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SCCM deployment of Civil 3D

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Message 1 of 21
license
5786 Views, 20 Replies

SCCM deployment of Civil 3D

Hello,

 

I'm trying to create a sccm deployment out of Civil 3D 2015. After running the setup.exe file from my downloaded Civil 3D files, i've created the deployment with the settings i want and everything works fine.

 

Now with the new deployment done i want to move it to my SCCM server inorder to add it as an application. But upon moving its complains about 3 "thumbs.db" files that it doesn't have access to move. If i ignore those files since thumbs.db files normaly should be a problem to manage without, the installation fails through sccm.

 

So if i create the application out of my deployment without the 3 "thumbs.db" files. It fails.

If i then go into my CCMCache under C:\Windows and add the 3 "thumbs.db" files on were they should be. it all works again and the installation doesn't work.

 

I've tested this alot and comes up with the conclusion that the deployment needs those 3 thumbs.db inorder to work.

Location of the files:

1:  \Img\setupres\thumbs.db

2:  \Img\en-us\SetupRes\InfoLink\Images\thumbs.db

3:  \Img\x64\en-us\C3D\AllUsersContent\Data\Reports\Net\Source\C3DREP_1\RESOUR_1\Thumbs.db

 

Any ideas on why its behaving like this, and how to fix this? to install without the "thumbs.db" or how to move them.

20 REPLIES 20
Message 2 of 21
ukdxb012
in reply to: license

I don't think you can, the installer must have been packaged/compiled with the files included. If you remove them, the whole thing unfortunately falls over.

We experienced the same issue with tmp, bak, and db files, if you remove them from a Deployment Image via an automated clean up process of unwanted files, the whole install keeps rolling back so you cannot install. The only way to successfully install is to leave them where they are.


Duncan Brannan
UK/EMEIA CAD Operations Manager
Twitter | LinkedIn

Message 3 of 21
license
in reply to: ukdxb012

Okay,

 

But how will this make deployment from sccm possible? since the sccm copies the files to the local computer will those files not be skipped or is it some other magic that makes sccm able to copy those kinds of files?

 

Maybe i'll haft to package the files into a .rar or similiar and have a wrapper packup the files once its downloaded?

Message 4 of 21
tmryan
in reply to: license

Hi,

 

I'm trying to deploy Civil 3D 2015 with SCCM 2012 without success. I was wondering if you would be so kind as to share how you did this along with the exact command you used in the "Installation program" input field under the "Programs" tab for the package? Did you use an admin image for your package or just the extracted installer files?

 

Thanks in advance!

Tim

Message 5 of 21

I'm trying for the first time to deploy Autocad Architecture 2016 using SCCM 2012 and I found out that it's not going to work all because the *.ini file used by Setup.exe has to have a UNC path for the ADMIN_IMAGE_LOCATION that is inside the *.ini file and the problem is using SCCM to deploy the deployment get's copied to the local computer to their C:\Windows\ccmcache, which is acutally a waste because once the setup.exe is told to run it looks at the *.ini file which has an absolute path to the server to where you actually created the Autocad deployment using Autodesk's network deployment tool.

 

If you only have 1 office and you are using SCCM to deploy all you would need is a *.bat file which would just tell to run the setup.exe at the server where your Autodesk deployment is and it would run the installer from that location.

If you have multiple offices and you are using SCCM to deploy to all offices this is where you will have a big problem.

Right now Autodesk has told me the only solution is to only use SCCM to deploy the *.bat files to point to the Autocad install and that I would have to copy the entire Autocad network deployment to each office to a server, run the modify deployment so it updates all the files with the new server name, so that each office could install it from that local server versus coming back to just 1 central server across the WAN.

 

I think I might have found a different way but I need some help writing a VBS script.

What I'm trying to accomplish is to take full advantage of SCCM and all my distribution points at each offices.

Since SCCM copies the deployment to the local computer to this location C:\Windows\ccmcache\* (random folder name), which contains the *.ini files that has the ADMIN_IMAGE_LOCATION to where everything is located, I'm trying to figure out if I can write a script that file first find the folder location it's in, store it, open the *.ini file, replace the Admin location with this location, save the file, then run the Setup.exe.

If I can get this to work this would solve everyone's problem of trying to deploy Autocad using SCCM with multiple distribution points.

I'm getting close, I have the script to the point where it opens the file and updates it but it's making it blank.

 

If anybody out there is good with VBS scripts could you help me out. This is what I have so far.

Const ForReading = 1
Const ForWriting = 2

Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

CurrentDirectory = objFSO.GetAbsolutePathName(".")

Set objFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile(CurrentDirectory & "\ADT-2016.ini", ForReading)

strOldText = "\\s044\sources$\Software\Autodesk\BDS\2016\SCCM-Installs\ADT"
strNewText = CurrentDirectory

strText = objFile.ReadAll
objFile.Close
strNewText = Replace(strText, strOldText , strNewText )

Set objFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile(CurrentDirectory & "\ADT-2016.ini", ForWriting)
objFile.WriteLine strNewText
objFile.Close

 

Thanks

Brent Morris

Message 6 of 21

I have been talking to Autodesk about this and they were very helpful and cleared up how that UNC Admin Path get's used.

They told me that when using SCCM to deploy Autocad that it will push it to distribution points and to the users computer like normal and will get copied to their C:\Windows\ccmcache directory. It will install Autocad from this local path and will not use that UNC Admin path in the ini file, but if the user decides to do a repair or reinstall from the Add & Remove Programs is when it will use that UNC path in the ini file, which makes sense because the computer might have flushed out the cache.

 

Here are some other items I found that were causing problems with my installation of Autocad 2016 using SCCM 2012.

1. Make sure in the Content Location that you pick 1 folder back to where the Img folder is located, the location where you created your Autocad deployment using their network deployment tool. Do not pick the Img as the folder location, Setup.exe is looking for this folder and won't find it.

2. Make sure that you make your folder structure clean and seperate from other items, so that when you pick this folder for item #1 everything under this folder get's copied to the users workstation.

3. Make sure in the Installation program the you use ".\Img\Setup.exe /W /q /I Img\ADT-2016.ini /language en-us", I mistakenly missed the ".", this will tell it to install from the users local cache location.

4. For the uninstall.bat to work correctly you will need to open the uninstall.txt that is under the SMS_SCCM scripts in Notepad, then do a save-as, change the code from Unicode to Ansi, then save the name as uninstall.bat.

5. In the uninstall.bat remove the ":" in front of "call" so it looks like this

::::== Autodesk AutoCAD Performance Feedback Tool 1.2.4
call :funcUninstall {4E20873D-BC20-495C-AFD9-B18877B7F9BB}, "Autodesk AutoCAD Performance Feedback Tool 1.2.4"

6. Then in the Uninstall program make sure it has Img at the beginning so for example: "Img\ADT-2016_Uninstall.bat"

 

So far after making these changes I have been able to successfully install Autocad Architecture 2016 using SCCM 2012 and now I just need to test it at another office that is using a SCCM distribution point.

 

Brent

Message 7 of 21

Brent,

Was your AutoCAD Architecture 2016 from a Suite or single vertical package?  Also how large was your install package?  We use the suites and I'm trying to get a handle on how I need to build my deployments to be pushed via SCCM.

 

Thanks,

Mike

Message 8 of 21

It was from a Suite and I build a seperate package for each program and make each deployment in it's own seperate folder so that when I deploy it with SCCM it only copies that one particular deployment. ADT 2016 was about 6 GB. I just hope that I don't have any issues with a cache limit size or problems on workstations if they don't have enough HD space so we will see.

 

Brent.

Message 9 of 21

Yikes!  That will be a hug pain for me!  I have close to 60 different Autodesk software programs spanning 4 releases that my IT director wants in SCCM.  We were thinking about using the run from DP setting so it will not need to cache to the local computer.  We will have a local DP in each office so in theory it should work?  Not sure what's going to be our best approach putting all our Autodesk software into SCCM?

Message 10 of 21

Is there a setting in the deployment to tell it to run from the DP if so where is that.

I was told a while back that it wasn't possible to do this, so if you figure it out let me know, thanks

Message 11 of 21

In SCCM for your deployment properties in the "Distribution Point" tab you should be able to select the "Deployment options: Run program from distribution point"

 

 

Message 12 of 21
tmryan
in reply to: mbrynild

The admin deployment package is published to a DP and is downloaded to the client and run from there. I was finally able to get it to deploy successfully using this command in the "Installation program" input field under the "Programs" tab within the SCCM package configuration details:

 

.\Img\Setup.exe /W /q /I Img\Civil3D2015Admin.ini /language en-us

Message 13 of 21
mbrynild
in reply to: tmryan

Yes that is how I have the program set up. I'm referring to the "Deployment" tab. That's where I have the option set to "Run program from distribution point"
Message 14 of 21

Mike, I'm still not 100% sure where that option is.

I'm using SCCM 2012 R2 SP1.

In my application deployment of ADT 2016 I have Distribution Settings and Deployment Types.

I have attached a word doc that has some screen captures.

I would also be interested getting contact info so we could talk directly over the phone or email if you are interested.

 

Thanks

Brent

 

Message 15 of 21

When you Deploy your software the last step in the wizzard you can set that option.  Attached is some screen shots of what I'm talking about.

 

 

 

Message 16 of 21

Thanks Mike

 

It looks like Microsoft must have made a change in the latest version. It looks like they removed that Distribution Points tab and it's now part of the Content tab, see my attachment.

The only thing I see I could try is to select "Allow clients to use a fallback source location for content" and use the option "Do not download content"

Message 17 of 21

Maybe it was changed with SP1?  We are on Version 5.0.7958.100 System Center 2012 R2 but I don't have the SP1 installed.

Message 18 of 21
Bill.K
in reply to: mbrynild

Brent and Mike,

 

The reason you guys are seeing things differnt is that Mike is creating his deployment from a "Package" while Brent wants to use the "Application" deployment.

 

Package deployments allow you to install from DP while Application does not.

 

The approach I have taken at this time while installing Autodesk suites is to creat a seperate Application for each Autodesk product.  So far it has worked well but I am not sure how we will be handeling updates/patches.  I would prefer that those too get deployed and not managed at the client level.

 

Good luck

 

 

 

Message 19 of 21

That makes sense now, thanks for letting us know.

I think using the Application deployment is the best way right now versus using Package, I new to this but I think in the Application deployment you have more option on requirements and dependencies. I also heard a rumor the Microsoft is moving towards all App versus Package.

 

I have also created seperate applications for each product in the suite.

I think I will handle the updates as a seperate app and put requirements on it to first make sure the main program is installed.

What I would like to do is push these updates just because end users tend to forget or just don't read my emails that there is an update that you can do.

What I think I might do to push these updates is when I deploy it is to tell it to deploy around midnight and turn on the wake up packet so this way it will update at night and I know the program won't be running versus during the day when they might be using the program.

Message 20 of 21

Hi All,

 

I am looking for documentation along the lines of the older 2007 SCCM Installation Help from this link.

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad-lt/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/How...

 

Something new and fresh to use for the 2012 SP1 setting tweaks will be appreciated as a starting point for users and their IT technicians.

 

Thanks,

David

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