12 months ago we ran a series of articles part 1, part 2, part 3 & part 4 from community member Neil Martin focussing on getting Pro Tools and its associated extras into a state whereby it could be deployed en-mass which is especially useful in educational establishments.
Neil has been in touch with an update following the recent Pro Tools 11.3 update, as a couple of things have changed. Over to you Neil…
This is just a follow up to the deployment series I wrote last year since Avid have changed a few bits and pieces. Following the Pro Tools 11.3 update, I’ve updated the post-install script here.
Avid Have Changed The Shoe
Aside from some tidying up, the main change is to deal with Avid renaming the Shoe Tool. Also, after testing Avid’s new installer package for Pro Tools 11.3, I’ve found it deploys without any need for modification/repackaging with Casper (I’m no longer using Munki where I work but other Mac admins have reported it’s also fine).
There is a really cool tool, Suspicious Package, that is great for peeking into installer packages to see how they tick - what files they place where and what scripts they run pre and post install. With this I discovered that all the new installer does is run a pre-install script that deletes the Pro Tools application if it exists and then installs Pro Tools in to /Applications.
On first run, Pro Tools checks for the Shoe Helper Tool and iLok License Manager and installs them it if they’re not installed. This is the exact same behaviour as seen with the previous versions.
So to deploy, one must install Pro Tools, any desired extras (HD Driver, Codecs and the AIR Creative Collection) and the iLok License Manager, then run the post-install script above. The good news is, one only has to repackage the AIR Creative Collection, which hasn’t changed versions since last year.
Thanks Neil for the update and if this is revelant to you then don’t forget to read this update in conjunction with Neil’s detailed descriptions in part 1, part 2, part 3 & part 4 from February last year.