Deploying CS5 in Kace
So CS5 64bit and 32bit are rather large, 16gig just for 64bit. I was tasked to setup the installer and get it going. Given the size of the download, I thought, hey, why not host the install files on a local server, and upload an install script into kace as my installer. the script runs and calls the install from my remote location. I thought it was a good idea so that only the 5 of 60 sites that have kace get the install. However, I think I was wrong. If I run the install script by hand on the machines, it runs flawless. If I let kace run the install script, here is my nightmare.
it Actually does install the program, right to the very end (45 minutes later) then, Error! Uninstalls the whole suite, and leaves me with nothing installed.
1. no errors posted in the computer management log files.
2. all errors i've seen in the adobe installer logs seem to be trivial such that they don't list with adobe as fatal and killing the install.
i'm gonna take a guess and say that the kace account for software installs, it's a system account, doesn't have the rights it needs on the remove server location to do whatever.
thoughts?
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Posted by:
Tuskawilla
10 years ago
Well, I wanted to update this as I feel like there is more to say about this.
I was correct originally. You cannot use kace to run a script that calls a large install from a network location. Because kace uses the system account, it does not have network rights when accessing a network share location to install from. Despite this, it will try and install from the network location, but near the end of the install, it attempts to write a file from what I guess to that network share and lacks permission and that kills the install, 50 minutes wasted.
I looked at then using an alternate download location, which, if you have a single kace box, this would work fine for you. But, we have Replication shares. Alt download locations do not work if you have Replication shares.
We didn't want to put the installer in kace, despite there are means to put something that big in it, it's replication to every replication server is a waste of space on those servers when it's only used at 7 sites out of 60 something.
So I wrote a script in vbs which in it's basic form, downloads a zip of adobe CS5 (and one for cs4), unzips the software, then runs the install on the local machine. This works, most of the time. Sometimes, it turns out the HD space is too small and fails. Sometimes some of the known processes that stop the install are running. So i updated my installer to kill those too. But even still, it seems sometimes it fails with no known reason. IF i WATCH it install, it sure as heck does, but when it's automated, it doesn't always run. It will download the software and unzip but not install. But then Kace reports the software is installed successfully. False positive happens way to much like this. If I take the software label off the computer and refresh the inventory, it shows it's not installed at all.
Anyway, that's my update. Software of this size is not a good time to install via kace. Anyone with any other solution, I'd love to hear it.
Posted by:
ronco
10 years ago
Tuskawilla,
If it is indeed local system account causing a problem, it is possible to make a K1000 Online Script runas a different account, either the logged on user, or an account you specify. You might give that a try. Btw, have you ever heard of the KKE program?
http://www.kace.com/kke
There are quite a few recordings that detail different methods of deploying this sort of thing through the K1000.
Ron Colson
KACE Koach
Comments:
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First off, thank you Ron for the reply. The link to the kke lead me to the video on deploying large apps! This looks like the route I need to go. I'm not sure if any others here have already deployed cs5 via Kace in their environment, if you have, please share. I'll keep you posted on how this works out. - Tuskawilla 10 years ago
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Ok, Ron, I set it up this morning, have my checksum in kace, and my zip file in a network location, and i'm using my credentials to access the alternate download location. However, when I push the deployment, it seems that kace creates the download folder for the deployment but does not copy down the zip to unzip it.
I have verified my credentials and reentered them just to be sure i didn't have a typo.
Thoughts? - Tuskawilla 10 years ago-
Tuskawilla,
Check out the KACE logs on the test device. See if you can find any errors downloading/unzipping, etc. You might need to enable Agent Debugging and try the deployment again to generate sufficient logging.
KACE Logs: C:\ProgramData\Dell\KACE\user
Ron Colson
KACE Koach - ronco 10 years ago-
Ron, So i've been struggling the past 2 days working on this but the good news is I have a log file with an error. Here is what I have done. After some reading, I read that I needed to remove the associated install file from the software inventory in kace. So i deleted that. Then, I double checked my manged installs alternate download location to ensure it was all correct. I then tested and it would download a ..part file into the deployment folder. Further reading of the Manual mentioned adding an alternate download location to the Deployment label itself, so I added the alternate download location there as well. That lead to no file downloaded to the folder. I also read having 2 alternate download locations was bad so I removed the alt download from the Label. Now i get a ..part file again.
I turned on debugging as you mentioned and i'll post that error log at the end. It seems that it is still trying to first download from the k1, then it tries the alt download location. It simply says "Alt failed" which is unhelpful.
FInally, i'll mention that we have a main k1 box and we have Replication shares at every sub location. I'm not sure that makes a difference, but I wanted to throw that wrench in just incase it does.
I can tell you I setup a Group Policy using the Alt Download location share and it works without a hitch. but my boss wants this done through the K1 so i'm here.
Again, I appreciate your helpl. Below is the portion of the log file I found relavant.
Noah
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[2014-08-29.08:19:29][KDeploy:main ] KDeploy ----- Starting KDeploy.exe -----
[2014-08-29.08:19:29][KDeploy:main ] KDeploy called with params: -fs -mi -fade=1 -notifyevent=
[2014-08-29.08:19:29][KDeploy:CDeployController::Run ] KDeploy Fetching MI & FS info from server
[2014-08-29.08:19:30][KDeploy:GetFilenameFromReplicati] GetFilenameFromReplicationURL: postpended hash not found
[2014-08-29.08:19:30][KDeploy:KCopyFile ] Error (win) copying files from 'smb://scps;kacerepo:xxxxxx@10.8.185.49/repo/repl2/software/14920/.' to 'C:\ProgramData\Dell\KACE\downloads\14920\.' : (2) The system cannot find the file specified.
[2014-08-29.08:19:30][KDeploy:DownloadPackageFileFromK] DLPkgFrmKBOXtoKaceDLdir: FAILed to KCopyFile (err=2d). exit 2
[2014-08-29.08:19:30][KDeploy:DownloadPackageFileFromK] DLPkgFrmKBOXtoKaceDLdir: Alt failed, trying main URL [http://k1.scps.k12.fl.us/packages/14920/] as last attempt. exit 4
[2014-08-29.08:19:30][KDeploy:FileChecksumMatch ] Error generating hash of file: C:\ProgramData\Dell\KACE\downloads\14920\. ... (Permission denied)
[2014-08-29.08:19:30][KDeploy:DownloadUsingCurl ] DownloadFile: download with no speed limit
[2014-08-29.08:19:30][KDeploy:DownloadUsingCurl ] DownloadFile(http://k1.scps.k12.fl.us/packages/14920/, C:\ProgramData\Dell\KACE\downloads\14920\.) response code error (403):
[2014-08-29.08:19:30][KDeploy:KCopyFile ] Error (cURL) copying files from 'http://k1.scps.k12.fl.us/packages/14920/' to 'C:\ProgramData\Dell\KACE\downloads\14920\.': (403) Unknown error
[2014-08-29.08:19:30][KDeploy:DownloadPackageFileFromK] DLPkgFrmKBOXtoKaceDLdir: FAILed to KCopyFile (err=403d). exit 2
[2014-08-29.08:19:30][KDeploy:DownloadPackageFileFromK] DLPkgFrmKBOXtoKaceDLdir: UNABLE to download package [http://k1.scps.k12.fl.us/packages/14920/] (no alternate found).
[2014-08-29.08:19:30][KDeploy:CMIPackageMgr::InstallSw] KDeploy InstallSwitch (MI): package download failure, or missing 'full command' if MI is a .zip file
[2014-08-29.08:19:30][KDeploy:main ] KDeploy ----- Ending KDeploy.exe ----- - Tuskawilla 10 years ago -
I will also say, i forgot I read this from the k1000 manual, but i think this is part of the problem..
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Note: If the target machine is part of a replication label, the appliance does not fetch software from the alternate download location. You can edit an existing label or create a label to specify the alternate location globally. Because that label cannot be specific to any Managed Installation, you cannot specify an alternate checksum that matches the checksum on the remote file share.
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page 174 of the manual - Tuskawilla 10 years ago
http://www.kace.com/support/training/kke/archive?id=F49B3BB4-D0AE-4ABF-8B09-92E83BD2BACD
great video on this topic - Tuskawilla 10 years ago