Failed silent installations using SCCM

[Interstate 5]

I am having some trouble getting an application packaged with InstallAware to run using SCCM. I believe it is because of problems with the installer using the system account, as seen in some previous posts to this forum: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=8783 viewtopic.php?f=2&t=6658

The command line I am using is: setup.exe /s /l=c:\path\logfile.log ALLUSERS=TRUE

When SCCM tries to run that command line, the installation fails and this is what I see in the log:

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MSI (s) (C8:B4) [11:32:14:882]: Executing op: FolderCreate(,Foreign=0,,)
MSI (s) (C8:B4) [11:32:14:898]: Note: 1: 2343
MSI (s) (C8:B4) [11:32:14:898]: Note: 1: 2205 2:  3: Error
MSI (s) (C8:B4) [11:32:14:898]: Note: 1: 2228 2:  3: Error 4: SELECT `Message` FROM `Error` WHERE `Error` = 2343
DEBUG: Error 2343:  Specified path is empty.
The installer has encountered an unexpected error installing this package. This may indicate a problem with this package. The error code is 2343. The arguments are: , ,
MSI (s) (C8:B4) [11:32:14:898]: Note: 1: 2205 2:  3: Error
MSI (s) (C8:B4) [11:32:14:898]: Note: 1: 2228 2:  3: Error 4: SELECT `Message` FROM `Error` WHERE `Error` = 1709
MSI (s) (C8:B4) [11:32:14:898]: Product: Aspen 3.0 -- The installer has encountered an unexpected error installing this package. This may indicate a problem with this package. The error code is 2343. The arguments are: , ,
Action ended 11:32:14: InstallFinalize. Return value 3.

The final error at the end of the log:

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MSI (s) (C8:B4) [11:32:15:179]: Product: Aspen 3.0 -- Installation failed.
MSI (s) (C8:B4) [11:32:15:179]: Windows Installer installed the product. Product Name: Aspen 3.0. Product Version: 1.0. Product Language: 1033. Manufacturer: FMCSA. Installation success or error status: 1603.

I tried to install using psexec -s and I get the same error. However when I run it from an administrative command prompt as my user account, it installs just fine. Is there anything else I can try to get this software package to work correctly with SCCM?

[FrancescoT]

Dear User,

for what I see by the log you posted, the package fails due error "2343 (a specified path is empty)" and error "1603 (a setup file is in use by another process)".

The first error could be caused by the fact that your setup tries to query for a TARGET PATH that may not exist under SYSTEM ACCOUNT CONTEXT.
For example; if with the script the "Get Folder Location" command is used to query the "System Document" folder location, this will fail to return the path under "SYSTEM ACCOUNT CONTEXT", if the "Get for All Users" flag has not been specified with the command.

For what concerns the second one, it's seems instead that your setup is trying to execute an action over a file which is currently in use. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't believe this last one has anything to do with the SYSTEM ACCOUNT CONTEXT.

As first, I suggest you to verify all the path locations used by your setup script (especially the system folders). You may use the "write to text file" command to create a sort of custom log file, where you can report the effective values on any script variable that should point to a path.

Hope this helps you.

Regards

[Interstate 5]

It looks like missing/incorrect MSI properties was the fix. I did a side by side log comparison with a successful install and a failed SCCM install and the successful install had these in entries in the log that the failed install did not:

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PROPERTY CHANGE: Adding DESKTOPDIR property.
PROPERTY CHANGE: Adding MYDOCUMENTS property.
PROPERTY CHANGE: Adding QUICKLAUNCHDIR property.


I had to define DESKTOPDIR=C:\Users\Public\Desktop and MYDOCUMENTS=C:\Users\Public\Documents along with ALLUSERS=TRUE in my command line, and this time the installer completed successfully. We are still doing tests to verify the application actually functions correctly after this kind of install however.

I am guessing because the application doesn't install any quicklaunch shortcuts, it was OK with that property being left undefined. We did not package this application, it came from a third party vendor. Is there something they can do to fix their installer so it works correctly under the System account, or is this a limitation of InstallAware and we will just need to document that the above MSI properties need to be defined as part of the installation?

[FrancescoT]

This forum is exclusively intended to those developers who use our tool to generate their setup packages.

That said you should contact the software vendor that released the setup package. It's clear that exist a problem on how the "vendor" developed and released such setup package. The InstallAware tool doesn't have any limitation to generate setup packages and to run them under System account context.

Regards