Software Deployment

Hi Repackager:

I believe you wish to execute two MSI's at one time, if this is the requirement then unfortunately windows Installer service does not allow two MSI's to execute simultaneously. However you could customise the minitab 14.2 MSI (do make a backup of the original MSI before customising) open the original MSI and in execute deferred section of the MSI you can trigger a custom action that is INstall MSI from installation, this would install the upgrade as soon as the installation of the product is over. However if you wish to have more details on the same do revert.

Yep that's one solution but you could be caught out by this windows policy setting. If this is set to 1 then you would need to deploy both MSIs - rather than just the main app. For example - packages deployed via Active Directory are managed - if you only deploy the main MSI and call the 2nd from installed files then the 2nd install would fail as it hasn't been deployed via AD (or whatever you are using).

It's a shame the upgrade didn't come as a MSP - you may have been able to do an admin install of the main app then patch the admin install point leaving you with 1 MSI which would include the upgrade.

Another option which is the one I would go for would be to repackage the installation of both into a new MSI, guess it depends how hardcore the app is though - and whether or not you are happy repackaging vendor MSIs. Personally I love it.

Cheers,
Rob.

I think you could probably use the option that I said and/or Rob's solution that is repackaging both the application and making them one but as he said it all depends on the complexity of the package. Do let us know what worked for you.

Thanks Rob joined in Gmail[;)]

Let me know how you end up doing it. I'm having troubles patching to 14.2 on my Citrix server. My Citrix server doesn't have a C: drive (C: = M:) and the patch failed. Minitab is sending me a 14.2 installation CD so I won't have to patch, I can just do a fresh install. We'll see how that goes.

I'm having a hell of a time getting this installed via Altiris. Here is what I’ve tried so far.

setup.exe /S /V" ISSETUPDRIVEN=0 /qn SERIAL_NUM="EM4444WA.55555" ANNUAL_LICENSE_PATH="C:\Program Files\Minitab 14" AN_SITE_HEADER="55555" AN_SITE_ID="111111155555555" "

msiexec.exe /I “MINITAB Release 14.msi" /qn SERIAL_NUM="EM4444WA.55555" ANNUAL_LICENSE_PATH="C:\Program Files\Minitab 14" AN_SITE_HEADER="55555" AN_SITE_ID="111111155555555 "

Am I doing something wrong?

Let me know how you end up doing it. I'm having troubles patching to 14.2 on my Citrix server. My Citrix server doesn't have a C: drive (C: = M:) and the patch failed. Minitab is sending me a 14.2 installation CD so I won't have to patch, I can just do a fresh install. We'll see how that goes.

We have this application installed on Citrix server also.. with drive remapping (c:=m:) all you have to do is open explorer and map the M drive of the citrix server as c: (for your admin account only)
This will then get around a lot the issues with application not installing.
Minitab installation.. once this is installed on one Citrix server the install file canbe copied and pasted onto other targeted Servers, as the applicaiton does not have nay HKLM\software reg keys