Installing the Pulse Secure Client on Windows Endpoints Using a Preconfiguration File

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Installing the Pulse Secure Client on Windows Endpoints Using a Preconfiguration File

The following procedures apply to Windows installations only.

After you create client connection sets and specify the connections to include within a client component set, you can create a preconfiguration file with all of the connections you want to distribute with the Pulse client. You specify the preconfiguration file as an option when you run the Pulse MSI installer program using an msiexec (windows\system32\msiexec.exe) command.

To create a preconfigured Pulse installer for distribution to Windows endpoints:

Select Users > Pulse Secure > Connections and create a connection set with the connections that you want to distribute.
Select Users > Pulse Secure > Components.
If necessary, create a new component set with the connection sets you want to distribute.

It does not matter which component option you select, All components or No components. The Pulse installer installs all components.

Select the check boxes next to the component sets that you want to distribute.
Click Download Installer Configuration.

You are prompted to save the preconfiguration. You can also specify the name of the target Pulse server for the connections, which enables you to create configuration files that are the same except for the target server.

The default filename of the .pulsepreconfig file is the name of the selected component set. Make note of the filename and location where you put the file. The preconfiguration file must be available to the clients either through a network share or distributed along with the PulseSecure Desktop client installation file.

Select Maintenance > System > Installers.

If necessary for your environment, download and install the Pulse Secure Installer. To install Pulse, users must have appropriate privileges. The Pulse Secure Installer allows you to bypass privilege restrictions and allow users with limited privileges to install Pulse. See Downloading Client Installer Files for more information about Pulse Secure Installer.

Download the appropriate Pulse Secure installer for your Windows environment:

Pulse Secure installer (32-bit)
Pulse Secure installer (64-bit)

Note: For a Windows installation (.msi) that uses an automated distribution mechanism and where the users do not have administrator privileges, you should ensure that the installation is run in the proper context, typically the USER context. To install in USER context, first advertise the .msi while in the SYSTEM context. For example, to advertise the 64-bit Windows installation to all users, use the following msiexec command:

msiexec /jm \PulseSecure.x64.msi

The advertisement allows the installation to be run in USER context even if the user is a restricted (non-admin) user. The location where the advertisement is run and where the actual installation is run must be the same. If the installation is an upgrade, you must advertise the upgrade version before running it. (Note that it is much easier to upgrade the Pulse client by not disabling the automatic upgrade feature on the Pulse server.) After the installation is run by the user, the Pulse client will use the correct user certificate and context.