Problem removing msi package

[Andi]

A couple of years back we had to create and roll out a package for our PASS MIS system using WinInstallLE. The package installs the SQL 2K server client tools and configures them to talk to our SQL 2000 server.

We are in the process of upgrading to SQL 2005 and therefore need to pull back the package and create a new one to install and configure the new client (neither PASS nor Microsoft offer a ready made package to do this!!!).

However, we've hit a problem where the old package won't remove, reporting that the windowsupdate.log is in use by the program. When we initially created the package we made it with as clean a machine as possible, but obviously it wasn't clean enough.

Does anybody know a way to get around this other than rebuild every machine in the school? We're desperate to get this update done.

Also, has anyone successfully rolled out SQL 2005 client and configured it? If so, how?

Thanks

[Michael]

What about if you stop the SQL 2000 client services then attempt an uninstall? You could do this either by GPO or MMC.

[Andi]

You gave me a great idea and I disabled the Automatic Update service on one machine and removed the package through GPO. Success!

So, cheers for that!

I don't suppose anyone has managed to package up a configured SQL 2005 client then have they?

[srochford]

Don't know what you used for packaging in the first place but with the WininstallLE program you get an "NAI" file which is plain text which shows you what's going to be packaged. I always check through that to see if there's anything which shouldn't be there - changes like windowsupdate.log, virus updates etc don't want to be there so you edit them out of the NAI file and rebuild the MSI.

I'd guess you can do similar things with any of the packaging programs.

The other thing to do is to turn off pretty much every service which is not essential - windows updates, virus scanner etc - so that you don't get any crud in the package.

[Andi]

Good advice, I'll check through that when I create the 2005 client package.

Thanks.