MS office deployment

(imported topic written by acwang91)

Hi,

It is my first time using Bigfix to install MS Office 2003 on client PCs over our network. I have already created an .MST with the required customization. The .MST is then put into a small mssetup.bat file. When I executed this .bat via action script as a “New Tasks”, it completed successfully within 2 seconds but didn’t actually installing the software.

I have tried running the .bat file mannually on client PC and it was able to install the office software.

Any idea what went wrong? Many Thanks.

Action Script Content

waithidden “c:\temp\msssetup.bat”

mssetup.bat Batch file Content

z:\MSoffice2003\setup.exe TRANSFORMS=“c:\temp\MS2003 Setup.MST” /qb

AC Wang

(imported comment written by BenKus)

Hi AC Wang,

What is the “Z:”? Is it a shared drive?

If so, the agent likely won’t have access to it because the agent runs as the SYSTEM account. The normal ways to solve this would be to distribute the files to the agent using the software distribution wizard or by enabling the share as a “null session share”.

Ben

(imported comment written by acwang91)

Hi Ben,

Thanks for your quick response.

Yes, Z is our network share drive.

If I use the Software Distribution Wizard, what should I put in the “command line” inside the Wizard? Can I put mssetup.bat as the commad line?

Thanks,

Wang

(imported comment written by BenKus)

Hi Wang,

You will want to select the folder “Z:\MSOffice2003” to distribute and then in the command line in the software distribution wizard, you will want to run:

setup.exe TRANSFORMS=“c:\temp\MS2003 Setup.MST” /qb

Or whatever command line you would run if you had copied the Z:\msoffice2003 to the computer.

Ben

(imported comment written by acwang91)

Hi Ben,

I used able to create the task via Software Wizard. The script is shown as below. But when I executed it, it failed.


download http://XXX.XXX.X.XX:52311/Uploads/bd7ead7ac52b67177b8ba042073aa1b81f8a1b16/MSOffice2003.tmp

continue if {(size of it = 533934184 AND sha1 of it = “bd7ead7ac52b67177b8ba042073aa1b81f8a1b16”) of file “MSOffice2003.tmp” of folder “__Download”}

extract MSOffice2003.tmp

wait __Download\msiexec /i setup.exe TRANSFORMS=“HKMC MSOFFICE2003.MST” /qb


  1. May I know where is the installation log located so that I can trace what went wrong?

  2. The task stated that 509 MB of the software cached in BES server. Do you know where this packed software located?

Thanks,

Wang

(imported comment written by BenKus)

Hi Wang,

  1. I am not sure where the debug log goes for msi… You probably should specify it with msi options… It looks like “/L” is what you want: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc759262.aspx

  2. The folder is compressed and sent to the “Upload” folder in the BigFix Server wwwrootbes folder.

Just looking at it, the syntax looks a little funny… The current working directory is the actionsite or opsite folder and the files exist in the __Download subfolder after they are extracted…

I am not sure if the msiexec would run with the setup.exe… maybe you should edit the line to be:

wait __Download\setup.exe TRANSFORMS="__Download\MS2003 Setup.MST" /qb

Make sure the path to the transform is right… after you run the action, you can see the files leftover on the agent in the __Download folder (probably in the BigFix Client subfolder “__BESData\Actionsite” if you are logged in as an administrator).

Ben

(imported comment written by acwang91)

Hi Ben,

Finally, I was able to get this Software Deployment thing working except for one last deployment. This is the deployment of a tscconv.msi software. The action script is : -


download http://X.X.X.X:52311/Uploads/185279335378bd2a6bb4cb3172155ddc9eb7d84f/tcscconvmsi.tmp

continue if {(size of it = 150046 AND sha1 of it = “185279335378bd2a6bb4cb3172155ddc9eb7d84f”) of file “tcscconvmsi.tmp” of folder “__Download”}

extract tcscconvmsi.tmp

wait “{pathname of system folder & “\msiexec.exe”}” /i “{(pathname of client folder of current site) & “__Download\tcscconv.msi”}”


When I executed it, it’s 100% completed but it didn’t actually install the software.

I went to the BES Client log. It said something like "“Not Relevant after extracting the tcscconvmsi.tmp file…” Pls help.

At 17:57:44 +0800 - actionsite (http://X.X.X.X:52311/cgi-bin/bfgather.exe/actionsite)

Command succeeded (Using download manager collected file) download http://X.X.X.X:52311/Uploads/185279335378bd2a6bb4cb3172155ddc9eb7d84f/tcscconvmsi.tmp (fixlet 73)

Command succeeded (evaluated true) continue if {(size of it = 150046 AND sha1 of it = “185279335378bd2a6bb4cb3172155ddc9eb7d84f”) of file “tcscconvmsi.tmp” of folder “__Download”} (fixlet 73)

Command succeeded extract tcscconvmsi.tmp (fixlet 73)

At 17:57:44 +0800 -

Report posted successfully.

At 17:57:45 +0800 - actionsite (http://X.X.X.X:52311/cgi-bin/bfgather.exe/actionsite)

Command succeeded (Exit Code=0) wait “C:\WINDOWS\system32\msiexec.exe” /i “C:\Program Files\BigFix Enterprise\BES Client__BESData\actionsite__Download\tcscconv.msi” /qn /norestart (fixlet 73)

At 17:57:48 +0800 -

ActionLogMessage: (action 73 ) ending action

At 17:57:48 +0800 - actionsite (http://X.X.X.X:52311/cgi-bin/bfgather.exe/actionsite)

Not Relevant - Software Distribution - Deploy: TSCCONV (fixlet:73)

Many Thanks,

Wang

(imported comment written by BenKus)

Hi Wang,

It looks like it downloaded and ran the file fine…

but I don’t think you downloaded the whole Office file… the tscconvmsi.tmp appears to be only 150kb…

What you want to do is download the whole Office installer and then run the installer package…

Ben

(imported comment written by acwang91)

Hi Ben,

I have turned on the debug mode of msiexec and installed the tcscconv.msi via Bigfix, the debug log stated that it skipped the “FindRelatedProducts action”, shown as below.

-----Msiexec debug log

MSI (s) (90:14)

17:09:27:969

: Doing action: FindRelatedProducts

17:09:27: INSTALL.

MSI (s) (90:14)

17:09:27:969

: Skipping FindRelatedProducts action: not run in maintenance mode

17:09:27: FindRelatedProducts.

MSI (s) (90:14)

17:09:27:969

: Doing action: AppSearch

17:09:27: FindRelatedProducts. Return= 0。

17:09:27: AppSearch.

Compared to the debug log that I ran the msi installation mannually on the command prompt, in which the installation task completed successfully, the debug log didn’t state any “Skipping FindrelatedProducts action…” and the “FindRelatedProducts. Return=1”.

So, it seems like when I installed via Bigfix, somehow it couldn’t find the related product and therefore stop the installation.

PS:The tcscconv.msi is a standalone msi available from Microsoft. It is for the conversion of Tranditional<-> Simplified Chinese for Office software.

Thanks,

Wang

(imported comment written by amitkumsingh91)

I am also deploying the Office 2000 through Software distribution wizard and getting the same problem.

I am using the following commands to execute the same.

download http://10.20.1.90:52311/Uploads/da927bcfa22fbe029cd9a2fc1344446815e52341/Office2000.tmp

continue if {(size of it = 224762377 AND sha1 of it = “da927bcfa22fbe029cd9a2fc1344446815e52341”) of file “Office2000.tmp” of folder “__Download”}

extract Office2000.tmp

Runhidden __Download\Install_O2k.bat

It executes the batch file but no installation has been done.

Then i had done an R&D and use the following commands:

download http://10.20.1.90:52311/Uploads/da927bcfa22fbe029cd9a2fc1344446815e52341/Office2000.tmp

continue if {(size of it = 224762377 AND sha1 of it = “da927bcfa22fbe029cd9a2fc1344446815e52341”) of file “Office2000.tmp” of folder “__Download”}

extract Office2000.tmp

waithidden cmd.exe /C mkdir \Test

Runhidden __Download\Install_O2k.bat

DOS RD /S /Q \Test

Its worked and I am able to install Office 2000 on client machine.

Reason I don’t know, it can be that before Office 2000 folder has been downloaded the batch file has been executing.