Group Policy deployment questions/issues

[pmessina]

I will prefix this post by saying that it is rather lengthy and if it requires that we pay for and open a tech support issue we understand don't have a problem with that.

We are attempting to do a Group Policy deployment of a Package created using Installaware. This package needs to be deployed with the MSI wrapper to all systems using this method.

We are doing Computer Assigned Group Policy deployments, which means this must be a totally silent/automated install. The package will install on a per machine basis to all workstations assigned to the OU containing the deployment GPO. This install will happen synchronously upon system startup.

We have however come up with several conditions that will not behave in an ideal manner with the MSI wrapper Installaware creates via the Group Policy Editor. The issues arise because of the way the MSI wrapper calls and then exits after launching the core Installaware components.

Condition 1: (Error Conditions)
The status of the core components, contained in the Installaware package, do not relay their exit codes to the parent MSI wrapper. This means that errors are never registered within the installation hierarchy. If the core components come across fault the MSI wrapper never registers it because it has already released control.

Condition 2: (Asynchronous Processing)
The MSI wrapper launches the core Installaware package and then exits. This means that other scheduled installs are free to process. This can create a condition where two installs are processing simultaneously if there are other scheduled GPO deployed packages. This condition can lead to unpredictable results do to installation contention.

Condition 3: (Windows Installer Processing Contention)
Because Installaware uses Windows Installer at it’s core, running an MSI wrapper that processes Synchronously to launch the imbedded Installaware created .exe will lead to error 1618.

ERROR_INSTALL_ALREADY_RUNNING An installation is already in progress

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa369284.aspx

It appears that the wrapper can be used to initiate an Installaware created .exe install but after it is launched the wrapper needs to exit. If it does not the Installaware .exe will error out with code 1618 which is a Windows installer error code. This indicates that "An installation is already in progress" and will prohibit a successful install.

We can assume that to solve our deployment problem we need to allow the MSI wrapper package to remain active during the complete install of the imbedded Installaware created .exe package. This will require the ability to avoid the 1618 windows installer error from occurring. Is this possible?


Thank you,
Peter