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Petrus Theron
Asked: 2014-02-19 10:01:11 +0800 CST

Deploying latest .NET Framework with Saltstack

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Is there an "apt-get install .NET-Framework" for Windows Server 2008+? Some way I can update to the latest .NET Framework 4+, preferably using Saltstack?

saltstack

5 Answers

  1. Windows Update does that quite nicely. No need to play around with non standard software. Why not use that out of the box functionality?

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  2. http://docs.saltstack.com/en/latest/ref/modules/all/salt.modules.win_servermanager.html

    This works at least for windows server 2012, i guess it should also work for windows server 2008

    that way you can "activate" the server module for .NET (3.5, 4.0, ...) for your server (installing the MSI would not work, anyways)

    If you just want to update the system, then that can be done with salt, too (since 2014.7):

    http://docs.saltstack.com/en/latest/ref/modules/all/salt.modules.win_update.html

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  3. Since I don't have the points to directly respond to @TomTom, I'll say it here;

    Windows update is nice for administering a single box, but when you have 30 windows hosts that need updates, some type of configuration management in place. Salt stack has the added benefit of being cross platform- the same tool for linux and windows.

    To rephrase: If you can run one command to install the update on 30 machines, why would you click through windows update?

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  4. To be on-topic of the answer, there isn't exactly per se an 'apt-get install' or 'yum install' but you can use saltstack to do those installations, you just have to define it. They even have a sample repository to give you an example on how to create your own. It's pretty easy.

    http://docs.saltstack.com/en/latest/topics/windows/windows-package-manager.html

    Doing it through WSUS is a much more productive way to go about things in general. but if you had a hotfix, or something that had bad luck applying with WSUS, salt is a great way to go.

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  5. Salt has a Chocolatey module (https://chocolatey.org) and this allows for easily updating software and installing packages from the Chocolatey gallery, and you can also host a gallery/feed in house (just a Nuget feed really).

    Example Chocolatey command to install:

    choco install dotnet4.5.2

    In Salt:

    salt '*' chocolatey.install dotnet4.5.2

    This allows you to manage Windows Updates as well as software versions through Salt and enjoy the benefits of "Infrastructure as Code" without having to dig through all the SCCM GUIs to find out which patch level you are enforcing to certain servers.

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