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install from administrative image

Question asked by Peter Backeris on Feb 19, 2016
Latest reply on Feb 26, 2019 by Matthew Brahm

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Why is it so difficult to install from an administative image? Where is the user guide for installing from an administrative image? I've created an image but nothing in the SOLIDWORKS 2016 x64 SP02 folder is working to install on an individual computer. This should really not be that difficult. All i wanted to do was update from SP01 to SP02 and this is taking me way too long. I expect a simple setup.exe that launches the installer on any computer i want to install it on for what I paid for this software.

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Victor Frauenfeld Feb 19, 2016 5:31 PM
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Peter,

First thing, you will need administrative permissions to your computer for the install. You will also need to know where the new service pack of the Admin Image is located (on a network server usually). And then you can navigate to that location and double click on the file called "StartSWInstall.hta" from within that Admin Image folder.

If you do not have administrative permissions to your computer, whoever created the service pack upgrade Admin Image will need to "push" the install from the server to your computer using an Administrative password.

Hope this helps.

Vic
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Chris Saller Feb 19, 2016 5:47 PM
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Lots of info online. Try:
http://www.solidapps.co.uk/pdfs/installation/SolidWorks_Install_using_Admin_Image.pdf

http://www.hawkridgesys.com/support/installation/solidworks-administration/image-guide/
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- Peter Backeris @ Chris Saller on Feb 19, 2016 6:03 PM
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  Thank you for the quick response. I actually found that the issue was that there were 2 folders created for some reason. One folder named SOLIDWORKS 2016 x64 SP02 (4.12 gb) which contained a setup.exe that did not work. I then found another folder in a different location called SOLIDWORKS 2016 SP2.0 that contained the StartSWInstall.hta, which was successful.
  
  I'm not sure how both of these directories formed at the same time, as they both had the same timestamp.
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Matthew Brahm Feb 19, 2019 9:59 AM
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The admin image editor is absolute pure trash. I only have 9 users that use solidoworks and I am going to use SCCM for next year's upgrade, even though it will cause me TONS of extra work, just because the admin image editor is so absolutely garbage.

I never receive installation confirmation. All I ever see is "install scheduled." It stays like that forever, even after it installs. Oh, and here's the great part! If I don't delete the user from the automatic deployment, it will keep trying to reinstall it over and over, isn't that wonderful? So you get no confirmation if it finishes, and whether it does or doesn't, it's going to constantly retry. It's like someone sitting in a room was like "hmm, there are lots of awesome automatic deployment tools out there, but let's try to reinvent the wheel and make our own auto-installer." I've got to the point where I had to start searching google for everything and exclude the solidworks.com domain, because goggle's search results are so junked up with what Solidworks wants google to return that you can't get any of the actual answers you're looking for.
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- Victor Frauenfeld @ Matthew Brahm on Feb 19, 2019 9:59 AM
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  Matthew, have you told your VAR about the issues you are having with the Admin Image?
  
  I have used the Admin Image the last 3 years to install on about 30 machines each year. I have never had those issues. I always got the update that each computer has installed successfully (or failed), and once it is done, it doesn't try to install again.
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  - Matthew Brahm @ Victor Frauenfeld on Feb 19, 2019 10:46 AM
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    I emailed her but I haven't heard back. Since it was only 9 machines, it wasn't the biggest issue in the world, I just waited until everyone left and logged in to make sure it got started for everyone, but this obviously isn't a scalable solution. Building the SCCM application will take a litlte more time, but it's the best way to go, and then I can monitor it along with all of my other applications, since SCCM is what we use to push out everything else.
    
    I do remember when I was pushing 2018, that I was actually getting confirmation for installs, but not for 2019sp1. Another problem I've had with both of them is the admin image not being able to parse the computer name. I use the computer name and it says the device is off, and then I use the IP address and it works. Or both of them say the device is off, but if I go to THAT device and launch the admin image editor and deploy it automatically to ITSELF, then it finally realizes that it's on. It could be firewall settings or something else I haven't considered, but all the more reason to go with a tried and true deployment method (SCCM) that we use throughout the company, so as to not have to change security procedures for a single install.
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    - Matthew Brahm @ Matthew Brahm on Feb 19, 2019 5:49 PM
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      and then they have crap like this ALL OVER their site, how is it so hard to get one good comprehensive deployment guide in one place? The forums are chock full of irritated admins...
      
      Fully automating SW Image Installations (What SolidWorks doesn't tell you...)
      
      Oh and one last thing that grinds my gears "If the user doesn't have local admin rights..."
      Never, ever, ever, ever, in the life of ever, is it good practice to give users local admin rights. Ever.
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Mark Landin Feb 26, 2019 3:07 PM
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I use admin images, deployed via SCCM. Over the years, we have worked through most major problems with this approach. Our users do not have admin rights so we install as the local computer SYSTEM account, which also gets past all UAC issues.

We deploy to 8 different SolidWorks sites, some of which have SNL, some have standalone, and some sites have hybrid licensing. I have one admin image for all sites, but a separate AdminDirector and users.xml file for each site. This scales well ... when I need a new site, I just make new .xml files for that site, and nothing else really changes. I do use sldim.exe for installation the admin image.

I don't "take apart" the installation and package up the individual things in SCCM ... I write a deployment script (currently in DOS batch but hopefully moving to Powershell Application Deployment Toolkit later this year) that does all the "thinking" that SCCM would normally do. This is primarily because I'm not an SCCM admin. SCCM is just responsible for running the script on the machines we specify. This seemed like a much simpler method for us anyway.
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- Matthew Brahm @ Mark Landin on Feb 26, 2019 3:37 PM
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  Yeah, I have just had so many issues with the Admin Image Editor. Last year it worked fine, it would tell me if deployments succeeded or not, but always had trouble with intermittently connecting (sometimes working and sometimes not, sometimes computer name worked sometimes it didn't, sometimes IP address worked, sometimes it didn't, no real rhyme or reason).
  
  This year, however, I was having all kinds of connection issues. I NEVER got confirmation if an install actually finished or not, it just always hung at "install scheduled." Then, it would constantly keep trying to reinstall it on user's devices. It also gave all of my PDM only users the entire Solidworks suite, and I know 100% that there is no way I checked anything besides PDM for them. I had to actually go and rename the sldAdminOptionEditor to sldoptioneditor.crap, just to make it stop trying to install crap on people's computers, it was endlessly frustrating. If I had any more than the 9 users I had, this would have been an absolute nightmare, as it is, it's less than ideal.
  
  So the route that I am going to go is to install directly from the MSI, that way I can monitor the installations via log files and through SCCM, which is our preferred and best-practice way to do it anyway. I have until next year to get it figured out and from what I can see, the MSI switches don't change much from year to year. So far I've got one script for the prerequisites and one for Solidorks itself, which will then get broken down into separate scripts, based on what features everyone gets. So far I have the prereq script working but not the solidworks script, but this is what I have so far:
  
  ::Install solidworks premium, do not join customerexperience program, do not enable performance logging, install solidworks, toolbox, simulation, and everything else under "add local"
  msiexec /i "\\ServerName\Apps\SolidWorks_2019_SP1_Setup\SOLIDWORKS 2019 SP1.0\64bit\SOLIDWORKS\SOLIDWORKS.Msi" INSTALLDIR="C:\Program Files\SolidWorks2019" SOLIDWORKSSERIALNUMBER="xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx" ENABLEPERFORMANCE=0 OFFICEOPTION=3 ADDLOCAL=SolidWorks,SolidWorksToolbox,SolidWorksDesignChecker,Manuals,ExampleFiles,SolidWorksUtilities,Simulation /qb
  ::Install solidworks visualize
  msiexec /i "ServerName\Apps\SolidWorks_2019_SP1_Setup\SOLIDWORKS 2019 SP1.0\64bit\SOLIDWORKS Visualize\solidworks visualize.msi" ACTIVESERIALNUMBER=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx INSTALLDIR="C:\Program Files\Solidworks Corp\Solidworks Visualize" /qb
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