topic Re: Installation stucks in Installation & Licensing Forum

Installation stucks

jzarczynski — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 07:42:55 GMT

Hi,

Every deployment I attempt (2025 version, Inventor, Recap) gets stuck on the Autodesk installer.

The process goes smoothly on new workstations, but it fails on workstations where Autodesk 2022 family products were previously installed. What can I do?

I have 80 workstations to prepare…

I’ve tried uninstalling the old version and installing the newest Autodesk installer, but without success. I’m at a loss for what to do next.

Re: Installation stucks

Simon_Weel — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 11:58:41 GMT

From which log file is that a snippet? Have a look at the log files in the ODIS folder:

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Autodesk\ODIS

Re: Installation stucks

jeffNMWSR — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 13:53:51 GMT

Open Task Manager, find any instances of Autodesk Analytics Client Service, and End Task. You'll find that everything magically starts working. I just posted another thread regarding this problem.

Re: Installation stucks

handjonathan — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 07:32:18 GMT

Hi @jzarczynski

Thanks a lot for posting your question to the forums!   Have the solutions suggested by @Simon_Weel @jeffNMWSR helped with your issue?
 
We look forward to hearing back from you with more information so we can help you as a community! 

Re: Installation stucks

jzarczynski — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 11:14:42 GMT

Firstly, thank you for your responses.

I've been involved in mass deployment of Autodesk applications for several editions now, with particular reminiscence of the year 2020. That year, GUIDs for all updates were provided, making deinstallation via msiexec straightforward when appending them to the codes for full version applications. Additionally, there was the simple Autodesk Removal Tool, which could be used to manually remove products.

For the 2022 version, I created customised workstation images (one image per product) and a batch file for deployment. The batch file also contained a line for uninstallation.

Observations:

Autodesk apparently didn't anticipate that people would install patches that aren't listed with their GUIDs on the portal, meaning commands from the workstation image don’t remove the patches (and there is no GUIDs in the portal with products anymore)
Fortunately, our deployment was up to date, so theoretically, the uninstallation script should have worked properly.

However, in practice, Revit 2022 didn’t uninstall, blocking the installation of new versions. Several integral products remained (like Genuine Service, Access, Identity Manager, etc.).

Aside from Revit and uninstallation issues – the new installer has been problematic. While commandline deployments from custom images in 2022 and 2020 were smooth, the 2025 version required constant restarts to proceed, e.g., five computer restarts for the Inventor installation, and even then, it didn’t always resolve the issue.

In summary, we were constantly restarting to push deployments forward, and in many cases, products had to be installed manually. The current Autodesk installer is severely flawed and a total failure.

I am curious how people are supposed to transition from older software versions to newer ones in enterprise environment when it simply doesn’t work as intended. It's disheartening.

Whenever I see articles like this one from Autodesk's own blog praising their installation experience, I am bewildered:
https://blogs.autodesk.com/technology-manager-community/2021/03/01/whats-new-with-the-product-installation-experience/

Re: Installation stucks

jzarczynski — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 08:42:18 GMT

We skipped the installation of ReCap 2025. Now, I'm uncertain whether it was remnants of ReCap 2022 blocking the 2025 installation, or if it was the "several restarts" issue.

Interestingly, when the command line approach failed, the standard manual installation proceeded smoothly without any restarts.

Additionally, it’s worth noting that on brand-new computers with a fresh Windows installation, the command line installation proceeds without any issues.

Re: Installation stucks

Simon_Weel — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 14:18:03 GMT

As for ReCap, I found out that if you try to install a later version, like from a 2025-deployment, it won't install the latest ReCap. You first have to remove the old version and then the deployment will install the new version. So what I did is to have the install script check for the existence of ReCap and the perform an un-install before installing the latest version.

ReCap is weird in this respect. For all software, as far as I can see, there's a Product name Year folder, except ReCap - it has no year-versions.

Re: Installation stucks

Simon_Weel — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 14:20:11 GMT

In summary, we were constantly restarting to push deployments forward, and in many cases, products had to be installed manually. The current Autodesk installer is severely flawed and a total failure.

My opinion too. It's a hassle each year installing the latest versions. And the support persons aren't of much help either.