Continous Installation : How it works

It's been a while since my last post ;-) but here is a new one. This post will give more detailed information of the setup I have to install software on 75 servers, and keep an eye on them. As you know, I use CCNet for distributing our software to our customers (about 70 for the moment). These installations involve click-once applications, database upgrades, server checks, ....

I made a presentation in openoffice and ms office so you can have a look, download the format of your choice and start the presentation (F5). Here's a short overview of the presentation :

• Company is connected to an external Ftp Server via the Internet
• Customers have an application server with CCNet pre-installed, which will connect at pre-defined times (schedule trigger) with the Ftp server
• When there is a need for a change (new installation/ program),we upload a modified ccnet.config and the needed files.
• When the schedule trigger fires, CCNet.Config is downloaded, and copied to the path where CCNet watches it. Meaning the new configuration will be read
• If it needs, other files are also downloaded and executed / installed

Now, the 10 point question :
how do we know if an installation was ok, the server was updated, ... ?
At preset times, about 7 times a day, each appserver uploads the state of its CCNet service, this is the data you can see in the dashboard. This data is downloaded to the company and processed.
So we see if the update was ok ('build' ok or failed), and if the update was done or not, via the last executed time.