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  #1  
Old 01-19-2005, 01:59 AM
alexniccoli alexniccoli is offline
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Network installation of OSD Modeling

Hi all
We have a customer with lots of seats.
How can we install OSD Modeling quickly onto more machines?
Are there methods to install OSD Modeling onto a remote machine?
Are there methods to install OSD Modeling onto more machine simultaneously?
Thanks a lot
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  #2  
Old 01-19-2005, 09:30 AM
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John Scheffel John Scheffel is offline
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Re: Network installation of OSD Modeling

Hopefully someone from CoCreate will have a better answer, but this question has come up before and there was no supported method of doing this. Here are some threads you may want to read (found by searching "network AND install*" from the search page).

Launch program from remote serveur through Wireless
installation OSD
Automated distribution / Silent Setup
SD 9.x slowness during load
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  #3  
Old 01-21-2005, 08:45 AM
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Wolfgang Wolfgang is offline
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Re: Network installation of OSD Modeling

From my point of view there are several methods in the meantime which are working.

a) install on a network drive using a common (and each and everywhere same) drive letter + path and distribute the needed shortcuts for the start menu

b) install on a network drive, setup some ENV variables, and have individual short cuts on the differnet end user machines.

c) install once and copy the installed version, setup some ENV variables, and have individual short cuts on the different end user machines.

d) install once and copy the installed version to exaclty the same drive + path on the different end user machines and copy the short cuts.

I would prefer c or d, since starting from a local disk is still father than via network (except you have a 100Gbit ethernet )

---------
remark: I can pack core OSD to a 100MB ZIP file, unpack it on another machine and use it over there.

I think I'll add this to OneSpace Designer Modeling FAQ
-----------
questions:
a) which version will you use?
b) which method would you prefer?
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  #4  
Old 04-14-2005, 11:48 AM
MikeBoswell MikeBoswell is offline
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Re: Network installation of OSD Modeling

Wolfgang,

I have installed OSDModeling 13.01 on my PC.
I have copied the new 13.01 install folder to another machine.
I have created shortcuts on remote machine.
I have added registry key for license server.
I have copied the edrawings folder into the 'common files' directory.

OSDM launches on the remote machine and appears to be functionally intact, except that the edrawing publisher does not work. Emodelviewer.exe launches stand alone but does not work w/ the publish in SD.

Any thoughts on the what I am missing?


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  #5  
Old 04-15-2005, 05:37 AM
joerg joerg is offline
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Re: Network installation of OSD Modeling

All,

although copying files from another system instead of performing an installation seems to work to some extent, this cannot be the recommended solution.
When just copying files, all additional tasks that are to be done during installation (besides just putting the files on disk) are not performed. So e.g. all registrations required for proper operation are missing.

The eDrawings viewer not working properly is a good example for this.

However, there are alternatives:

Since rev 13 of OSDM the installation of the product is MSI based. So all features of the Windows Installer can of course be used in context of OSDM as well.
One of the features of the Windows Installer world is the Group Policy Software Installation, which comes with the Windows server operating systems (e.g. see http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;816102). Using these mechanisms OSDM can be easily deployed to a large number of clients without having to do things like manually creating registry keys, etc.

Beyond that, there are also other commercial packages available to support handling of remote installations with lots of clients (e.g. netinstall, empirum, ...).


BTW: to get eDrawings viewer working correctly it needs to be installed on the client machine. This is typically done during the OSDM installation (not copying).
If you have access to a Model Manager software distribution server, or are a OneSpace.net user, you'll find separate installer packages for standalone eDrawings viewer (OSeDrawings.exe) on the corresponding download repositories. Installing that small package locally on the clients will fix the problem.
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  #6  
Old 04-15-2005, 05:47 AM
MikeBoswell MikeBoswell is offline
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Re: Network installation of OSD Modeling

Joerg,

Thanks for the info. I will read up on group policy sw install.

Mike
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  #7  
Old 04-15-2005, 09:43 AM
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Re: Network installation of OSD Modeling

Good information joerg, thanks for posting it. We use an internally developed system for distributing sofware and I have also been wondering about how to deliver the eDrawing viewer. The problem is that installation creates hundreds of registry entries and trying to duplicate them on the clients using our system would be a huge undertaking. I was wondering if there is a way to install the eDrawing viewer using some type of scripted install so that it does not prompt the user. I haven't had time to investigate, but I also need to find some easy method to deliver to all of our users.
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  #8  
Old 04-17-2005, 11:51 PM
joerg joerg is offline
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Re: Network installation of OSD Modeling

Hi John, one of the reasons for having to install the packets, rather than just copying, are those registry entries.

When you take a look at how Windows Installer works, you'll easily find how to control what gets installed - and how much user interaction is required. Windows Installer comes with built-in support for UI-less installation.

For a detailed descriptions of parameters for msiexec, see http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/msi/setup/command_line_options.asp

Especially, please see the "/q" parameter for details on "how quiet" you want the installation to be. Typically we specify "/qb-", which gives a basic ui and does not require confirmation at the end.

In case you're not directly invoking msiexec but use some kind of setup exe, the parameters to msiexec need to be specified using "/v". The "/s" switch to setup.exe switches on silent mode for that one as well.

So for eDrawings viewer the command line for installation might look like:
OSeDrawings.exe /s /v"/qb-"

This mechanism comes with Windows Installer, and can thus be used with any MSI based installation. So you can easily use the same switches for an installation of e.g. OSD Modeling as well.
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  #9  
Old 04-18-2005, 12:31 PM
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John Scheffel John Scheffel is offline
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Re: Network installation of OSD Modeling

Hi joerg,

Thanks very much for the detailed information. I will checkout the Microsoft web page and give your suggestions a try.
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  #10  
Old 04-19-2005, 12:59 AM
joerg joerg is offline
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Re: Network installation of OSD Modeling

Additional information for a remote silent installation of OSD Modeling:
When performing a silent installation using MSI, the user will not get prompted for any input. So only a default installation is performed. To control the installation in that mode, properties can be passed in to the installer.

For an overview on properties, see http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/msi/setup/about_properties.asp

For OSD Modeling, the following property is used to set the License Server:
MELS=<your_MEls_host>
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  #11  
Old 04-19-2005, 03:55 AM
MikeBoswell MikeBoswell is offline
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Re: Network installation of OSD Modeling

good stuff Joerg.

How about a complete sample command line that you have used in the past for OSDM?


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  #12  
Old 04-19-2005, 05:43 AM
joerg joerg is offline
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Re: Network installation of OSD Modeling

here we go ...

Normally we do a "typical" installation of OSD Modeling using the command line:
setup.exe /s /v"/qb- MELS=host.domain"

This "typical" installation contains (besides English) only the language of the OS (-> regional settings)
If you want to selectively install only certain features (as selectable during "custom" installation), you need to specify the ADDLOCAL property.
You can either select everything for installation
setup.exe /s /v"/qb- MELS=host.domain ADDLOCAL=ALL"

or specify only certain features by comma-separating the desired items out of the list of the available OSDM install features:
  • BINNT # program files
  • PERS # personality, including English UI
  • HELP_EN # English online help
  • HELP_DE # German online help
  • HELP_JA # Japanese online help
  • HELP_FR # French online help
  • HELP_IT # Italian online help
  • HELP_ES # Spanish online help
  • L10N_DE # German UI
  • L10N_JA # Japanese UI
  • L10N_FR # French UI
  • L10N_IT # Italian UI
  • L10N_ES # spanish UI
  • RENDER # rendering
  • IKIT # integration kit
NOTE: when doing so, the items BINNT,PERS,HELP_EN need to be listed explicitly for proper operation of OSDM.

e.g.:
setup.exe /s /v"/qb- MELS=host.domain ADDLOCAL=BINNT,PERS,HELP_EN,RENDER,L10N_DE"


When you want to perform a remote installation (using group policies, as described in previous post), you don't use the setup.exe, but have to create a distribution point and perform an administrative install (using setup.exe /a) first. Then you can specify the same parameters to msiexec as above in the "/v" part:
msiexec /i \\uncpath\osdm.msi /qb- MELS=host.domain ADDLOCAL=BINNT,PERS,HELP_EN,RENDER,L10N_DE
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  #13  
Old 04-19-2005, 02:41 PM
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John Scheffel John Scheffel is offline
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Re: Network installation of OSD Modeling

Quote:
Originally Posted by joerg
here we go ...

setup.exe /s /v"/qb- MELS=host.domain ADDLOCAL=ALL"
Thanks joerg, good stuff and very helpful. I may want to overhaul our internal install process to use this method and I have some questions.

We download the zipped install files from your web site. Is the setup.exe that you are refering to the one above the "Designer Modeling" folder or the one under it?

Will this process install the eDrawing viewer as part of the Modeling installation?

Can this process be used to install the adapters (I-DEAS, Inventor, ProENGINEER, Unigraphics) and Design Analysis as well? I'm wondering since I didn't see these mentioned in your list of options.

I noticed that your list of options matches the names of the *.cab files in the Designer Modeling folder. Is it a rule that the ADDLOCAL options exactly match the cab file names, or is this just your naming convention?
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  #14  
Old 04-19-2005, 11:39 PM
joerg joerg is offline
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Re: Network installation of OSD Modeling

When downloading Modeling_13.01_win.exe from eSupport Marketplace (http://apps.cocreate.com/marketplace) and unpacking it, you'll find the following folders:
  • Adapters
  • Designer Modeling
  • FE Analysis
  • MEls
  • OSDM Server
These folders hold the individual install packets. The setup.exe on the same level lets you choose which of the individual packets to install.

In my previous post I was refering to the installers within the sub directories, especially within "Designer Modeling".
When you install OSDM as discussed previously, the eDrawings viewer will automatically be installed along with Modeling.
Your observation concerning the naming of the cabinet files of OSDM is correct. It's designed in a way that a separate cab file is generated for every feature, with the same name.

The Adapters and FE Analysis installation is no longer part of the main OSDM installer. These ones are available as separate install packages, located in the other top-level directories (called setup_XXX.exe). The naming is should be obvious.

Since all these installers are MSI based as well, the same mechanisms apply as discussed already. So for installing e.g. the Pro/E adapter, the following line will do a silent installation to the default location, with basic UI:
setup_proe_2003.exe /s /v"/qb-"
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  #15  
Old 04-20-2005, 03:39 PM
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John Scheffel John Scheffel is offline
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Re: Network installation of OSD Modeling

Thanks again for all the detailed information joerg. Very helpful. I'm pretty busy with other projects right now, but hope to try your suggestions in a week or two. I will post my experiences back in this thread and would encourage others to do the same.
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