Help us improve Vault Server 2017 installation - PRE-CHECKS

[utsav.kant]

Vault Install team is in the process of improving Pre-Checks for Vault Server 2017 installation.

We would highly appreciate if you could provide your valuable inputs on Pre-Checks.

Below are few points to get you started.

1.    What are the pain points in using pre-checks. E.g.
   a.    Any specific check that fails most
   b.    Any check which is difficult to resolve or confusing.
   c.    Any new check which needs to be added
2.    For failed checks - What kind of troubleshooting capabilities should pre-checks have?
   a.    Would it improve user’s experience it had auto fix option
3.    Pain points for Post Install checks (Diagnostic Utility).

Regards,
Vault Install Team

[DarrenP]

i would like to run the pre checks without having to run through the whole Vault Server install

i have found the .asp net fails the most and sometimes the help link doesn't always resolve the issue

i would think having any auto fix for a Vault install would be good

[utsav.kant]

Thanks for your valuable inputs Darren. 

You would be glad to know that Vault Server 2016 release installer has pre-checks at the start of the installation. It can be launched from the first page of installer wizard.  

We'll look into asp.net failures.

[Neil_Cross]

Yea the pre-checks are run from a executable called Scripttool.exe which can be found in a nested path that I don't recall off the top of my head, there's a couple of them on the media, one in an x86 and x64 folder.

-----------------------

Assuming this is a real post (it's not done from an Autodesk employee account ) my input is as follows: 

And I'd also like to make a point of saying that the pre-checks are a lot less painful now than they where in years gone by, so thumbs up for that.  Also, in the interests of clarity and defintely not ego, I've been doing ADMS installs for over 10 years now mostly for a VAR so I'm able to resolve most pre-check issues purely based off experience, so my view on their difficulty may be diluted somewhat.

1.    What are the pain points in using pre-checks. E.g.
   a.    Any specific check that fails most 

Typically each release brings it's own common reoccuring pre-check issues, which then change to the next release.  I've done Vault Server installs into a whole differing range of servers and environments and the biggest most common issue is IIS related.  In recent releases it's normally due to the app pool pipeline being set incorrectly, I've also witnessed and reproduced the pre-checks actually changing this to an incorrect value.  Other common failures are the .NET being set to v2.0, 32bit applications setting being enabled, in my experience these are the most common issues which are now very easily resolved after experiencing them multiple times.  

A nuisance issue is an occassion when uninstalling the previous ADMS requires a stop on the IIS process which must be done manually.  The following pre-check then fails with a static file error which is actually purely caused by IIS being stopped, but that isn't obvious at all from the message. 

   b.    Any check which is difficult to resolve or confusing.

The biggest show stopper I've found is the Windows Performance Counters failure.  This error is often impossible to resolve and there's very little information out there on it, it has been known to prevent a job from going ahead. 

Here's a confusing one.  Go to a server that already has ADMS 2015 installed successfully.  Run the pre-check scripttool.exe.  It'll fail with the accessing a static file message.  Open IIS.  The "AutodeskTestDMPool" made by the pre-check utility is created and set to "Integrated" pipeline.  If you change that to "Classic" it passes the pre-checks.  However, the final created app pools are all set to "Integrated"!! That sir, is confusing turned up to 12.

   c.    Any new check which needs to be added

I don't recall ever wishing there was more ways in which you guys could prevent me from installing Vault, ergo making my life more difficult and preventing me from getting an early finish! In all seriousness though, no, I'm quick to criticise and pass opinion but I don't think I've ever thought of a check which is needed that isn't currently processed.

2.    For failed checks - What kind of troubleshooting capabilities should pre-checks have?

At the moment they're far too generic.  One particular error could be caused by numerous different issues, and the help is notoriously unhelpful.  There likely isn't a single person reading this who hasn't needed to consult Google for a pre-check in the past.  Being an ignorant customer, I can say that the software knows what it needs... it knows what settings and config it requires, it should check for those exact parameters and report back which aren't set.  For example, again referring to the static file failed message, that appears when IIS is just stopped.  The pre-check should be able to detect whether the IIS service is started or not and report it accordingly!

Also, often a server has internet security set so high that you can't even read the HTML based help for the pre-checks.  

   a.    Would it improve user’s experience it had auto fix option

This could and should only be available on obvious issues, I wouldn't want the pre-check tool to physically alter IIS settings if the server is potentially being used for other business applications.  However for failures such as the pending reboot, unused empty filestore, disable UAC, existance of the AutodeskVault user account, these could potentially be candidates for an auto-fix.  However, you could argue that the user installing Vault should have the ability to troubleshoot such issues providing they're given a better and clearer guidance than what's currently offered.  Currently the pre-check help is poor, too generic, and rarely the actual cause of the failure.

3.    Pain points for Post Install checks (Diagnostic Utility).

I don't know which diagnostic utility you speak of.  If you're referring to the Scripttool.exe utility, it suffers from most if not all of the issues above.  And as it creates an incorrect app pool in 2015, it's not very reliable.

[Senthil_Kumar]

Thanks for sharing your Idea. We use this forum to guide product development and help users in the best way we can based on voting. We occasionally merge Ideas or archive old ones to keep the forum working properly- it ensures there is room for people to review new Ideas and that the most relevant and meaningful ones can gain votes. We’re archiving this Idea because it's been on the board for well over a year and hasn't received many votes from the community. If you want to raise it again and try to gain more support, you're welcome to do so. We’ve found that pictures and mock-ups can help get concepts across and win more votes from other users. If you have questions or see a connection between this Idea and others, let us know. - Vault product team