Using MSINEWINSTANCE in a transform

[Jori]

Hi All,

Does anyone know if it is possible to use the
MSINEWINSTANCE property when it is defined within a
transform?

I've been able to get it to work by passing it as an
argument on the command line to MSIEXEC, but not when it
is defined in the actual transform itself.

Basically, we have a need to be able to install multiple
instances of the same package through Group Policy
software installation to a terminal services farm.

Given it is not possible to pass command line arguments
to a managed application in Group Policy, it would need
to be applied in the transform. Otherwise I'll have to go
down the nested MSIs path (which I'd prefer not to do).

Cheers

Jori

[Jori]

OK, so I've tried using a nested MSI installation now.

I can get the nested MSI installation to work (custom
action 7 and add the MSI as storage) if I don't specify
MSINEWINSTANCE as one of the command line parameters. But
if I do specify it, I get an error 1713 with sub error
1639. So I KNOW that the MSINEWINSTANCE property is
causing the nested MSI to fail.

Please, does anyone know how to get this to work?

Jori

>.
>

[Carolyn Napier [MSFT]]

Group policy software installation is unable to handle installation of multiple
instances through instance transforms. (There's more at work than just the
presence of the property.)

For group policy to work, you'd actually have to use X number of packages where
X is the number of instances that you want. If you have the instance
transforms, then you can build the X packages separately using the transforms.
The tool msitran.exe in the Windows Installer SDK can be used to apply the
instance transform directly to the package (and thus make it a new instance) by
persisting the changes. After doing so, you'll also need to change the
PackageCode of each package since they need to be uniquely identified.

Then you'll have to deploy each individual package for each instance.

eg.
base.msi, inst1.mst, inst2.mst

'Create 1st instance
copy base.msi inst1.msi
msitran -a inst1.mst inst1.msi
wisuminf.vbs inst1.msi 9={C90810C7-C10F-735C-3578-0BEAB04B8006}

Now inst1.msi is a new instance (be sure to generate a new all UPPERCASE GUID
for each instance's package code). You can use Orca to verify the changes.

Hope this helps,
- Carolyn Napier
Microsoft Windows Installer Team

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