Problem successfully running nested IA 9 installers

[albel]

Hi,

I'm having an issue when using a controlling installer (built with IA 9) that calls three sub-installers (also built with IA 9). The controlling installer actually collects info from the user, then sends it into the sub-installers via parameters. The problem is only the last sub-installer called from the controller actually installs fully. It appears the first two do not copy their files into their TARGETDIR, however the installers names are in the Windows Add or Remove Programs list. These sub-installers are installing NT services, and their service names appear in the list of services too (but they do not start successfully - no files in the directories). Only the last sub-installer that was called results in files in the TARGETDIR and an NT service that actually works.

The weird thing is if I comment-out the Run Program statement that calls the third sub-installer, rebuild the controlling installer, and rerun it, the current last sub-installer (previously, the second sub-installer in the list) installs fully and results in a functioning NT service on the target machine. The first sub-installer still does not copy its files to the TARGETDIR.

Any suggestions? Am I overlooking some bigger-picture issue here? Is there some kind of interaction among multiple "Apply Install" statements that leaves only the last one effective, even though they all run in different install.exe files? Would the "Install MSI Setup" command help?

Thanks for any insight,

Al

[MichaelNesmith]

Are you waiting for the nested installers to complete execution?

[albel]

Yes, the 'Wait' checkbox is checked on all of these calls.

Just a little additional information:
The nesting is only one level deep. A controlling installer calls the three sub-installers in succession, passing the necessary parameters and values to each.
The controlling installer does not Install any files or execute an "Apply Installer" command of its own.
The sub-installers are stand-alone InstallAware installers that are called with a "/s" in the parameter list. Each of these installers installs its relevant files, installs an NT service based on those files, executes the "Apply Install" command, and executes a "Define File Bag" command to run a custom program that modifies that NT service's XML config file.
Functionally, these three sub-installers are basically copies of each other, however as mentioned earlier, only the last one that's called results in a successful NT service.

Al

[ALive]

Hi, albel!

I noticed you said that these installers are a copies of each other. Can you check Product ID GUID, it should be different for each installer. Probably this is the source of your issue.

Hope this helps!

[albel]

Hi ALive,

Thanks much, that was a very good hunch. The three sub-installers had the same product GUID, but the revisions were different. When I changed the product GUIDs and ran again they all worked!
That's quite an insidious trap. If the sub-installers were not run in silent mode the Windows Installer may have displayed some user dialog that prompted to uninstall the previous version first. So I don't understand why the last one in the sequence would successfully install rather than the first.
But I consider this issue as resolved.

Thanks again,

albel