Hi, has anyone succeeded in distributing solidworks with
active directory? Due to the FLexlm licensing utility, there's some
difficulty to it. We do have a licensing server running, but is
there anything we should modify in the msi so that it uses the
license server instead of starting a local server and just loop
back?
Any help is greatly appreciated!
Any help is greatly appreciated!
You need to create an admin image, there are a few ways to do it. The command line way works faster, and turning off anti-virus greatly speeds things up. I did my first one from the install manger with my AV scanner on and it took 8 hours maybe.
You will probably want to add the latest SP. Download it manually (click where it says 'If you experience a download problem, click here') and run its installer. It shouldn't have any trouble updating your existing admin image if you download the right file.
You will need to create an MST file to specify the license server, and solidworks gives you a utility to do it. Here is the command I ran:
"C:\SWDist\SW2008 OFFICE PRO\SolidWorks\SwCreateMST.exe" "C:\SWDist\SW2008 OFFICE PRO\SolidWorks\English_i386_SolidWorks.Msi" INSTALLDIR="C:\Program Files\Solidworks 2008" TARGETDIR="C:\Program Files\Solidworks 2008" SOLIDWORKSSERIALNUMBER="XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX" ADDLOCAL=SolidWorks,English,Manuals,Intel_Modules_AgeiaX86,RealViewGraphicsdisplay,InstantWebsite,SolidWorksTaskScheduler,SolidWorksUtilities,SolidWorksToolbox,SolidWorksDesignChecker,PhotoWorksRender,FeatureWorks, OFFICEOPTION=2 SERVERLIST=25734@mn-walleye SWSPUPGRADE=1 INSTALLWDS=0 UPGRADESWINSTALL=0 DONGLEDRIVER=0 ENABLEPERFORMANCE=0 TOOLBOXFOLDER="C:\program files\common files\Solidworks 2008 Data\
Enter it all on one command line. You should save this somewhere as you will need it down the road when applying future service packs. A few funny things needed to happen to work correctly for me. I needed to leave the last quote character off for some reason for the toolbox. You need to add Intel_Modules_AgeiaX86 to the addlocal part, which is undocumented, and there are different ones for the x64 platform so search this forum for details.
When you are editing your group policy object, you need to add the C++ distributable and the .NET v3 msi in as well. The solidworks installation guide tells you how to extract the msi. When you create your policy, you can add all 3 packages into the same policy. I don't know any way to reorder them, but it works for me within the GPO to create the package for C++ first, then .NET, and then Solidworks. This way the installs initiate in the correct order on the client. You could add packages for the other programs, edrawings, dwgeditor, etc, but I prefer to install those with different GPOs.
I am still having trouble with the Help Files, initially I have been getting a message stating help file not found. But if I run the SP1.1 help file hotfix, it works. Though, I copied the SP1.1 help files over the originals in the admin image. and obvoiusly it doesn't install them correctly. Does any one know how to update the admin image with the latest help files?
Why don't the updated help files come included with the standard SP patches? Are you guys trying to make this more complicated than neccessary?
Also read the guide about updating to latest service packs via Group Policy, it isn't entirely clear, but a few tidbits stuck out. I haven't tried any of this with so I am not sure about this, but it seems clear that for each new service pack, you will need to create a new admin image, and leave the old ones intact. Just make a copy and then apply the latest patch. You then will need a new MST, and add these statements to the MST creation command line: UPGRADESWINSTALL=1 SWMIGRATE="SolidWorks 2008 SP1.1" where SWMIGRATE refers to the latest installed version. If anyone knows a better way, let me know.
Hope this helps.