Expanded Distribution

Distribution also considers all files contained in a special subdirectory named \Extern$.

  • A central directory \Extern$ in the depot
    Path: <DepotShare>\Extern$\*.*

      Take care not to put more than approx. 20 files into <DepotShare>\Extern$. The reason is, each file in this directory increases network loadcaused by any polling of any Distribution Service.
      If you need to distribute additional package files, don’t put them into <DepotShare>\Extern$. Instead, use Extern$ within the respective package directory.

  • For each repository, there is one \Extern$ directory
    Path: <DepotShare>\Work\<Repository>\Extern$\*.*

      In distributing files in the repository thread, all files in the Extern$ directory are checked to see if they are current each time the Distribution Service executes a polling procedure. This can be a large load for the network when there is a large number of files in these Extern$ directories.

  • For each package, there is one \Extern$ directory
    Path: <DepotShare>\Work\<Repository>\pro­jects\<PackageID>\Extern$\*.*

For distributing files in the <package directory>\Extern$ , the follow­ing holds true:

  • The files are compressed when the package is prepared for distribution.
  • When the Distribution Service is polled, only the STATUS file is checked.
  • In contrast to the other package files, all files in the Extern$ directory are compressed independent of command references.
  • In contrast to the other package files, the files in the INSTALL directory are always uncompressed independent of the site setting Keep package data compressed.

Files in the special subfolder \Intern$ (before: \Template) will not be distributed.

In two cases this is of practical importance:

  • Application virtualization
    The source files for building the virtual application with the ThinApp Tools shall not be distributed together with the corresponding  software packages onto the managed computers. It is sufficient to distribute the compiled virtual application.
  • DSM OSD
    The source files for building a Windows PE boot image shall likewise not be distributed within an DSM distributed environment.

Uses for Expanded Distribution

In some cases, there are files that are required to execute a package that are not in the package directory; these files are not detected in "normal" package distribution.

Some of the files for which this holds true are:

  • MSI and MST files.
  • executable files that are called with the eScript command execute.

    • MSI and MST files for MSI Packages that are executed in an DSM package are saved in the subdirectory Extern$\Msidata of the package directory.

If a program run with execute requires still other files to execute the pro­gram, they are not included in _NI5.ZIP (since they are not referenced by a eScript command referenced).

In this case, you can update the script as follows:

  • Copy the additional files and the executed file (.exe) into the directory Extern$ below the package directory in the master repository.
  • In the script, change the path for the file to be run in the execute com­mand to .\Extern$ (.\always refers to the package directory). The expanded distribution distributes the files according to the package file distribution settings.