Software Deployment

I did use the deployment wizard initially, more so to see what it did to the msi.

I ended up modifying the msi (via a transform obviously) with the changes the wizard would have made and with our customizations required for our locked down environment.

we then deploy via sms2003, non mandatory with pre-reqs of:
.Net Framework 2.0
MSXML 6
DirectX 9.0C

This is AutoCAD 2008 and it may be very different for 2010, I've added a link to the package knowledge base for 2010 at the top of this thread, which may be helpful.

theres also this which I'm sure you've looked at http://images.autodesk.com/adsk/files/acad_nag0.pdf just general info about using SCCM with your network deployment.

Generally AutoCAD is a right pain in the arse in a large locked down environment so good luck[:D]

We deploy AutoCAD 2008 to multiple users across multiple sites via SMS 2003 without too many problems - I'd say getting the package together in the first place is the hardest part.

Size wise, I can see how deploying this accross a WAN to end clients would be difficult though - do you not have SMS / SCCM site servers to manage the distibution points / bandwidth usage etc?

You are going to need to be more specfic regarding the problems you are having [8|] Sorry to hear that you've been given AutoCAD as an introuction to packaging, talk about in at the deep end! 2300 AutoCAD clients sounds excessive, and expensive... [:-]

Cheers,
Rob.

Hey Rob,

Thanks for the quick response. We do have 12 DPs in which these packages will be posted, and as far as the 32bit version of AutoCAD 2010 (about 2gb package), I don't think this will be "too" much of an issue. However, when you start looking at AutoDesk Inventor(11.5gb) and some of the other products, download and execute to 2000 clients becomes a bit daunting. My question was just more general in nature about if this is happening at other companies and their best practices for rolling out AutoDesk products massively over SCCM(SMS).

I guess my other question would be, is the deployment tool featured with AutoCAD enough to get this done successfully. Outside of just modifying command line arguments and running these deployments, I am not really doing anything "custom" yet with the *.mst(s) or *.msi(s) files.

Thanks again
Shane

So a total package of almost 14Gb to go to 2000 clients?? Certainly sounds ambitious but in theory should still be possible I suppose. Forgetting SCCM for a moment, how long does it take to install from the single click you've put togther?

Have you even deployed it sucessfully to 1 machine via SCCM yet? If you can do one then you should be able to do all of them, as long as the DP replication is all completed well in advance and you are sensible about the rollout schedule and maybe installing overnight etc...

And yes, I'd say that the supplied deployment tool will do the job fine for starters - if you've got an unattended install command line then you are winning [:)]

Cheers,
Rob.

Single click of AC2010 takes ~30min with the all the pre-reqs (C++, .Net, etc). Single click of Inventor takes ~40min(this assumes both running from a DP that is co-located with your client). I have been successful in our lab via SCCM, but to a test/pilot client accross the WAN it failed. I tried both download and execute and running directly from the DP. The packages that have been built utilizing the AutoCAD tool, seem to want to always use the original location the package was built from as its source (hence my question on last post if the deployment tool was sufficient?). It almost seems that if in order to make an successful package to all my DPs using autocads tool only, I would have to make a separate package for each DP. So are you running with packages with the autocad tool by default, or is there some mods I need to be aware of to make it work correctly from multiple DPs?

Thanks again
Shane Leonard

I didn't do the ACAD2008 package, timmsie did - I don't think he used the deployment tool but created his MST manually due to a lot of customisation....

I just had a quick look at the transform and documentation, can't see anything special relating to the source folder/s and the msiexec install command line is standard (msiexec /i acad.msi transforms=transform_name.mst /qb!).

Sounds strange that the deployment tool should behave differently.. have you looked taken a verbose log from the install and / or looked at the MST that gets created for pointers? + what does the local SCCM trace log say on a failed install?

I'm sure he'll post tomorrow if he did anything specific, he's usually pretty helpful :-)

At least it's promising that you have it working in pre-production... if I were you though I'd just concentrate on cracking ACAD2010 before moving onto the Inventor package. Keep plugging away [;)]

Cheers,
Rob,

We're about to start work on the 2010 package in a couple of weeks. Deploying Via SCCM, we have 74 DP's, so it will be a massive job.
Does anyone know if the packaged install has to run from the Setup.exe or can we use the MSI from an msiexec /i command?
we had some issues with revit 2010 as it was installed from the setup.exe. Our install script waits for the program to exit before moving on to the next addon package, but the revit suites setup.exe quit very early in the install and passed the install process over to other exe's so our install script thought the program had finished installing...

Ditch,

we packaged AutoCad 2009 using ACA.msi and writing mst's on top of it
I'd imagine this means it won't be a problem to do the same for 2010

PJ

the revit suites setup.exe quit very early in the install and passed the install process over to other exe'sFor apps which don't use MSI or which - for whatever reason - you don't want to re-package into MSI, you could build an alternative script which tests for the presence of the actual installing EXE and which only exits when that process terminates. There is a myriad of examples in WMI which kick off a process and wait for it to terminate. Google for 'WMI event sink'.

Thanks, we tried that but the problem was that we were testing for the setup.exe process to finish - which you would assume to be when the install has finished, but setup.exe passed over the installation to another process and then the setup.exe quit, the new process carried on doing some stuff, then passed more setup stuff to another process and then quit, and so on....
So we couldn't easily test to see if the install had fully finished...

I have done most of the Autodesk 2010 products.....

I have to say Autodesk products have gone from being OK in 2004 to a pile of steaming p** by 2010.

With 2010 you are unable to add new "Components" to the transform without breaking the install. Also there are now two main MSI's: ACA.MSI and then a Language Pack MSI. These to MSI's seem to be interrelated.

I can't imagine that it can get any worse than it already is but we are gearing up for 2011 so watch this space.

Did anyone get the Language Pack MSI to install correctly? I get a 1606 error when I try to install direct from the MSI, and a 2229 error when using the provided transform. you can't seem to edit the provided MST for the L.Pack....
Any idea's?

I did an admin install of the Lang Pack, and then copied all the files to the relevant folders (As suggested on some forums) however there are 2 control panel icons that fail to work this way....


-----------------------------------------------------

Figured out the issue, because the Base Application was getting installed to C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Autocad 2010\ (Not the standard location) the LangPack needed to be told this explicitly during transform creation. So I made a dummy MST with the property INSTALLDIR set to C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Autocad 2010\ and then used that dummy transform during the install tailor capture...and all was sweet...

How to deploy AutoCAD Plant 3D with GPO (Group Policy)

Not sure if anybody still needs this information.

First of all, a couple of answers to problems expressed here earlier.

'adui18res.dll not found'
- this is because the language pack is not installed

This happens when trying to add a new Package with Windows XP Sp2
"Software Installation encountered the following error: SQL query syntax invalid or unsupported."

Use Vista or XP Sp3 to create the new Package!

The whole procedure in short

I didn't install Windows installer 4.5, seemed to work anyway.

1. Install .NET 3.5 with WSUS

2. DirectX
- I made a little .msi package to install the two files that AutoCAD looks for that are

missing from the original DirectX installation. DirectX gets new .dll's every second

month...
- d3dx10_37.dll
- D3DX9_37.dll

3. msxml6.msi
- from the deployment
<your_deployment>\AdminImage\x86\support\dotnetfx\wcu\dotNetFramework\dotNetFX30\x86\msxm

l6.msi


4. Vba 6
- download from Microsoft
<your_software_installation_server>\ms\Vba\6051032\VBAOF11.MSI
<your_software_installation_server>\ms\Vba\6051032\1033\VBAOF

5. VCRedist 2005

- the exe's must be extracted TWICE (Microsoft humour?)
- extract vcredist_x86.exe

<your_deployment>\AdminImage\x86\support\VCRedist\2005\vcredist_x86.exe

- you get VCREDI~3.EXE, extract that and you get

vcredis1.cab
vcredist.msi

<your_software_installation_server>\ms\VCRedist\2005\8059193\vcredist.msi

6. VCRedist 2008hel-soft

- from the deployment
<your_deployment>\AdminImage\x86\support\VCRedist\2008\x86

7. AutoCAD Plant 3D 2010
- from the deployment
<your_deployment>\AdminImage\x86\acad\acad-AutoCAD Plant 3D 2010-for-GPO.msi
<your_deployment>\AdminImage\x86\acad\acad-AutoCAD Plant 3D 2010.mst
<your_deployment>\Tools\gpo.mst

8. AutoCAD Plant 3D 2010 Language Package
- from the deployment
<your_deployment>\AdminImage\x86\acad\en-us\AcadLP.msi
<your_deployment>\AdminImage\x86\acad\acad-AutoCAD Plant 3D 2010.mst
<your_deployment>\Tools\gpo.mst

It is vital to add the .mst packages when creating the GPO

Hi jester, great information, but you should add it to the knowledge base. Where it's easy for people to find

http://www.appdeploy.com/packages/

cheers
Rich