Deploy Linux Shell scripts using Scalefusion

Shell scripts are a powerful tool for automating tasks and simplifying configuration and can be used to automate almost any task in the Windows ecosystem. With a carefully designed script, you can automate various administrative tasks like adding users, installing applications, checking for OS updates to name a few. It becomes imperative for an MDM solution to provide support to be able to push scripts and then view detailed output.

Scalefusion offers you a powerful interface that lets you push scripts to all your devices and view detailed output on each of them. Follow the steps below to deploy a script and view the output.

Prerequisites

1. Enroll a Linux Device.

2. Scalefusion Enterprise Plan.

Step 1: Upload and Deploy the script

1. Navigate to Application Management > Enterprise Store , click on Upload New App and select Upload Linux Script

   

2. Using the script upload wizard upload your script and click Save

   

   1. Script Name: Provide a name for your reference

   2. Upload Script File: Click on the upload arrow and upload the script file from your local machine.

3. Once the script is saved you will be provide an option to publish the script. Select the profiles where you want to publish it and click Publish.

   

   1. Once a script is published a push is sent to the devices and on all devices which are online the execution will start.

Step 2: View Status & Unpublish

1. All the uploaded scripts appear in the Enterprise store section. Clicking on Publish allows you to view details of the script.

   

   1. Publish: Use this option to publish the script to device profiles.

   2. Unpublish: Use this option to unpublish the script from device profiles.
      

      Please note that this option would not undo the changes that the script did. Un-publishing would cause the script not be executed on the newly enrolled devices.

   3. Summary: The summary pane gives you the information and current execution status,

      1. Size: Indicates the size of script

      2. Uploaded On: The time when this script was uploaded.

      3. Installed On: Number of devices where it is executed.

      4. Published To: Number of devices where it is published to.
         

         The Installed On and Published To stats are retained even after a script is unpublished.

   4. Preview: Use this option to preview the script that you uploaded.

   5. View Status: Use this option to get detailed status of the script execution on each device and the output.

      

      1. Click on View Detailsto check the output of the script execution.

         

         1. Stdout: This tab gives you the output of the script.

         2. Stderr: This tab gives you the error if any from the script execution.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Question: How often the script is executed?

   1. For now the script is only executed once the device receives it. We are looking at adding support for scheduling.

2. Question: Why does not the script execute again even when we Unpublish and Publishit again on the same profile?

   1. Our current implementation requires you to delete the script completely and upload it again on the same profile if you want to execute it again.

Helper Scripts

We have curated some helper scripts, that lets you perform some administrative tasks readily. Please click on the links below to download the scripts and before using them, please replace the placeholders in them.

1. Click on the Script link in the Script column which opens the script in a new browser window.

2. Copy the contents to a UTF-8 editor like notepad++ OR Sublime Text in Windows or geditin Ubuntu

   1. If you are using notepad++ then use the bottom right panel to change the type to Unix (LF)

      

3. Update the script and replace the placeholders as required.

4. Upload the script to Scalefusion Dashboard and deploy it to the devices.