Article: 2008-001
Product: SNMP Informant - 2008.2
Subject: Automated Installation

Keywords: Unattended, Silent, quiet, install

Last Updated: October 7, 2008

This article is intended to help SNMP Informant users automate deployment of the product.  It identifies and describes command line switches to aid system administrators, and other programs calling the Setup program.  The command line switches are shown in bold for ease of reference.

UNATENDED/SILENT INSTALLATION QUICK-START

You can install SNMP Informant from a command line, specifying an INF file that contains installation information.  An example INF file, with installation parameters predefined for ALL SNMP Informant 2008.2 components (the full SNMP Informant-Premium product) is shown below:

[Setup]
Lang=default
Dir=C:\Program Files\SNMP Informant
Group=SNMP Informant
NoIcons=0
Components=advanced,mscs,sqlserver,sqlserver\sqlserverv2,sqlserver\sqlserverv1,exchange,exchange\exchangev2,exchange\exchangev1,os,os\operating_system,os\hardware,os\hyperv,os\virtual_server,appserver,appserver\biztalk,appserver\isaserver,citrix,citrix\citrixpdh,citrix\citrixwmi
UserInfoName=Acme
UserInfoOrg=Acme Novelty Corp.
UserInfoSerial=Q89YRLE9TW4MXPM3ZFRTE4B49
Domain=ACME
UserName=Administrator
Password=Pa$$w0rd
win32Shutdown=1
win32CreateProcess=1
ossvcState=1

Information on how to modify the INF file is described below:

• Set Lang= leave at default
• Set Dir= to an installation directory of your choice (only if C:\Program Files\SNMP Informant is not acceptable)
• Set Group= to a Start Menu folder of your choice (only if SNMP Informant is not acceptable)
• Set NoIcons= to 1 if you DON'T want icons, else 0 for icons
• Set Components= to a comma separated list of SNMP Informant agents you wish to install (see list below)
  "Components" keywords only apply to products purchased.  If a component specified is not supported by the UserInfoSerial parameter, that component will not install.

• Set UserInfoName= to your desired User Name (Network Administrator is a good choice)
• Set UserInfoOrg= to an Organization Name of your choice (usually the registered organization)
• Set UserInfoSerial= to your 25 digit validation key as provided by Informant Systems, or your reseller.

If you ARE installing the exchange\exchangewmi agent, then:

• Set Domain=, UserName= and Password= information for an account with at least Exchange Organization READ privileges (which may or may NOT be the Domain Admin).

If you are installing the os\operating_system agent, then:

• Set win32Shutdown= to 1 if you want to allow SET capabilities to log off, reboot and shutdown this computer, else 0 for no
• Set win32CreateProcess= to 1 if you want to allow SET capabilities to start a process (script, exe, etc.), else 0 for no
• Set ossvcState= to 1 if you want to allow SET capabilities to stop, start, pause and resume a Windows service, else 0 for no

You can now perform an unattended, silent, no restart installation by running the informant-premium.exe executable like so:

"Full\Path\to\EXE File\SNMP Informant 2008.2.exe" /LOADINF="Full\Path\to\INF File\test.inf" /verysilent /norestart

NOTES:

• Add the /nocheck switch to the command line to install components even if the server (i.e. BizTalk) is not installed (not likely you would want to do this, you probably will receive error messages when SNMP Informant tries to hook into WMI or PDH).
• If you are specifying a path with spaces, you MUST surround it with " " (as above)
• You could also specify full UNC names (\\server\share\)for the locations of the executable and the INF file if you like.  An example batch file to run the silent install is shown below:
  • rem ---------------------------------------------------------
    rem Sample unattended installation script for SNMP Informant
    rem ---------------------------------------------------------
    "C:\temp\informant-2008-2\SNMP Informant 2008.2.exe" /LOADINF=C:\temp\informant-2008-2\test.inf /verysilent /norestart /nocheck

COMMAND LINE OPTIONS

/SILENT, /VERYSILENT
Instructs Setup to be silent or very silent. When Setup is silent the wizard and the background window are not displayed but the installation progress window is. When a setup is very silent this installation progress window is not displayed. Everything else is normal so for example error messages during installation are displayed and the startup prompt is (if you haven't disabled it with DisableStartupPrompt or the '/SP-' command line option explained above).  If a restart is necessary and the '/NORESTART' command isn't used (see below) and Setup is silent, it will display a Reboot now? message box. If it's very silent it will reboot without asking.

/NOCANCEL
Prevents the user from cancelling during the installation process, by disabling the Cancel button and ignoring clicks on the close button.  Useful along with /SILENT.

/NORESTART
When combined with /SILENT or /VERYSILENT, instructs Setup not to reboot even if it's necessary.

/LOADINF="filename"
Instructs Setup to load the settings from the specified file after having checked the command line. This file can be prepared using the '/SAVEINF=' command as explained below.  Don't forget to use quotes if the filename contains spaces.

/SAVEINF="filename"
Instructs Setup to save installation settings to the specified file.  Don't forget to use quotes if the filename contains spaces.

A good way to create the unattended installation is to first save a template using /SAVEINF, then use /LOADINF to load a saved configuration.

/SAVEINF and /LOADINF should be absolute paths with no spaces.  However, due to a bug in Innosetup with components (i.e., the Premium product), you must hand edit the list of components in the INF file after you do a save.

/DIR="x:\dirname"
Overrides the default directory name displayed on the Select Destination Directory wizard page. A fully qualified pathname must be specified.  If the [Setup] section directive DisableDirPage was set to yes, this command line parameter is ignored.

/GROUP="folder name"
Overrides the default folder name displayed on the Select Start Menu Folder wizard page. If the [Setup] section directive DisableProgramGroupPage was set to yes, this command line parameter is ignored.

/NOICONS
Instructs Setup to initially disable the Don't create any icons check box on the Select Start Menu Folder wizard page.

/COMPONENTS="comma separated list of component names"
Overrides the default components settings. Using this command line parameter causes Setup to automatically select a custom type.