Virtualization

Hey,

I'm just messing around with the APP-V Sequencer right now by testing with Adobe Reader 9.3. What I noticed is that I can't launch the setup.exe before I've hit Begin Monitoring as it will then kill my msiexec setup process for Adobe Reader. But I have not uncovered why this occurs yet, you mentioned it starts the Windows Installer service? Well, I just tested now and my Windows Installer service does not read "Started" under its Status after pressing begin monitoring. Yours does?

What I had to do was press the Begin Monitoring button and THEN launch the setup. The reason I did not want to do that at first was in case the setup.exe unpacked the setup files to for instance %temp% I did not want that included in my package.

Actually, when you press the BEGIN MONITORING button it looks like the Sequencer is trying to STOP the Windows Installer service. Which means that if you've launched a .msi setup (idle at the dialog for instance) before pressing BEGIN MONITORING then the Sequencer will either just kill this process or it will say "The Sequencer could not stop the "MSIServer" Service. Error 1052: The Requested control is not valid for this service."

I don't yet know why it just killed my process when I launched with setup.exe but after extracting the .msi and launching it directly I get the same type of message as above.

When sequencing you shouldn't have any installation program running until after the begin monitoring phase (if I understand what you guys are trying to do correctly). The reason being is that the sequencer does not do snapshot monitoring but actually monitors the activity of processes to determine what to add to the sequence.

Does that mean it does not monitor processes that have been started before you press begin monitoring?

Is your kettle on before you turn it on? :)

Why would it begin monitoring processes it hasn't been asked to monitor?

Well the idea in my head was basically:

Compressed Setup.exe
Launch-> Setup.exe extracts files to %temp% and then launches the .msi with neccessary properties defined.

If I could begin monitoring after the extraction process is complete I won't have to edit my captured package afterwards and delete the files that were extracted.

Unfortunately in this case this is the behavior of the sequencer so if the application leaves behind the installer files you'll have to clean them up.

If you wish to ignore the files getting extracted you can try these options.

1. run setup.exe and collect extracted files i.e. MSI
2. start monitoring and
3. install the msi

but before doing this you may need to customize Adobe Reader and create transform with your settings for which you can refer package KB of Reader

Ummm, I'm not sure how to break this to you guys but be default the sequencer excludes the %TMP% from being included in the monitoring process, so allowing the program to self extract is fine, whether or not it cleans itself up doesn't matter as it shouldn't make it into the sequence. As kkaminsk has stated, you should not have anything running before launching the sequencer, this includes explorer windows. I believe this is all straight out of the best practices documents.

Going back to ajchak's original question, I have not seen this issue with 4.5 or earlier myself, I have just attempted it with 4.6 and Acrobat Reader 9.3 and did encounter the same issue ajchak intiated.

I am running Sequencer 4.6.0.1523 on a VM workstation, tested Adobe Acrobat Reader 9.3 downloaded from the Adobe distribution website and extracted.

I am having a problem simliar to what is being described here but i'm just trying to do a normal upgrade to excel. I load down all the files i need (adding Sp3) onto the desktop of my windows 2008 machine, start the 4.6 sequencer. I open it up for upgrade and unpack it to the proper place. When i begin monitoring, and then run the .msi or .exe, it gives me an error of "cannot start windows installer" and says something to the effect as "if it's corrupted or you are running in safe mode this will occur". If i stop monitoring, the msi loads just fine. If i start the msi and THEN begin monitoring, it gives me the error of "cannot stop installer service because it's being used by another process".

In other words, what i'm getting at is as long as "begin monitoring" is enabled, and the sequencer is running, the sequencer refuses to allow windows installer service to be started and i cannot install anything. This can't be by design because how do i patch my app-v excel package?? am i overlooking something here? It worked fine on 4.5 and below.

thanks..

I have sequenced Adobe 9 Reader last week and didn't encounter any problems whatsoever.
Also used version 4.6.0.1523 of the sequencer (32 bit). On Windows 7, running in Hyper-V.

Not 100% sure it was 9.3, but as it was last week I am pretty sure it was 9.3

I believe i have discovered my problem. It is older packages. If the package was sequenced in 3.x then for some reason App-v will not allow you to run installer service. It will allow me to open the package, make changes as necessary, but cannot run installers. If the application was sequenced in a newer sequencer, it allows it. Not sure why but it seems this is the cause.

ORIGINAL: arthurfl99

I believe i have discovered my problem. It is older packages. If the package was sequenced in 3.x then for some reason App-v will not allow you to run installer service. It will allow me to open the package, make changes as necessary, but cannot run installers. If the application was sequenced in a newer sequencer, it allows it. Not sure why but it seems this is the cause.


You have an extra problem. The others weren't even talking about upgrading old sequences. Just the default adobe installer isn't working.


However, I think I have heard a colleague talk about this same problem you are having. I think this was an issue in 4.5 already. He said he was able to open 3.x sequences with 4.2 (or 4.1), open for upgrade, save.. And then repeat the step with 4.5 (or 4.6 in your case?). Eventually it would work. Not the easiest way but sometimes better than starting all over again.

oh great idea! i am going to try that. do the double upgrade. in this case i did simply take the 3.x package, open for upgrade, save it. i will do what you suggested and fingers crossed it works!

thanks...

@ arthurfl99, please let me know whether it worked or not. I'm curious as well.


Back on-topic:
I have just tried it again to be sure.

- Created a new Windows 7 (32 bit) machine in Hyper-V Manager

- Installed 4.6.0.1523 sequencer (32 bit)

- Filled in the distribution agreement on the Adobe website to download the latest version. Reader 9.3 executable (dutch) with the nice NOSSO setup and screwed up icon in the taskbar.

- Started monitoring (no other processes like explorer, or the setup itself running).

- Opened explorer, browsed to downloaded setup.exe (which starts the Windows Installer eventually) and installed it.

- Stopped monitoring.

- Finished sequence. You know the drill....


Again no problem encountered.

opening it in 4.1, saving it, opening it in 4.6, did not fix my issue. It's definitely because it's an older package. I need to do further research on how to get it to work.

Hmm, too bad. And what if you try 4.5? (And optionally after that 4.6)

4.5 to 4.6 didn't work either. frustrating! as i said, it works for apps created fresh but for some reason it retains some of the 3.x characteristics or settings that prevents it. the work around at the moment is to use 4.5 sequencer. i wasn't leveraging 4.6 specific settings anyway, and these are 32 bit apps. but definitely would like to get to the bottom of it at some point.

@arthurfl99 - I'm having the exact same issue you were getting.
When I try to install an msi on a Server 2003 box without the sequencer running (4.6.20200), the application installed fine without an issue,
However, when I have the sequencer running and I then try to install the msi (as in when I am trying to sequence an application) I get an error message related to the Windows Installer Service -which says
"The Winodws Installer service could not be accessed. This can occur if you are running Windows in safe mode, or if the Windows Installer is not correctly installed. Contact your support peronnel for assistance".

Anyone know what i need to do?
Thanks

I got to the bottom of it thanks to another post on another forum.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/appvbeta/thread/1c5f8f8f-d431-4b7f-9601-40c1aef0409c/

I was running my sequencer through RDP. Once I ran it using Console in VM it worked fine.

Rgds,
Mark