How To: Deploy Java with Active Directory and Group Policy

My first post for 2017 and what a year this is starting out to be. I wish you all success in whatever you set out to do.
Today I'm going to show you how to install java to multiple machines or rather how to deploy java with active directory.
Most of us install java by going to https://www.java.com/en/  but doing that on a few hundred machines would be impractical. Also that’s usually the online installer, which is a small file that you execute that downloads the rest from the internet before installing it. You can get the offline installers here https://www.java.com/en/download/manual.jsp

The Problem

You want to install java to multiple machines on your network and need a method of doing it automatically.

The Solution

The actually technical bits is pretty simple and its like deploying any other piece of software or .msi via group policy. The tricky bit however is obtaining the software as its not available publicly. What you need is the MSI Enterprise JRE Installer the downside is and I quote:

The MSI Enterprise JRE Installer is only available as part of Oracle Java SE Advanced products1 and is available to customers via My Oracle Support (MOS).

So basically It requires a commercial license and most of us won’t have that. We just want Java.
This is where I come in. You can download a copy here.

How to Install / Deploy

For the record this is how you would deploy most applications via Active Directory and Group Policy.

1. Obtain the software , see link above
2. Copy it to your file server share or to your domain controllers netlogon share(if you have many remote sites with slow links) and make a note of the location
   e.g \\servername\share\jre-8u111-windows-i586.msi
3. Create a new AD Group e.g Java_Installations (Computers in this group will have java deployed to them.)
4. Open the Group Policy Editor and create a new Group Policy Object (GPO)
   
5. Configure the GPO  similar to the below:
   
   
   
   
   
6. From a command prompt do the following, its optional but recommended if you are testing and want faster results
   
   
   
7. This is a computer policy so check that it applied to your machine by running GPRESULT /R from a command prompt and check that its applied.
   
   
8. You may need to reboot twice maybe more to find that it installed successfully
9. That’s how you deploy java with group policy

Notes: The Java Uninstall Tool is integrated with the installer to provide an option to remove older versions of Java from the system. The change is applicable to 32 bit and 64 bit Windows platforms. See Uninstalling the JRE for more information



If this post has been useful I would a appreciate a share,like and tweet.
Comment below with any questions or suggestions.