Agent Installation Woes

Hi folks.

It is not recommended to have the agent installed in your "master" image... It seems it is recommended to install after a machine has been imaged. Why this is the case, I don't know - why can't a simple "preparation" utility can't be used after agent installation in the "master" which cleans up the machine and get's it ready for a sysprep?

Anyway, I digress already.

If I am to install after imaging, I want it to be installed at a specific stage/time.
I don't want a discovery task and deployment task that may not have it ready in time for the user logging in.


So how do I get this installed "on demand"?

I can download the pre-agent package and launch that as part of a post-image script, but I want to WAIT for the task to complete before moving on to another task; this seems almost impossible since the install wrapper starts the setup, but quits almost immediately leaving the install to run. How do I know when it has completed it's work?


I'm really disappointed that even in 11.2, this issue has not been addressed.
I will have to use some workarounds or clever scripting to complete what should be a basic installation. WHY is this so difficult?