How can I expire an Application Deployment?

Question

_{Saturday, July 11, 2015 6:49 AM}

Per my understanding, unlike Packages , Application Deployments doesn't give any option to set up an Expiry Date during its schedule.

In our environment we almost stopped deploying Packages.

Applications are being created and used for all new Deployment instead.

But the heat we're experiencing is related to Application Deployment is, its Expiry. Since there is no option to select an 'Expiry Date' during schedule, Application advertisement stay active until we delete it manually. Unexpected installation are being triggered. 

So can anyone please provide an insight why there is no Expiry option available in Application Deployment and provide a solution to this?

All replies (7)

_{Saturday, July 11, 2015 7:01 AM ✅Answered | 1 vote}

Correct, for application deployments you don't have to option anymore to expire the deployment. Instead you can think about using the application model. In this case you might want to look at retiring the application.

When you retire an application, it is no longer available for deployment but the application and any deployments of the application are not deleted. Existing copies of this application that were installed on client computers will not be removed. Any revisions to the application will be deleted from Configuration Manager after 60 days. However, any installed copies of the application are not removed. Reference: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg682031.aspx

My Blog: http://www.petervanderwoude.nl/
Follow me on twitter: pvanderwoude

_{Tuesday, July 14, 2015 6:06 PM ✅Answered}

There's nothing to fix, this is by design. If you don't like the design, please fill out a design change request (DCR) on connect.microsoft.com or provide feedback through official Microsoft channels like your TAM (if you have one). Be prepared to supply justification and business impact.

Jason | http://blog.configmgrftw.com | @jasonsandys

_{Sunday, July 12, 2015 7:03 AM}

Thanks for the reply Jason...but Retiring won't be a solution for me.

Once Retired, Application will no longer be available for Install, which I don't want. Because for Desktop users I create Non Mandatory Deployments  and keep that available for self install  for many months. 

But for Servers  I set  Mandatory Deployments which happens in very strict change window (max 2 weeks). Since there is no option to set an expiry,  once the window over I've to search and delete such deployments manually. Which is a painful task since I create more than 40 such deployments in a week. 

_{Sunday, July 12, 2015 7:36 AM}

Sadly there is really no option to expire an application deployment. You could think about using PowerShell to automate those type of deletion task, or, as a last resort, go back to old-school packages for those servers.

My Blog: http://www.petervanderwoude.nl/
Follow me on twitter: pvanderwoude

_{Sunday, July 12, 2015 1:43 PM}

Or just use two applications, one for servers, one for workstations. Then you can expire the server targeted ones.

PowerShell is absolutely the way to go here and will make this pretty trivial. Organization including folders for the apps in the console would make it easier also.

Jason | http://blog.configmgrftw.com | @jasonsandys

_{Tuesday, July 14, 2015 6:30 AM}

Peter..... so is this a kind of drawback and expected to be fixed by MS in upcoming versions ( I don't see this is fixed in R2 SP2, however).. any thoughts?

_{Tuesday, July 14, 2015 6:32 AM}

Jason...we are already doing this since there are no other options left..