Chocolatey is a package manager for Windows (like apt-get or yum but for Windows). It was designed to be a decentralized framework for quickly installing applications and tools that you need. It is built on the NuGet infrastructure currently using PowerShell as its focus for delivering packages from the distros to your door, err computer.
Chocolatey for LabTech is a global App and tool silent installer.
Currently in Version 1.1.1 we host over 100 applications, servers and tools available that can be directly installed to the managed PC. First install the Chocolatey Package manager on the managed PC then start selecting different apps to install on the PC. Each app you click will auto install on PC in just 1 minute. Using the Installer Progress Window you can monitor the install of the applications live as it happens.
Chocolatey will keep your packages up to date.
Chocolatey 1.1.1 now allows you to update any installed package on a regular schedule to keep the deployed software current. Every night a cmd is sent to the systems set to auto update that has Chocolatey check to see if any new updates exist and if found to install the updates. Then once a week Chocolatey checks to see if it needs to be updated and if it finds a new Chocolatey version it to will update.
Computer Console Views
New in Version 1.1.2 -> Install any package you like using the unlisted package installer
Client Console View
Get Version 1.1.2 here
Awesome!
Is there a way to push out the Chocolatey install for this to work to every agent?
also, can you add super anti spyware? Good to see malwarebytes there too
Keep up the good work! I love squidworks
We are actually in the middle of a total rewrite of the Chocolatey Plugin. Version 2 will connect direct to REPO and you can “Approve” apps for each client. Once done those apps can be pushed to the PC and installed/managed for updates.
Check back soon.
LOVE LOVE this website. Can you add Belarc? Just curious, we haven’t been able to install it remotely…
I do not see that currently in the repo for Chocolatey.. Version 2 will allow you to load different repos so if a 3rd party releases a application you will be able to load it as an available app.
I have successfully gotten this implemented, but when attempting to push my first try-out package, i get that the path is not found and goodbye.
The package is Spotify. Is there further documentation available? Or should this just work? Thanks in advance.
There is a button under squid logo that says install chocolatey?
Did you install the package manager on the PC that you want to push Spoyify?
Yes I did.
I have also noticed that systems with choco installed previously will not take the installs without reinstalling using the Install button on the plugin.
Is that how it is supposed to function?
Execute Command, Success, The system cannot find the path specified.
, 10/3/2014 1:15:20 PM, cmd!!! /C C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\bin\choco.exe install malwarebytes, phall, 0,
Execute Command, Success, Downloading http://chocolatey.org/api/v2/package/chocolatey/ to C:\Windows\TEMP\chocolatey\chocInstall\chocolatey.zip
Download 7Zip commandline tool
Downloading http://chocolatey.org/7za.exe to C:\Windows\TEMP\chocolatey\chocInstall\7za.exe
Extracting C:\Windows\TEMP\chocolatey\chocInstall\chocolatey.zip to C:\Windows\TEMP\chocolatey\chocInstall…
7-Zip (A) 9.20 Copyright (c) 1999-2010 Igor Pavlov 2010-11-18
Processing archive: C:\Windows\TEMP\chocolatey\chocInstall\chocolatey.zip
Ext, 10/3/2014 1:13:50 PM, cmd!!! /C @powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy unrestricted -Comman, phall, 0,
That is something we are addressing in Version 2, We hammared the location of the choco install in the version 1 code. Not very flexible so we have basically frozen V1 and are now working on V2 to solve many limitations from V1
ok so nothing further i can do on dev on my end until the newer v. is published then i assume?
thank you for the swift response. appreciated 🙂
Look forward to trying v2.0 thanks for your efforts and will drop you some $$
We are working on a new release of Version 1 for those who want simple installers. Version 2 is still in development and should be out in beta soon.
Geeks, Iv’e released version 1.0.4 which adds threading to all the install CMDs so the plugin does not hang anymore during app installs.
This is a big update for this plugin so you may what to come and get it.
I think the new zip file is incomplete. it only contains a dll, and a text file. can you re-upload 1.0.4?
I guess i assumed there would be scripts to deploy an application across a group/client/or all machines? is this not possible at the moment with chocolatey?
Version 1 is a proof of concept plugin, It is a simple LT Computer console level plugin that shows up on every computer. It sends the commands to install Chocolatey installer when you click the “Install Chocolatey” button. Then when you select an application it installs that app. It is all self contained in the DLL file so no scripts are needed.
We are working on a Version 2 which will allow for App approvals and pushing of Apps to clients to cover all systems, workstations only or Servers only. It will then give you the option to keep Apps up to date automatically.
A lot of good stuff in Version 2 when released.. Release date is unknown at the moment so do not wait around for it as it may be another month or so with ThanksGiving and Xmas coming up fast…
This is good stuff. I can’t wait to see what else is coming down the pipeline. I only wish I could help more! 🙂
You guys are going to want to take advantage of the chocolatey.dll the minute it is out. By the way, we are kickstarting chocolatey to support investments in professional features and other things. You may want to check it out, see the newsletter mentioning this – http://us8.campaign-archive1.com/?u=86a6d80146a0da7f2223712e4&id=a5383ddefb
Thanks Rob, Chocolatey software is the Bomb, Thanks for bringing this to the masses.
Thanks! And we just launched the kickstarter – https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ferventcoder/chocolatey-the-alternative-windows-store-like-yum
Just release LabTech Chocolatey Plugin version 1.1.0 which adds a new tab to the Client console where you can install to 1 or many or all systems under that client with 1 click of a button.
Majorly cool stuff..
Cubert
New to Labtech, found this while searching for other things. Looks very cool, and it could be very helpful for us, but I’m wondering why it has a client-side dll? Is it first and foremost a stand-alone Windows app, and the Labtech plugin just a convenience for managing it from Labtech? I guess what I’m really asking is why the dll, instead of just using the existing Labtech scripting functions?
To clarify, I totally get the time-savings in not having to roll your own Labtech scripts for everything! I’m just trying to grok why the Chocolatey dll was created for this purpose, vs the plugin simply generating Labtech scripts directly, or even Powershell scripts deployed via Labtech script, as it seems from forum threads that the dll is actually executing Powershell scripts anyway…?
For anyone reading this who is *not* familiar with Chocolatey (as I was not when I posted the above two comments), Chocolately is an external utility, not provided by SquidWorks. What SquidWorks has very kindly done is simply provide LabTech integration for Chocolatey… (Thanks, SquidWorks! 🙂
I don’t know if I missed anything but is there a way to get Chocolately to install during the onboarding process and then have the selected machines install software from there? Again I might have missed something in the commends above.
There isn’t currently. I spent a great deal of time rolling my own chocolatey installer script and another master deployment script script that installs software (most of it via choco) using checkboxes in each computer’s EDFs during onboarding.
That is a bummer. By any chance is there a way you could provide the scripts you have so I could modify them to work for me?
I don’t know how much help they’re going to be as there are a lot of dependencies on other function and utility scripts I wrote. Also, they’re still kind of buggy. Hopefully it will at least give you an idea of what needs to be done. The scripts probably won’t work out of the gate because of the EDFs. However, I presume you are capable of figuring out how to create those 🙂
http://cache.froggynet.com/scripts/choco%20and%20app%20installer%20scripts.zip
now that I’m looking at what was exported, it looks like the script might actually make the EDFs for you. They should be visible under the “Deployment” tab on each agent’s Info tab.
Thank you Paul. This will start me off in the correct direction.
Glad I could help!
Great Plugin! IS it possible for us to add our own applications that require to be installed? Many of the applications that are in Chocolately are already installed, will Chocolately update these apps or what is the recommended procedures to all it to handle them?
awesome plugin! any news on when version 2 will be out??
Keith,
Your wish is my command. Version 1.1.2 now allows you to install any Chocolatey package.
Chocolatey plugin is great! You guys rock!
Now…
Trying to find where the plugin stores the repo URI.
Because…
The ability to manually type in an “odd” app is helpful, but the default (public) repos aren’t the greatest. E.g. if you type in “ImgBurn”, the installer includes OpenCandy which sets off the client AV. We’d like to set up our own repo and have the plugin use it instead. (Yeah, we could sniff to see where it’s going and change the DNS resolution to our own server, but that’s an ugly hack. 🙂
Any pointers? (Should we just hex-edit the .dll? 🙂
Would really be great if there was a way to push chocolatey to machines, rather than have to go into the tab and manually install. Thanks for all the great work 🙂
Any chance of the Chocolatey integration code being open-sourced on Github or such? Would like to add some features, (e.g. auto-install of the dll, retrieving/maintaining a list of the existing Chocolatey-sourced apps on the client, allowing multiple arbitrary repos etc), and it would be great if we could integrate that with the existing plug-in. – Thanks!
This plugin is version 1, we are working on a version 2 that will encompass the abilities to set any number of repos, will add support for PRO versions where licensing is used, ability to keep history of what is been installed where and stuff like creating company policies for automatic installs of approved software.
Some really good stuff coming
And you saw that we have a preview of the dll out – http://www.nuget.org/packages/chocolatey.lib
I agree, any chance of the Chocolatey integration code being open-sourced on Github?
New to Labtech, should this work on the Labtech Cloud? The plugin enables but no tabs or integration appears.
@Chad – I had the same problem. Close the Labtech (LT) console, use the LT database manager to restart the backend, re-open the console, should be good to go then.
Having issue installing applications through Chocolatey. It will act like it is installing the application then it will pop up something to the effect of 1 for yes 2 for no or 3 for skip. I can’t input 1 or anything which causes the install to fail because it times out or it is defaulted to say “no”. Is there anything I can do to fix this issue?
run your command as
cinst %packagename% -y
-y means ‘yes’
That worked. Thanks Infamous!
Everything looks like it works well. Is there a way to know if Chocolatey is installed on a PC? When I go to a pc that it is installed already it just says “Install Chocolatey” so there is no way to know…. ?
Thanks!
I’m a bit confused, is this the same as https://chocolatey.org/ and if so, why are the version numbers so different?
Keep up the great work!
Allen,
Not currently in version 1.12 but that is coming.
Poboy,
This is a LabTech Plugin to allow you to interface with locally installed chocolatey software. We are not affiliated with Chocolatey in any way other than to assist LabTech MSPs.
Our version numbers are for this plugin and have no bearing on the version of Chocolatey being used.
Allen,
It would be trivial to figure this out. Just create a short script runs the ‘chocolatey -v’ command in a shell and parse the shell results. You could even set a flag as an EDF or turn it into a monitor so that you don’t have to run the check everytime.
Looking for the exe that is locally installed to pc’s on location. Basically looking to uninstall software that I pushed through the plugin. Can’t find the uninstall option on the plugin so I was just going to navigate to the local exe and uninstall from the command line. Unless anyone has a quicker way?
Thx