How To Distribute a Job

In a corporate environment were GoodSync Enterprise is deployed to all client workstations, you can schedule and execute jobs across the entire network by utilizing some basic script mechanisms and/or Group Policy.

To Begin ensure that GoodSync Enterprise is deployed to all of the required machines in your corporation

Scenario 1: Same Jobs for All Users

1. From your server or administrative machine configure the backup job(s) that will be run on all of your client machines. Remember to use environment variables where appropriate so the job will run correctly for each user. Read More

   

2. By default GoodSync stores job information to %AppData%\GoodSync\jobs.tic for each user. This information needs to be distributed to all the machines on your network. This can be done various ways; one is to use a login script like the VBS example below:

   On Error Resume Next
   
   strPathToJobsTIC = ""
   
   Set oWsh = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
   Set oFso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
   strJobsData = oWsh.ExpandEnvironmentStrings("%AppData%")
   If Right(strJobsData,1) <> "\" Then
   	strJobsData = strJobsData + "\"
   End If
   strJobsData = strJobsData + "GoodSync\jobs.tic"
   oFso.CopyFile strPathToJobsTIC, strJobsData, True
   

   1. If you decide to use the example script above set the strPathToJobsTIC equal to a fully qualified UNC path of the jobs.tic file you wish to distribute. (this is the jobs.tic file you created on your server or administrative machine to push out to everyone) For example: strPathToJobsTIC = "\SERVER\SoftwareDist\GoodSync\jobs.tic"

Scenario 2: Setting up Jobs Using Command Line Parameters

This Scenario allows for different jobs to be assigned to specific users or machines. First decide which users or machines need what jobs. Each of the different jobs will be assigned to their counterparts by separate GPOs in Group Policy. A popular method for doing this is with Login Scripts.

1. Create a new GPO for the job you want to setup and link it to the Organizational Unit in Active Directory that holds the machines or users who should be assigned this Job.
2. Open the Group Policies for this GPO and go to User Configuration > Windows Settings > Scripts (Login/Logoff).
   1. Add a Login Script to the Policy that will create the required backup job for that OU. For more information about configuring jobs from command line see here.
   2. For example, if you wanted a job named UserBackup that would backup the User's My Documents folder to a share on the server, you could use a batch file like this:

      cd "%ProgramFiles%\Siber Systems\GoodSync"
      gsync.exe job UserBackup /f1="%userprofile%\My Documents"
      	/f2=\\SERVER\%username%\DocsBackup /dir=ltor,forced
      

      Remember, all of the Job options available to you in the Graphical User Interface of GoodSync, are also available through the command line version.
3. Repeat this process, creating as many separate GPOs as you need jobs and then link them to the OU that represents their specific group of users or machines.

Scenario 3: Distribution of Jobs via Group Policy (Registry)

1. Load the GoodSync.adm file (found in the GoodSync Enterprise install directory, usually %ProgramFiles%\Siber Systems\GoodSync) into your Group Policy Editor.
2. Go to User Configuration > Policies > Administrative Templates > Siber Systems > GoodSync. You will need to enable both the JobsLoadRegistry and JobsSaveRegistry policies for all machines with GoodSync Enterprise installed.
3. On your administrative or testing machine configure all of the different jobs that you will need your users to have.
   1. Each Job will be saved under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Siber Systems\GoodSync\Jobs\[JOBNAME]. In each of those keys is a value called tix. This holds all of the job settings, so copy this string down or make it easily available for the next few steps.
4. Create a new GPO for the job you want to deploy and link it to the Organizational Unit in Active Directory that holds the machines or users who should be assigned this job.
5. Open the Group Policies for this GPO and go to User Configuration > Preferences > Windows Settings > Registry and create a new Registry Item.
6. Set the Action to Update, the Hive to HKEY_CURRENT_USER, the Key Path to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Siber Systems\GoodSync\Jobs\[JOBNAME], the Value name to tix, and then paste the tix string you copied down in step 3A.

   

7. Repeat this process, creating as many separate GPOs as you need Jobs and then link them to the OU that represents their specific group of users or machines.

How to Automate the Jobs

1. Open your Domain's Group Policy Editor.
2. Go to User Configuration > Preferences > Control Panel Settings > Scheduled Tasks.

   

3. Create a Scheduled Task to execute the backup job. You can specify any command line arguments you wish to use here.
   1. Ensure that you check the "Run in logged-on user's security context" option if you used environment variables in the Job's folder paths. This will ensure that those variables get processed correctly.

   

You have now created jobs and distributed them to all machines on the network. You have also scheduled those jobs to run on all of the machines automatically.