Friday, November 04, 2011

Adobe CS3 Web Standard deployment

Recently I was required to re image our main IT suit, needless to say the images I had were no good so had to build a new one. Image built deployed to 34 machines to discover afterwards that I forgot to put Adobe Web Standard CS3 on the image. Instead of installing it on each machine individually or rebuilding the entire suit again I thought I would just deploy it.

Aim:
Simple, deploy Adobe CS3 with no user interaction.

This seemed so simple to start with, hundreds of guides out there and out of all of them not one worked, got close but always reached the point where I would click on any application and it would request the CD Key.

Final solution:

Decided the best option was to deploy it using our fog server.

Step 1:
Running a virtual machine took a snapshot before the install.

Step 2:
Copied the entire contents of the install DVD into a shared folder.

Step 3:
From the command prompt run setup.exe --record=1, this will allow you to select the applications you want in your install, once it is complete it will output two xml files.

Step 4:
Copy the two created files into the same directory as the setup.exe, (in my case z:\packages\CS3AdobeWS\Adobe CS3\). Rename the files to install.xml and uninstall.xml.

Step 5:
Create the override file (I dont think this is actually doing any thing in my case). Open your favourite txt editer and copy and paste the following:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Configuration>
<Payload>
<Data Key="Serial" protected="0">1234567890123455678901234</Data>
<Data Key="Registration">Suppress</Data>
<Data Key="EULA">Suppress</Data>
<Data Key="Updates">Suppress</Data>
</Payload>
</Configuration>

Change the Serial to your serial number, then save the file into your main payload folder as application.xml.override make sure there is no extention after override.(my main payload folder is z:\packages\CS3AdobeWS\Adobe CS3\payloads\AdobeWebSuiteStandarden_US_Volume\.)

Step 6:
Test the silent install. From thecommand line navigate to the folder containing setup.exe then run setup.exe --mode=silent --deploymentFile="install.xml" (this is case sensative).

Step 7:
Assuming the setup complets with an error 0 everything has gone ok.
In my case this worked but when running any of the apps it prompts for the serial number, to get over this I entered my serial number, skipped the registration and set it to never registe, then the application opened. Close the application then navigate to the folder c:\program files\common files\adobe\adobe pcd\cache then copy the cache.db file into the same directory as setup.exe.

Step 8:
Back in the folder containing setup.exe create a batch file called install.bat and copy and paste the following into it:

setup.exe --mode=silent --deploymentFile="install.xml"
copy cache.db "c:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Adobe PCD\cache\"

Step 9:
This is where I love snapshots, restore your virtual machine back to it was prior to the install (or uninstall the software), then run the install.bat. If al goes well after setup is complete you should be able to run the app with out needing to re enter the serial number (there will be no confirmations of setup finishing you just have to wait or check task manager).

Step 10:
Prepare to deploy via fog or any app that can deploy and run exe files.
I used a free application called SFXMaker available from http://www.isoft-online.com/, once installed run the application and select the Directory tab. In the Directory Path select the directory containg setup.exe. In the File to Run box select the install.bat. In the SFX Path select where you would like to save the new installer. Click Create and wait.

Finish:
Now I have a single exe file i can add as a snappin in fog, then assign to machine or machine group, then under advanced deployment click deploy snappins.

This works for me, hope it might help someone else one day, but as stated before this is mainly the aid my memory.