Running connect installer in Silent Mode

PlanetPress Connect can be installed in a so called "silent mode" to allow an automated setup during a company wide roll-out or comparable situations. The trigger for the Connect Installer to run in silent mode is a text file with the fixed name install.properties, which is located either in the same folder as the PlanetPress_Connect_Setup_x86_64.exe or in the unpacked folder of the installer.exe.

The required properties file has the following attributes:

• Comment Lines, starting with # (e.g. # The options to configure an external database)
• Key = Value pairs (e.g. install.product.0 = Connect Designer)

For supported keys, please refer to the next paragraph.

Required and optional properties

Required properties depend on the specified product. Only fields related to that specified product must be entered. If no product is mentioned, properties must be specified for all valid Connect products.

Here is an example of an install.properties file.

# Verbose logging
logging.verbose = true

# Product selection
install.product.0 = Connect Designer
install.product.1 = Connect Server

# Server settings
server.runas.username = Localadmin
server.runas.password = admin

# Database configuration
database.type = mysql
database.host = 192.168.116.10
database.port = 3308
database.username = root
database.password = admin
database.schema = my_ol

Verbose logging (optional)

By default, the Silent Installer will log the same way as the GUI installer. That means logging of error and warnings, and certain information during database configuration. A more verbose logging can be switched on by using logging.verbose = true.

Product selection (optional)

By default, if nothing is entered for the products to be installed (install.product.X), Silent Installer will install all products which are visible to the user for the respective brand (except for the Server Extension, because only Server or Server Extension can be installed at the same time).

PlanetPress defaults

install.product.0 = Connect Designer
install.product.1 = Connect Server
install.product.2 = MySQL Product

Server configuration (required if Server is selected for install)

For Server, the following properties need to be provided:

server.runas.username = <username>
server.runas.password = <password>

Server Extension configuration (required if Server Extension is selected for install)

For Server Extension, the following properties need to be provided:

server.runas.username = <username>
server.runas.password = <password>
server.master.host = <IP or name>
server.master.port = <port>
server.master.authenticate = true or false
server.master.username = <username for the Connect Server>
server.master.password = <password>

Database configuration

Case 1: MySQL is among the selected Connect products to be installed (new MySQL installation)

If MySQL is selected and there is no previous MySQL configuration on the machine, the following properties should be defined:

database.password = <password> (required and must meet the rules)
database.port = <port> (3306 is the default port value)
database.unlocked = true or false (the default value is false, optional)

Case 2: The Connect Server is selected and the MySQL Product is not selected

In this case, an external database must be configured for the Server (and other Connect products included in the Silent installation) to be used.

2a: Configuring an external MySQL database

To configure an external MySQL database, the following properties should be defined:

database.type = mysql (required)
database.host = <host> (default value is localhost, otherwise required)
database.port = <port> (default value is 3306, otherwise required)
database.username = <username> (default value is root, otherwise required)
database.password = <password> (required)
database.schema = <schema name> (default value is objectiflune, optional)

2b: Configuring an external Microsoft SQL Server database

To configure an external Microsoft SQL Server database, the following properties should be defined:

database.type = Microsoft SQL Server (required)
database.host = <host> (default value is localhost, otherwise required)
database.port = <port> (default value is 1433, otherwise required)
database.username = <username> (default value is sa, otherwise required)
database.password = <password> (required)
database.schema = <schema name> (default value is objectiflune, optional)

Repository selection

The Connect installation process requires a repository from which the installer copies (locally) or downloads (online installation) all selected Connect products.

In Silent Installer mode, the installation process looks for the property product.repository in the install.properties file and then proceeds with the following steps:

1. If the property exists, and its value contains an existing file location with a repository, the installer will attempt to install from that repository.
2. If the property exists, and its value starts with http://, the installer will attempt to install from that location. It will fail if no repository can be found at this location.
3. If none of the conditions mentioned in the previous steps are met, the installer will look next for a local "repository" folder (located in the same folder as the running Installer (Setup) executable file). If a repository is found, the installer will attempt to install from that repository.
4. As a last resort, the installer will attempt to install from the default Connect Update Site URL.

Examples

product.repository = http://192.168.79.73/Connect/Version_01/repository
product.repository = C:\\iso\\2.0.0.39695_unpacked\\repository

Locale definition

It is possible to define the Locale which affects the installation language and installed locale for Connect products by using the following properties in the install.properties file:

user.language
user.country

Locales supported by Connect

The Connect Setup supports a dedicated list of Locales, which is saved in the preinstall.ini file. Each entry consists of a language tag and a country tag, formatted by the pattern:

<language>-<country>

The current list of supported Locales is found below, but it may be enhanced in future releases:

• en-US (English, US)
• de-DE (German, Germany)
• fr-FR (French, France)
• ja-JP (Japanese, Japan)
• zh-CN (Chinese, China)
• zh-HK (Chinese, Hongkong)
• zh-MO (Chinese, Macau)
• zh-TW (Chinese, Taiwan)
• it-IT (Italian, Italy)
• pt-BR (Portuguese, Brazil)
• es-419 (Spanish, Latin America)

Locale selection by defining user.language and user.country

If both user.language and user.country are defined in the install.properties file, the combination must match exactly one of the supported locales, otherwise the Installer will exit with an error.

For example, user.language = fr and user.country = CA will cause an error since fr-CA is not in the list of supported Locales.

Locale selection by defining only user.language

If only user.language is defined in the install.properties file, the Installer will attempt to find a Locale in the list which starts with the given language code. The first match is selected for installation. If no match is found, the Installer will exit with an error.

For example:

user.language = zh, will result in an installation with the Locale zh-CN

user.language = no, will result in an error

Default Locale selection

If neither user.language nor user.country is defined in the install.properties file, the Installer will select a default Locale:

1. If the System Locale is in the list of supported Locales, it will be selected.
2. Otherwise, if there is an entry in the list of supported Locales, which matches the System language, it will be selected (e.g. on a fr-CA system, fr-FR is selected).
3. As last resort, the first Locale in the preinstall.ini is selected (usually that should be en-US).

Getting the exit code of a silent installation

If getting the exit code of a silent installation is desirable, use the following procedure.

1. Create a new local folder on the machine (or VM) on which Connect shall be installed and copy/extract the contents of the Connect ISO into this folder.
2. Open a command prompt with Administrator privileges and cd into this local folder.
3. Run this command to unpack the contents of the Connect Setup executable (as a sample, we use the PReS Connect brand):

   PReS_Connect_Setup_x86_64.exe -nr -gm2 -InstallPath=".\\"

4. In the local folder, the repository subfolder should now be located next to the preinstall.exe, installer.exe and other Installer files.
5. Create the install.properties file for silent installation in the local folder.
6. With a batch file calling preinstall.exe and then querying the %errorlevel%, silent installation can be started and the exit code can be evaluated. See the sample batch file below.

Exit codes

0 = Success

1 = General Error in preinstall (e.g. not supported settings for user.language / user.country, for reason see preinstall_err.log)

2 = Unknown Error in preinstall

10 = General Error in Installer application (for reason see OL_Install_<timestamp>.log)

Sample batch file

@echo off
preinstall.exe

if errorlevel 10 goto err_installer
if errorlevel 2 goto err_unknown
if errorlevel 1 goto err_preinstall

echo Success
goto:eof

:err_installer
echo "Installer error - see OL_Install_<timestamp>.log"
goto:eof

:err_unknown
echo "Unknown preinstall error - see preinstall_err.log"
goto:eof

:err_preinstall
echo "Preinstall error - see preinstall_err.log"
goto:eof

• Last Topic Update: 04, June, 2018 10:15 PM
• Last Published: 2019-05-23 : 3:18 PM