Modify node template to install additional application

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 06:40:52 Z

Hello,

    We're evaluating Windows 2008 HPC server. One feature that we would like to see is the ability to customize a node template to install additional application automatically at install time. However, I found that the "Application installation" task is disappeared from task list. I tried to use "Post install command" to install our .msi base application (Autodesk Maya 2008), by creating a batch script in a shared directory on Head node and execute it in post install command. The command could run successfully on an on-line node, but not from the "Post install command" step of a newly created node. I checked the operation log and found that the command time-out and the node is reverted back to previous state.

    So the question is, what is the best way to debug the post install command?

    Also, I suspected that some services might not run at the install time which may cause the installation to failed. Is it possible to create a template task that'll execute command at firsboot?

Rgds,

Modify node template to install additional application

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 07:55:42 Z

I removed msiexec from the post_install.bat file and every things else work.

Should I install application using this step? Or should I use other task to accomplish this?

Modify node template to install additional application

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 18:47:38 Z

how to best install an application -

there are two ways of installing an application, firstone you have discovered, is the post-install command which is in the maintainace phase and the second way is 'Run-OS command' int he deployment phase.

caveats :

post-install command in the 'maintainance' phase which means any tasks int eh maintaince phase will be run everytime you issue a 'maintain' command to the offline node.

RunOS command in the third, or the deployment phase of the template is another way of wrapping your install in a cmd /bat file. always make this run -OS comman task the last task in the deployment phase.

The task in the deployment section gets run, once, unlike the task in the maintaince phase -- which can be run multiple times. You might want to put the installation task in the maintainance section, when you need to rev the application rapidly, this way, you do not have to deploy from baremetal ( or re-imge) everytime you need a newer version of the application. Remember, you will need to run the command twice if you want to install the new applicaiton, once to uninstall the previous version and second to install the newer version.

On debugging the post-install command\run OS command:

it is reccomended that you test your batchcommand/script file as you would test anyother batch/cmd/script file. Add logging and error handling.

For run OS command, use the the parameteres like continue on failure t indicate if you would like your deployment to fail if the script fails or continue on to the next step and 'error white list' which is a list of return codes from the script, which will be reported back to the head node, but will be treated as success.

For post-install command, write a log file to the working directory if needed.

thanks

-parmita

Modify node template to install additional application

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 22:34:16 Z

How would you install a service/feature like snmp service

Modify node template to install additional application

Tue, 20 May 2008 17:47:44 Z

w2k8 provides a command line interface to server manager to install a role/feature in w2k8.

you can create a script( batch file) to do this.-- or just supply the command line as a 'run OS command'.

Modify node template to install additional application

Wed, 21 May 2008 09:37:48 Z

Hi Alex,

For SNMP, you could try "servermanagercmd -install SNMP-Services".

For the .msi installer, you might try copying the msi to the compute node first then installing with "msiexec /i package.msi /quiet"

--Brian

Modify node template to install additional application

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 01:22:59 Z

Hi Brian

Thanks, I presume I can find these .msi file on the install dvd/cd, I don't have to extract them from a cab file.

Whats the difference between installign with servermanagercmd and msiexec. My thought was to create a job to run agsinst newly added compute nodes to add snmp or other appllications to the compute nodes

Alex

Modify node template to install additional application

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 06:56:01 Z

Servermanagercmd is a command-line utility that can be used to install Windows Server 2008 roles and features (run 'servermanagercmd' from a cmd prompt for more info). Msiexec provides the means to install, modify, and perform operations on Windows Installer packages from the command line (using this tool will depend greatly on your software provider's packaging implementation; you should typically run their setup.exe if provided).

--Brian