Deployment stuck on Preparing

[jacob]

We have made a Revit 21 deployment on network folder (floating licence server) and when we run the deployment, full admin user with uac off, it just says 'preparing deployment'

and never changes.

there is no process actually using cpu and no disk activity

the install app just sits idle at 0%.

Im presuming its some kind of elevated permission issue that its stuck on.

The new install process is just broken.

How can i make this work.? anyone got deployments working okay?

How do i get deployments to work?

[vahn.chua]

@jacob 

Welcome to Autodesk Community.

Have you tried this locally instead? Because when it comes to network drive, it will really depends on the connection.

Moreover if you are using VPN the whole installation process can be affected (i.e. slow network, package loss).

[jacob]

Hi there

thanks for replying.

Explain the benefit to me again for having the deployment on a local drive.

The whole point is to have a central deployment that you run from any computer.

This is occuring on computers on the same LAN, 1gb wired network in the same domain, in the same subnet that easily do 80-90mb /sec sustained to the NAS.

There is no VPN/Firewall operating internally in the network.

Manual installations work fine from the same server location, its just the deployment install sits there preparing forever.(making the deployment seems to process fine)

Would of been nice to keep the old deployment method as a failover.

[vahn.chua]

@jacob 

We need to see the difference in terms of the connection.

If same workflow work locally with same deployment folder, most likely the network drive has some issues perhaps the network bandwidth, or read/write permission issue.

[jacob]

The deployment from the same folder (dif subfolder for revit 2020 and all the other deployments) Works fine.

So i cant see this being a network issue/folder or speed issue.

It has only appeared with new cloud based deployment creation.

It might be some local permission so install needs elevated permissions (again new) to run. 
I am guessing that the deployment cant get the permission level it needs, doesnt understand whats going on since its just a batch file and just goes round and round in loop forever.

[vahn.chua]

@jacob 

If same deployment folder used, there shouldn't be an issue wherever the folder moved to.

You are right our Autodesk software needs to have admin permission before it can be installed properly.

Is this an online deployment through Autodesk Account? if yes, are you able to tell us how you create it? as in the path and workflow.

[jacob]

goto to online deployment tool

select Network Licence 

enter single licence server name

Add revit

Add customisations

Give it name

Enter local path

Z:\windows\cad\bla bla bla for the path to create deployment

The log file adjusts accordingly

(i have tried using the full UNC name as well, but prefer a local path so it can be run from a mirror of the server if needed, neither work.....)

Agree and create.

download builder program and run. its builds into the network folder.

the resulting bat file, run as admin/not admin does get stuck in preparing loop.

[m.oumoumad]

I have this issue, and it's driving me crazy... trying to install maya 2020.2 version in the farm machines. it just gets stuck, and when I try to launch it manually on one of the machines, I see that it gets stuck in "preparing..." (as can be seen in the attached screenshot).

This new maya installation method has wasted almost a week of my work days, and right now I'm doing overtime at home because I'm desperate... It's even harder when documentations are a mess. 

In one place you get commands.

https://help.autodesk.com/view/INSTALL_LICENSE/ENU/?guid=GUID-4D762D36-E521-4D8D-8A48-B41FE2DDF381

In a completely different place you get how to setup the xml file..

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/maya/learn-explore/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Installing-...

So can you please tell me what else I can try to make this work ? uninstall all the MVC redistributables in the farm machines? can you explain why 2020 version silent installation worked but not the 2020.2 one? and yes I did try to uninstall the 2020 one first too...

[dthrasher]

@jacob is correct, this new online deployment creation tool really is an abomination. I'm getting the same hangup with the "creating deployment" screen.......this is a local install and on a reformatted computer (new employee) so no issues with temp directory being full, permissions, etc.

The Revit 2019 and 2020, and AutoCAD 21 deployments (that were using the old deployment method) all installed like a champ.......but the new deployment can't be bothered to work I guess.

One thing I really appreciate about Autodesk is how they are continually changing things for the worse - it takes real dedication, you should be commended 👏

[JasonF]

So Autodesk just gave up? It's February and people are still having this problem.

[m.oumoumad]

In my case I just bypassed Autodesk's deployement, and just used a plain msiexec command on the Maya.msi that is located in x64/Maya.

The command looks like this : 

msiexec /i Maya.msi /quiet /qn /norestart /log logs\%computername%_log.log INSTALLDIR="C:\Program Files\Autodesk"

And that worked fine, I just need to do a silent install for any extra plugin needed, the above command should work for any msi file, but if you got anything else that isn't msi, normally you can find the arguments somewhere

for example with MtoA  (/S is for silent and /FORCE_UNINSTALL=1 is for uninstalling the version that is currently installed) : 

MtoA-4.1.1.1-2020.exe /S /FORCE_UNINSTALL=1

Please Autodesk provide people alternative methods in case the official one isn't working, and save some days and nights for people.

[dthrasher]

I was eventually able to get it to work for Revit.  I think in my instance, it was ultimately a folder permissions issue on our shared server.

I was directing all the 14 extra language templates that nobody needs but can't get rid of (don't get me started on that) to a new directory.  And then "fixing" the path to the correct library and template locations with the custom .ini file.   But the standard users didn't have write privileges to the new folder so it didn't work*.

* It DID work initially when I was directing the extra templates to our correct library locations (also write-protected) - but in hindsight I believe I had installed to that directory first, and the next couple of users were able to install because the deployment saw the files had already been installed and didn't try to overwrite them.  That's my best guess anyway.

It was still a massive waste of time as a result of "fixing a problem" that nobody wanted solved.  Part of the issue there is I NEVER was able to get the link to "modify the deployment" - each time I made a change I had to go online and start over from scratch.  Again, something that worked fine previously but doesn't now.

[ceethreedee.com]

Well the fix was quite simple for us. If you are deploying off the network make sure you use the UNC path and not the Mapped Network drive.  This was always a problem in previous deployments of autodesk products.. But at least it prompted you to fix it. It appears custom install does not prompt you.

we had our package listed as 

B:\_STANDARDS\SOFTWARE\AutodeskInfraworks2022\

once we changed to UNC it worked

\\fileserver\cadstuff\_STANDARDS\SOFTWARE\AutodeskInfraworks2022\

You can jsut edit the BAT file in the root.

[mdavis22569]

@jacob 

Were you able to get this resolved? 

[jacob]

Hi Michael

I tired anything listed above without much joy and have moved on to other issues and just resigned myself to the fact i have to manual install for each user. Revit 23 is here, so might give that a go and see if one of its new 'features' is a working deployment application.