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Chapter 3 Installing Apple Remote Desktop 43
Method #2—Manual Installation
This method works best if you have never enabled Apple Remote Desktop on your
clients and have an existing software distribution infrastructure. This method also
allows for the greatest power and configuration flexibility. Also, if you don’t want Apple
Remote Desktop to upgrade your clients using the Upgrade Client Software feature,
you can perform a manual upgrade.
The custom installer not only installs the needed software but also prepares and
configures the client computer for administration and can be configured to add or edit
user names and passwords for Apple Remote Desktop authentication.
To manually upgrade the client software:
1 Use Remote Desktop to create a client software installer package.
For detailed instructions, see “Creating a Custom Client Installer” on page 44.
2 Copy and install the package on the client computers. You need the name and
password of a user with administrator privileges on the computer to install the
package.
There are several ways to do this. For example, you can:
 Distribute the package by removable media, such as a CD.
 Copy the installer to the clients over the network using file sharing.
 Copy the installer to the clients using command-line tools like scp (if ssh is enabled),
and use Apple’s command-line installation tool, “installer,” to install the package
remotely. This process is described in detail in “Upgrading Apple Remote Desktop
Clients Using SSH” on page 43.
 Add the custom installer package to a Network Install image, using System Image
Utility to automatically include the software and your custom settings when clients
install the operating system using Mac OS X Server 10.4’s NetBoot and Network
Install features.
Upgrading Apple Remote Desktop Clients Using SSH
You may not be able to or want to use Remote Desktop to upgrade existing clients to
Apple Remote Desktop 3. If the clients have SSH enabled (called Remote Login in
System Preferences), and are available on the network, you can still upgrade the client
computers.
You still need to use Remote Desktop to create a custom installer package. You also
need the user name and password of a user with system administrator privileges on
the client computer.
Warning: Custom install packages that create user names contain sensitive password
data. Take care to store such custom installers securely.