Robopack Trial Guide

Welcome to the Robopack Trial! This form is designed to ensure you get the most out of your Robopack trial. By filling out this form and testing features listed in this guide, we can ensure that you experience the full range of Robopack's capabilities.

Features to Evaluate

1.    Tenant connection

·       The first thing for start using Robopack is connecting a tenant/tenants into Robopack.

·       There are two different actions for connecting a tenant.

o   Connect tenant will make an Enterprise App registration in the target Entra ID and gives an admin consent for Robopack. Global admin -rights are required when doing a tenant connection. This is the recommended option for tenant connection and is a requirement for multi-tenant management and for using Robopatch feature.

o   Connect tenant (user) will connect Robopack into a tenant and it requires that user, who logs in to Robopack, have necessary permissions into Entra ID and Intune. These permissions will need to be manually configured into Entra/Intune by admins.
If you are using this option, you are not able to use Robopatch feature for automatic patching of 3^rd party applications.

·       You can connect multiple tenants in Robopack with this same procedure.

2.    Assignment templates

·       In Assignment templates menu, you can give permissions for Robopack to create groups for apps uploaded to Intune and you can create unique assignment templates.

·       Creating a new template is not mandatory and you can use the default template when importing packages in Intune. The default template will create following Entra ID groups and assignments:

3.    Script templates

·       Robopack is using PS App Deploy Toolkit as a part of application distributions. You can modify PSADT scripts via Script templates menu.

·       You can create own script templates, if necessary, and the easiest way to do that is creating a duplicate from the default scripts.

·       You can modify the script in various ways. When creating a new script, it is recommended to select the latest version of Installation script from the drop-down menu.

4.    Notifications

·       You can create different kinds of notification flows in Robopack.

·       When you have clicked the Add new flow button, you can define what kind of events you want notifications. By clicking the Add new action button, you can select if the notifications will be deployed via e-mail or as a Post to Teams channel.

5.    Instant apps

·       There are 40 000 applications in Robopack’s repository which you can easily search and distribute via Intune. By selecting Instant apps from the menu, you can search applications from the repository.

·       When you have found the application from the repository, just select/click the application for starting the import.

·       When you have selected the application, there are several Actions which you can choose.

o   Analyze & Build
This will create a package in Intune

o   Import from Microsoft Store
Some of the applications can be downloaded from Winget and also from Microsoft Store. By default, applications are downloaded from Winget repository.

o   Setup Robopatch flow
When you want to automatically update the application in the future, you should select this option. More information about this feature can be found from the chapter 7. Robopatch.

·       When you click Analyze & Build, the following window will appear:

·       Information is collected automatically from the package, but you can modify them if you want. If you want to use custom script template (see chapter 3. Script templates), you can select that from the drop-down menu.

·       In Advanced options -menu you can modify Description, Developer or mark the app as featured app in Company Portal. When you have done the modifications, just click Continue.

·       In Review, you can select a Quick import to Intune and select the appropriate tenant or then you can import the application later by searching the application from the Packages / Recent packages list and import application from there.
You can also select the deployment assignments to be created and you can use either Default assignment template or custom template, if you have created that.
When everything is ready, just click Import app button.

6.    Upload custom package

·       If you have an application which is not found from the repository, you can manually upload application in Robopack as well. Just select Packages / Recent packages from the menu and then click Upload new package. Choose Select files, if you have just one installer file. Or you can select the folder which contains all the necessary files of the application.

·       When you have selected files/folder, the following window appears:

·       You can use Upload package feature for converting application either MSIX or App-V package, or then you can just create a IntuneWin package, which can be distributed with Intune. If you have selected IntuneWin, you can define various settings for the package and when you are ready, just click Continue.

·       In the final phase, you can select the Quick import to Intune, if wanted. Select Create package and the package will be created.

7.    Robopatch

·       Robopatch is a feature which can update 3^rd party applications automatically. It is possible to use Robopatch for both repository applications and your own custom applications which are imported in Robopack.

o   If you want to use Robopatch for your own custom applications, import the application in Robopatch as described in section 6, Upload custom package.
When you have added the package in Robopack, navigate in Packages / Recent packages in Robopack portal and select/click your package.
Then just select “Setup Robopatch flow” under Actions-menu:

o   If you want to create a Robopatch flow for some repository application, start creating package in Robopack as described in section 5, Instant apps.
When you have selected the application from the repository, select Setup Robopatch flow from the Actions-menu.

·       First, you need to define basic settings for Robopatch flow

o   If needed, you can define which script template will be used in this Robopatch flow

o   When “Automatically upload and start new deployments” is selected, Robopack will automatically check repository every 30 minutes for new versions. If new versions are found, Robopack will download it automatically and imports it in Intune and creates assignments as defined in the Robopatch flow.

o   You can also select other options, based on your needs. You also need to select how many last superseded versions you want to keep in Intune.

o   When you selected all the necessary configurations, click Create flow.

·       On the next window, you can add deployment waves for distributing the application for desired devices. If you have already created some Robopatch flows for other applications, you can also copy deployment waves from another flows.

·       Recommended way is to create at least two waves, one for smaller pilot group and another one for the rest of the devices. You can search groups from Entra ID by clicking Add group -button in the wave settings.
NOTE! You can add several groups in one wave and also you can add groups from different tenants in one Robopatch flow
When you have selected groups in waves, it is important to select the assignment type for that group (either Required or Available), see picture below.
You can also define time limits, delays and minimum rates in waves settings, based on your needs.

·       When you have made all your wave configurations, you can either save and start deployment immediately (which imports the application in Intune and creates all the assignments configured in the flow) or the you can just save deployment in Robopack and start the deployment later.
NOTE! If you need to make some special settings for the application by using Custom App Settings, do not start the deployment yet! It is recommended to do Custom App Settings first, as described in section 8 and start the deployment when those configurations are ready.

8.    Custom App Settings

·       Custom App Settings are extremely useful when you need to make modifications for applications which will be deployed to the devices. You can use Custom App Settings in Robopatch flows or in standard packages (packages which are not updated automatically via Robopatch).

·       For standard packages, just select the application from the Recent packages -menu and from the Action menu select Add Custom Setting.

·       If you want to add Custom App Settings in Robopatch flow, navigate to Robopatch-menu and select the Robopatch flow which you want to configure and the select Add Custom Settings from the Actions menu.

·       In Custom App Settings there are plenty of settings which you can configure

o   You can define settings to be used in All tenants where Robopack is connected to, or you can define specific settings for different tenants

o   You can define which script template will be used

o   If you need to close some applications or processes during the installation or uninstallation, you can just enter the name of the applications (exe) or processes. You can define multiple applications in this field separated with column.

o   You can customize the installation or uninstallation commands, if needed.

o   You can add registry values either by manually or by importing them from .REG file

o   You can add files if needed

o   You can also run PowerShell commands during the installations/uninstallations.

o   In the Section-field you can select the phase when the script will be run

o   You can give your comments for this script

o   Then you can enter the whole script in its own field.

o   You can add multiple PowerShell scripts in one Custom App Setting, if necessary

o   All these settings will be added in the main PSADT script which will be used for installing/uninstalling the package

·       When you have done all your settings, click Save settings from the Actions-menu.

·       If you made Custom App Settings in Robopatch flow, you need to start the deployment. Navigate in the Robopatch-menu and select the correct Robopatch flow

·       Then click the wave which is in Pending state:

·       Then click Start deployment and the package will be imported to Intune and all the assignments will be done in Intune.

·       If you made Custom App Settings for standard package (no Robopatch flow), you need to click Import to Intune and the package and Custom App Settings will be imported in Intune.

9.    App Documentation

·       Robopack contains a powerful documentation feature for packages which are imported in Intune. This feature will report in detail all the changes which application installation will do in the target devices.

·       Navigate in Packages / Recent packages menu and select the package, which documentation you would like to view and in the package’s Actions-menu, select App documentation:

·       In the App documentation -view you can download a detailed PDF Report for the package or then you can view all the modifications on the screen:

10.  Download (exporting) packages and test installations

·       It is possible to download/export packages from Robopack.

·       Navigate in Packages / Recent packages menu and select the package, which you would like to download. In the package’s Actions-menu, select Download:

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o   Source files
You can download the package’s original source files

o   IntuneWin
You can download this package’s IntuneWin if you could like to import the application manually in Intune

o   PSADT script
This option is extremely useful for manually testing the package installation and especially for testing Custom App Settings. Download the archive and you can run the PSADT script in a test machine by running the downloaded Deploy-Application.exe with parameters -DeployMode Silent. If you would like to test uninstallation, run “Deploy-Application.exe Uninstall -DeployMode Silent”