Deployable software overview

To automate software provisioning and manage software licensing, you can integrate Control Desk with IBM Endpoint Manager.

In the Self Service Center, your users can order offerings for deployable software, and the software can be deployed directly to their computers by IBM Endpoint Manager. The following software is required to implement this solution:
  • IBM® Control Desk

  • IBM Endpoint Manager version 9.0 or later

    For information about installing, see IBM Endpoint Manager for Lifecycle Management in IBM Knowledge Center. Ensure that the Client Configuration dashboard and the Manage Distribution Packages dashboard are set up.

  • Integration Composer

    For on-premises customers, Integration Composer can be installed when you install IBM Control Desk. Cloud customers must work with the hosting team to install Integration Composer.

The following steps provide a high-level view of the tasks to complete for this integration:
  • Decide which software applications to offer to users for automatic deployment.
  • In IBM Endpoint Manager, define the deployable software distribution packages and the tasks that are associated with deploying the software.
  • Using Integration Composer with IBM Endpoint Manager, import discovered data into Control Desk.
  • Optional: populate the Software Catalog application in Control Desk by importing the software catalog data that is provided by the Software Knowledge Base Toolkit.
  • In IBM Control Desk, create deployable software offerings and publish them in the Self Service application, your enterprise app store.

When this integration is complete, Control Desk users can request a software product in the Self Service Center, and the requested software is automatically deployed to their computer by IBM Endpoint Manager.

The following steps provide an overview of the work flow for the deployment process:
  1. Software packages are published in the Control Desk Self Service Center catalog.
  2. A user requests software.
  3. Workflow is initiated.
  4. Optional: Automatic or manual approvals occur based on corporate policy. The default is automatic.
  5. Workflow calls IBM Endpoint Manager to deploy the software if there are enough licenses available. If not, a task is created for the license administrator to procure more licenses.
  6. IBM Endpoint Manager deploys software to the target.
  7. Status of the IBM Endpoint Manager action is checked periodically.
  8. If the deployment is successful, the license is allocated to the asset; otherwise, a task is created for the IBM Endpoint Manager task owner to investigate.

Use the checklist that is provided in this documentation as a guide for implementing this solution.

Parent topic: Integrating IBM Endpoint Manager for software deployment

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