, a marketing user might be used to seeing an M: drive that is mapped directly to the /Shared/Marketing folder in your organization while an employee from HR might be used to seeing an H: drive that shows all content in the domain.

• In regular environments (where user profiles are not wiped after logout), drives only need to be added once. The configuration remains persistent across sessions. Running the drive setup script after every login is not required in such setups. 
• In environments where user profiles are reset after logout, the drive script must be executed during each login to re-establish the drives.

Documentation

To see more information about what is possible with the command-line tool, run the following commands in the installation directory of Egnyte and a popup window will appear providing additional information.

Installation parameters: msiexec EgnyteDrive.exe --help

Configuration parameters: EgnyteClient.exe --help

Examples Of Commands For Other Desktop App Features 

Set Desktop app to online mode

EgnyteClient.exe -command online

Set Desktop app to offline mode

EgnyteClient.exe -command offline

 

Update Desktop App Configuration using config files

Refer to Desktop App for Windows Mass Configuration Capabilities article for details on how to prepare configuration files.

EgnyteClient.exe -command managed_configuration_update -p <path_to_source_path>

This command uses a file under the specified path as a configuration file.

EgnyteClient.exe -command managed_configuration_clear

This command clears all configuration files.

 

Best Practices

Egnyte's recommendation is to use mass deployment tools and strategies that allow scripts to run against the command-line tool on user login. If running a command would have no impact (e.g., because it was already run previously), the command will simply be ignored.

To ensure that the app is running at the time of using the tool, we recommend running the following command at the start of any configuration script to force the Desktop App to start before any commands are sent (the example below assumes you are using the default install directory for 64-bit systems at %programfiles(x86)%\Egnyte Connect - if not, replace the full path to EgnyteClient.exe accordingly).
Start "Egnyte Connect" "%programfiles(x86)%\Egnyte Connect\EgnyteClient.exe" --auto-silent

Examples of commands for adding and configuring drives

• Add a single drive (M:) for the 'acme' domain via SSO but don't connect the drive immediately (will prompt the user to log in using their SSO account).
  EgnyteClient.exe -command add -l "Acme Drive" -d "acme" -sso use_sso -t M
  

  Running this command twice in a row will only add one drive as a single user cannot have two drives with the same label (this is a good way to ensure that a login script that runs on every login will avoid adding the same drive every time a user logs in).

• Add a single drive (M:) for the 'acme' domain via SSO and connect the drive immediately (will prompt the user to log in using their SSO account).
  EgnyteClient.exe -command add -l "Acme Drive" -d "acme" -sso use_sso -t M -c connect_immediately
  
• Add a single drive (E:) for the 'acme' domain which will use Egnyte or AD authentication and connect the drive immediately (will prompt the user to log in using their Egnyte or AD credentials).
  EgnyteClient.exe -command add -l "Acme Drive" -d "acme" -t E -c connect_immediately
  
• Add two drives (M: and E:) connected to the Marketing and Engineering folders in the 'acme' domain via SSO and connect both automatically (will prompt the user to login using their SSO account for each drive added this way).
  EgnyteClient.exe -command add -l "Marketing" -d "acme" -sso use_sso -t M -m "/Shared/Marketing" -c connect_immediately
EgnyteClient.exe -command add -l "Engineering" -d "acme" -sso use_sso -t E -m "/Shared/Engineering" -c connect_immediately
• Disconnect an existing 'Marketing' drive and reconnect for remote troubleshooting after installation.
  EgnyteClient.exe -command disconnect -l "Marketing"
EgnyteClient.exe -command connect -l "Marketing"
• Remove an existing drive labeled "Acme Drive".
  EgnyteClient.exe -command remove -l "Acme Drive"
Modify a drive labeled "Acme Drive" to use the "M": drive letter.
  EgnyteClient.exe -command update -l "Acme Drive" -t M
• Modify a drive labeled "Acme Drive" to use the "Acme Drive Updated" label.
  EgnyteClient.exe -command update -l "Acme Drive" -o "Acme Drive Updated"
• Force silent mode during drive configuration for drive labeled 'Acme Drive'.
  EgnyteClient.exe -command connect -l "Acme Drive" --auto-silent
  

Examples of commands for other Desktop App features 

• Add the /Private/<username> folder to the list of folders the user has synchronized for offline access under the drive labeled 'Acme Drive'
  EgnyteClient.exe -command sync -l "Acme Drive" -a "/Private"
• Remove the /Shared/Engineering folder from the list of folders the user has synchronized for offline access under the drive labeled 'Acme Drive'.
  EgnyteClient.exe -command sync -l "Acme Drive" -r "/Shared/Engineering"
  
• Stop syncing all folders under the drive labeled 'Acme Drive' for offline access.
  EgnyteClient.exe -command sync -l "Acme Drive" -c clear_all
  Note that using ::egnyte_usernmae:: resolves to the Egnyte username of the user who is logged in.
• Set up a Connected folder with the user's Desktop in the drive labeled 'Acme'.
  EgnyteClient.exe -command connect_folder -l acme -a "C:\Users\%username%\Desktop" -r "/Private/::egnyte_username::/Desktop"
  
• Disconnect the user's Desktop in the drive labeled 'Acme'.
  EgnyteClient.exe -command connect_folder -l acme -rm "C:\Users\%username%\Desktop"

• Enable Debug logging - NEW
  EgnyteClient.exe -command log -v on / off 
• Set Desktop App's default starting language to German:
  EgnyteClient.exe -command language -v de_DE

• Set Desktop App's default sync bandwidth to  1,000 KB/s:
  EgnyteClient.exe -command max_bandwidth [max_upload_KBps=1000 max_download_KBps=1000]
  

Uninstall the Desktop App

To uninstall, simply run the same command that was run for the upgrade or install but use /x instead of /i. For example:
msiexec /x EgnyteConnect_v3.x.x.msi /passive