Can not install an msi in StartUp?

Question

I had seen that it was shown that one can install an .msi but somehow I can not get my msi to install so I tried a known one. Tortoise SVN msi. I have in my InstallItem.cmd

echo off
start /w msiexec.exe /i "%~dp0TortoiseSVN-1.7.6.22632-x64-svn-1.7.4.msi" /qn >> log.txt 2>> err.txt

and for my app.config

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
    <system.diagnostics>
        <trace>
            <listeners>
                <add type="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Diagnostics.DiagnosticMonitorTraceListener, Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Diagnostics, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35"
                    name="AzureDiagnostics">
                    <filter type="" />
                </add>
            </listeners>
        </trace>
    </system.diagnostics>
  <startup>
    <Task commandLine="InstallItem.cmd" executionContext="elevated" taskType="simple" />
  </startup>
</configuration>

Since I have done start-up before and the batch file might contain an extra character, I make sure its saved as ansi and it even runs fine when I remote in and run it manually, but somehow fails.

No log.txt or err.txt is created either, so what is going on?

I DO have the 'TortoiseSVN-1.7.6.22632-x64-svn-1.7.4.msi' included in the project as 'Copy always' with no build and like I said, the batch file runs fine when RDPed in.

Any ideas?

Oh by the way, my WorkerRole is empty really:

public override void Run()
        {
            // This is a sample worker implementation. Replace with your logic.
            Trace.WriteLine("$projectname$ entry point called", "Information");
            File.WriteAllText("StartMessages.txt", "Run started...");

            while (true)
            {
                Thread.Sleep(10000);
                Trace.WriteLine("Working", "Information");
            }
        }

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noorbakhsh حميد نوربخش

Answer 1

I don't think msiexec outputs anything to stdout and stderr. The "/l" option may be a better way to capture MSI logs.

Answer 2

Thanks Steve,

Actually both links above are from your blog. If I run the cmd file when RDPed in, it runs fine (with log and err created, but empty as you mentioned) but it DOES install, but not with the StartUp task.

I am puzzled since I have used the StartUp to register ports and set up WCF service, but the install does not occur and originally I thought it might be my installer, so I tried third part installer as you can see.

Anyone having success with running msiexec.exe for simple installs?

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noorbakhsh حميد نوربخش

Answer 3

I've had plenty of success with it. :-)

Did you try my suggestion above to capture the log from the MSI? If so, what was in the log?

Answer 4

Steve,

I changed my InstallItem.cmd to

echo off
start /w msiexec.exe /i "%~dp0TortoiseSVN-1.7.6.22632-x64-svn-1.7.4.msi" /qn /l* "%~dp0InstallLog.txt"

and published my project. No InstallLog.txt! I ran the cmd file locally and it got created with log, so I think the StartUp is not even getting hit which is weird since I have successfully used it to launch 32 bit process previously and it not very complicated this time. Just a 'simple', elevated commandLine one!

  <startup>
    <Task commandLine="InstallItem.cmd" executionContext="elevated" taskType="simple" />
  </startup>

The batch file is loaded up correctly in the approot, so why isn't it running? Any gotchas I have overlooked?

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noorbakhsh حميد نوربخش

Answer 5

I just noticed from your original post that it looks like your <startup> node is in app.config instead of ServiceDefinition.csdef. And it should be capitalized ("<Startup>").

Answer 6

Steve,

You are the man. In all my other projects I have the startup both in the app.config and ServiceDefinition.csdef, but was missing from the latter in this case. That made the install work.

Do I even need it in the app.config? I think I happen to put it there originally and its always stuck there also.

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noorbakhsh حميد نوربخش

Answer 7

No, you don't need it in app.config. I'm actually somewhat surprised it's not a syntax error. (Perhaps app.config parsing simply ignores unknown tags.)