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JMB264 avatar image
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JMB264 asked LorenzWinkler-5379 edited

Different behaviour Required vs. Available application deployments

I packaged and deployed thousands of applications via Config Manager and other tools. There should be no technical difference between a required an available application deployments. But there is.

I’ve seen 2 applications which are not installing with a required deployment. Both applications are using the silent install switches provided by the manufacturer. Those 2 applications are Maple and Vectorworks. 2 total different applications with one thing in common, they both use the “bitrock installer”.

So what are the symptoms?

Both application install just fine if we have an available application deployment. We can click the package in Software Center and both applications install fine, without errors.

As soon as we deploy those applications required (without any change to the deployment type), the application installation will start, but will hang during the extracting phase of the installer. The timeout set in de deployment options kicks in, this is clear in AppEnforce.log.

It doesn’t matter how we call the installer + switches (CMD, Poweshell or the EXE directly)

So what about the vendor installer logfile?
Well.... it just hangs on the unpacking process:

Maple 2020.2:

Unpacking C:\Program Files\Maple 2020\Python.X86_64_WINDOWS\Lib\site-packages\tensorflow_core\include\third_party\eigen3\Eigen\Eigenvalues
Unpacking C:\Program Files\Mapl

Vectorworks:
https://forum.vectorworks.net/index.php?/topic/60353-vectorworks-2019-silent-install-using-sccm-as-application-deployment/

Also Vectorworks just hangs while unpacking from the SCCM source. I don’t have the logfile.

The 2 different vendors of both installations can’t solve my problem.
There is nothing I can do at the SCCM or Client side to solve this.
We have to deploy required because we are in an educational environment.


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SimonRenMSFT-3639 avatar image
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SimonRenMSFT-3639 answered SimonRenMSFT-3639 edited

Hi,

Thanks for posting in Microsoft MECM Q&A forum.

1,In your application, are you setting "install as device or user"? This will affect how the application is deployed. Required installs will install as system while available installs will install as user. If your install string needs access to a share but system doesn't have access to that share it will fail. If it's a user based MSI installer it will fail. If the application runs at the end of the installation and requires an account, the app will be run a system and fail to authenticate which can cause the install to time out and report it failed to install.

2,It's recommended to review the logs for further troubleshooting, please refer to:
Troubleshoot the Install Application task sequence step in Configuration Manager

Thanks for your time.

Best regards,
Simon


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Dear Simon,

Have you read my post thoroughly?
The install behavior is set to "Install for System" in the deployment type.

As mentioned before; without any changes to the deployment type an available deployment works, a required deployment won't work.
the logfile (appenfoce.log) won't show any information, it just times out because the unpack process hangs, only with a required deployment.
The timeout set in "Maximum allowed run time (minutes): is set to 45, so after 45 minutes the sccm client reports a timeout error in the appenforce.log.

No issues when manually installing from elevated CMD (as SYSTEM)
No issues when deployed on available basis

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xfaust-1997 avatar image
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xfaust-1997 answered xfaust-1997 published

Hey @JMB264 Did you ever solve this? I'm having the same issue with a different application.

Cheers

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xfaust-1997 avatar image
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xfaust-1997 answered LorenzWinkler-5379 edited

Managed to fix this by ticking "Allow users to view and interact with the program installation" on the User Experience tab. Seems odd as its a hidden and required deployment, but worked for me nonetheless.

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This recommendation helped me with a similar problem with the software "Pollination Grasshopper Plugin (Ladybug Tools)", which also uses a VMware InstallBuilder (formerly BitRock Installer) as installer type.

Unfortunately, this only works while a user is logged in to the PC; otherwise the setup hangs as usual.



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xfaust-1997 avatar image
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xfaust-1997 answered xfaust-1997 edited

Update. Had limited success with "Allow users to view and interact with the program installation". In some cases required "user logon". Instead ticking this worked better, "Run installation and uninstall program as 32-bit process on 64-bit clients" on the Programs tab of the deployment type. Read somewhere that JVM which is part of this particular package I'm deploying has some memory issue during deployment, and it does not when this option is ticked.

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Hi,

Thank you very much for sharing! I think maybe other peoples with the same needs will benefit from it. Have a nice day!

Best regards,
Simon

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Here Topic Starter,
I can confirm with another application "Run installation and uninstall program as 32-bit process on 64-bit clients" helped.
I didn't test it with Maple because we completely repackaged the application.

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Hi,

Thanks very much for your feedback. . It's appreciated that you could click "Accept Answer" to xfaust's useful reply, this will help other users to search for useful information more quickly. If you have any questions in future, we warmly welcome you to post in Microsoft Q&A forum again.

Best regards,
Simon

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AnthonyWatson-3435 avatar image
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AnthonyWatson-3435 answered AnthonyWatson-3435 edited

I can confirm that I have had the same issue with maple 2021 failing on over 1500 clients installing via required install on SCCM.
Tried multiple fix's but Adding the tick to "Run installation and uninstall program as 32-bit process on 64-bit clients" works and resolves this issue.
Thank you

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