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Silently installing BlackFog at the command line with MDM solutions

MDM Silent Install

The BlackFog installer provides various options for mass deployment using standard MDM solutions on the market, SCCM, Group Policy based installs or PDQ Deploy. Silently installing BlackFog using these solutions can be performed by providing the /qn command line option to ensure you are running under elevated (admin level) privileges. An example would be:

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When using this option it is important that you have the necessary pre-requisite already installed prior to installing BlackFog or the install will fail. BlackFog requires that the Microsoft C/C++ Runtime libraries are available on the operating system. While these are typically installed on desktop machines they may need to be installed on server operating systems. The latest editions can be found directly from Microsoft here.

Assigning License Automatically

You may apply a license key silently (version 2.6.3 or later) for each user by creating a “license.key” text file containing the encrypted key (the one supplied by BlackFog for your organization) and place it at the following path:

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You can retrieve your license key online by logging into your user account and clicking the licenses section of your account. This file must be present BEFORE the installer executes, so that the application can read it when it executes.

Assigning Group Automatically

Since version 3.7 or above you can also create a text file named “group.key” containing the name of the Enterprise Group you wish to assign to this device. This should be a plain text file with the name of the group you wish to assign on a single line. Note this group must pre-exist in the console before installation or it will be automatically assigned to the default group. Create the file at the following path:

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When the application starts it will apply the license key and the relevant group in the Enterprise console (3.7 or above). Note that the group can only be applied at the time of license registration. Please make sure there is a valid Internet connection for this to apply successfully. This file should be present BEFORE the installer executes to be successful.

If you are using a mobile device please refer to the article on Group Key Assignment for Mobile devices.

VDI Support (4.7 or later)

BlackFog also includes support for VDI’s. By default a unique id will be assigned to each instance that checks into the Enterprise console from the pool of VDI’s. To ensure that each instance is assigned to the correct group as they are spawned it is necessary to create a new file called “vdi.key” containing the name of the group to be assigned. This will create a special flag inside the application to ensure the VDI group is correctly added.

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Note you do not need to use the group.key file above if you are using a VDI, this key will take precedence.

MSI Installer

If you are using MSI for SMS or Group Policy installation please use the MSI installer as follows:

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Note that the installer needs to be run as an administrator for this to work correctly. Because the MSI file only runs in 32bit mode, when you install on 64 bit machines you will note that the application will be installed in “Program Files (x86)” rather than the normal “Program Files” that the executable installer uses. This has no effect on the application in any way.

You can download the MSI directly from here.

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