Automated Unattended Silent Network Installation with SMS

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I am trying to get ArchiCAD 10 to install unattended and completely silently through Systems Management Server 2003 (SMS). I have followed the instructions at www.graphisoft.com/support/archicad/archiguide/InstACwithCompStandDefSettings.html to create a custom installation package. When I use this in conjunction with the secret -silent switch ArchiCAD does install silently without any user prompts, which is good. However when I try to deploy it through SMS the ArchiCAD setup program exits with a return code of -1073741819. Does anyone know what this error code indicates or if there is a verbose logging option available so I can further diagnose the problem?

I have contacted our support provider (Bite Design) but I am not really getting anywhere. I really need to find a method of performing a fully automated unattended installation as it is simply not practical to manually visit each PC to install the software in an enterprise-scale deployment.

[Anonymous]

I have received the following form our support provider:

"The network installation of ArchiCAD 11 has been changed from the installer in ArchiCAD 10 so the initial setup will create a setup.exe which requires no user input. Documentation on the installation of the educational version of ArchiCAD 11 is not yet available but should be nearer to the release date."

Are there any beta users who can shed any more light on the new ArchiCAD 11 installer? It would be nice to know if this is likely to work and is worth waiting for. Does it use an MSI-based installer by any chance?

[Greg Kmethy]

Even with ArchiCAD 9 and 10, you could create an installer package that is customized to your company standards, and would install "silently" (without user interaction). see article: http://archicadwiki.com/TechNotes/Installing_ArchiCAD_with_Company_standard_default_settings

This was a bit cumbersome to do, you had to use run script, etc. In ArchiCAD 11 it works more conveniently, all options are provided to you on the installer interface (no typing, just clicking), and the result is a single exe file . If this exe file is started on the client computers, ArchiCAD installs with the pre-defined settings, without asking any questions. (one-click install)

Deploying this exe file is not automated by the ArchiCAD installer. This is because ArchiCAD installer is Java-based, so that it works on both Mac and Windows platform.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply, that sounds promising. Hopefully the single exe file will deploy OK through Systems Management Server. I would be happy to test this if you are looking for a volunteer.

[Greg Kmethy]

I am not familiar with Systems Management Server, but a simple log-on script in the user profile is also enough to start the installer when the user logs into the network.

[Anonymous]

The trouble with a simple login script is that it doesn't offer the flexibility, scalability and manageability required for a large multi-site organisation. It is like saying you can use MS Paint as an architectural design tool.

[TomWaltz]

Amen, brother.

I'm trying to administer almost 200 licenses across 5 offices, and maintaining installs, hotfixes, and library updates is not fun!