Software Deployment

Hi there. I spent a frustrating day trying to silently install the Microsoft IIS 6.0 Resource Kit package on a Windows 2003 server. I'm sure no one is probably using this software anymore, but since I found a key piece of information on this site, I thought I'd share what I did as payback. The package I was trying to install was iis60rkt.exe. It took me a while to figure out, but from what I can gather the .exe is an MSI package wrapped in an InstallShield package. You can execute the .exe package with a /? for accepted command-line options. Passing the /v switch apparently allows you to pass MSI switches, but I couldn't get this to work. I had to extract the MSI package to pass it the parameters I needed to use.

In a nutshell, it takes two steps (though it took me all day to figure it out):

• Create an administrative install point for the MSI package: iis60rkt.exe /v/A. I was amazed that this worked.
  
• Execute the [font="microsoft sans serif"]IIS 6.0 Resource Kit Tools.msi package with these MSI switches: /quiet /norestart /l* ISSETUPDRIVEN=1

The ISSETUPDRIVEN=1 switch is required. Without it, you get a dialog box which states "To run a silent install you must either specify a response file or override this event (OnMsiSilentInstall()) and provide your own implementation. The setup will now end.". This is the critical piece of information that I found in an old post (http://itninja.com/question/deploying-a-file/folder-structure-on-the-fly2&mpage=1&key=OnMSISilentInstall&#16242), though it appears to be old hat for most of the veterans of the site.

On an unrelated note, I am using Perl to install this package. I have to set the SEE_MASK_NOZONECHECKS=1 environment variable to suppress the File Security dialog box right before my system call:

[font="microsoft sans serif"]$ENV{"SEE_MASK_NOZONECHECKS"} = 1;

Anyway, what a great find this web site is, though I wish I had found it years ago.

Asked 15 years ago 4959 views