Adobe CS3 Standard Network Install

[steveo2000]

Does anyone have a clue as to how I can install Adobe Creative Suite 3 over a network silently? Ive spent ages trying to do this and i'm about to give up! I really dont want to have to install this as part of are image but maybe forced to! HELP

 

Thanks

 

Steve

[KarlGoddard]

I'm looking into deploying CS4 and it isn't good news I'm afraid... as far as I can see unless you're using SMS or a packaging app it theres now easy way to silently install it. Then again at a 3.1 gig install I'd feel dizzy deploying that through an msi at logon on

 

Here, it's going on the client image and any odd ball machines that need it will have it installed via psexec

[K.C.Leblanc]

I ran the silent install using PSEXEC. took ages. I'll have a look to see if I did any notes.

[dhicks]

Does anyone have a clue as to how I can install Adobe Creative Suite 3 over a network silently?

 

I simply followed the CS3 Enterprise Deployment Guide:

 

http://www.adobe.com/support/deployment/cs3_deployment.pdf

 

Everything worked pretty smoothly. Our machines have a minimum of 512MB of RAM installed and we're running the Adobe installer just after we reimage the machine. We run the installer by having an "install" user with admin rights that runs a logon script. You have to set up an XML installer file as described in the PDF linked to above, but that was a pretty obvious step-by-step kind of thing.

 

--

David Hicks

[KarlGoddard]

I simply followed the CS3 Enterprise Deployment Guide:

 

http://www.adobe.com/support/deployment/cs3_deployment.pdf

 

Everything worked pretty smoothly. Our machines have a minimum of 512MB of RAM installed and we're running the Adobe installer just after we reimage the machine. We run the installer by having an "install" user with admin rights that runs a logon script. You have to set up an XML installer file as described in the PDF linked to above, but that was a pretty obvious step-by-step kind of thing.

 

--

David Hicks

 

did you have any issues with the install picking up settings from the xml.override file?

 

I tried doing the ent deployment but it never picked up any of the suppress settings when we deployed CS4 using that method even though we followed to the letter the steps in the pdf

[dhicks]

did you have any issues with the install picking up settings from the xml.override file? I tried doing the ent deployment but it never picked up any of the suppress settings when we deployed CS4 using that method even though we followed to the letter the steps in the pdf

 

I don't remember CS3 having any issues picking up any settings that we provided. I don't remember the exact details, and I'm at home at the moment and can't check, but I remember entering the serial number provided by Adobe into the installer's XML file and everything seemed to work just fine. Note that we are using CS3, I have no idea how different CS4 is.

 

--

David Hicks

[K.C.Leblanc]

did you have any issues with the install picking up settings from the xml.override file?

 

I tried doing the ent deployment but it never picked up any of the suppress settings when we deployed CS4 using that method even though we followed to the letter the steps in the pdf

 

From memory I think there are several files with the same name, and it only works if you edit the right one. I will have a look tommorow.

[AngryTechnician]

For our CS3 installs we specify the location of the deployment file on the command line to avoid the 'which damn file are you using' problem, e.g.:

 

setup.exe --mode=Silent --deploymentFile="\\server\pathto\deploymentfile.xml"

 

Never had a problem with it not picking up the settings using that method.

[Teth]

When we bought CS3 around this time last year I used the enterprise deployment system to install it with an admin installer account with a logon script. Went smoothly enough but took a LONG LONG time. I decided it wasn't realistic long term for rebuilds as it takes as long for the CS3 install as the windows + other other app installs. The adobe installer wont win any prizes for speed regardless of the hardware it is on it would seem.

 

This year I put it in the base image for the machines before sysprepping them and it has been fine.

 

The install times are around 25-35 mins from PXE boot to user logon prompt with CS3 in the image. It was 40+min with the installer run as admin. Our periods are 35mins long so I like to keep a re-image time within that.

[Oops_my_bad]

I may be missing something but, how on earth do you create a deploy point for CS3? I can do a silent install with the xml files but only from CD, and this means going through all CDs. There's nothing mentioned in the deployment guide about this - I guess you have to merge the CD's somehow?

 

By the way, for those of you lucky enough to be using CS4 there is a deployment toolkit Adobe - Adobe Licensing Programs

[dhicks]

I guess you have to merge the CD's somehow?

 

I just shovled all the files from each install CD into a network share folder, seems to work fine.

 

Time-wise, the install process is a tad slow - I have our install script copy all the tutorial videos and so on off the resources CDs to local machines, as I figure we might as well get our money's worth from them and they'd be too big to load over the network each time. I think our install for CS3 takes about half an hour.

 

--

David Hicks

[Oops_my_bad]

I just shovled all the files from each install CD into a network share folder, seems to work fine.

 

Time-wise, the install process is a tad slow - I have our install script copy all the tutorial videos and so on off the resources CDs to local machines, as I figure we might as well get our money's worth from them and they'd be too big to load over the network each time. I think our install for CS3 takes about half an hour.

 

Thanks.. did you use a particular folder structure?

[dhicks]

did you use a particular folder structure?

 

The "CreativeSuite" folder on the software installer server share has sub-folders:

 

deployment

payloads

redist

resources

 

Which I think is pretty much one CDs worth, although maybe the "payloads" folder is a couple of "payloads" folders combined, I don't remember. We also have a separate folder called "CreativeSuiteExtras" containing:

 

Adobe Digital Careers

Documentation

Fonts

Goodies

Video Workshop

 

Which the install script simply copies across to each client machine wholesale with an xcopy command then shoves a couple of shortcuts in the start menu to point to index files and so on.

 

--

David Hicks

[Oops_my_bad]

Thanks DHicks, got it going eventually.

 

Now.. does anyone know how to get the installer to display a progress bar like you can with most unattended installations? Have tried messing around with --silent=1 setting but havent found anything:(

[dhicks]

Now.. does anyone know how to get the installer to display a progress bar like you can with most unattended installations?

 

Nope. Perl script to check on progress of install (by simply checking amount of disk space written so far?) and display a progress bar as appropriate?

 

--

David Hicks

[deKay]

Finally, I seem to have achieved the holy grail of a working, customised CS3 deployment script. I've tried all sorts of things suggested both here and elsewhere, but nothing worked properly or as we need.

 

Anyway, here's my "how-to".

[edie209]

Having this problem facing me next, I just want to say thank you I will be trying this on Monday when I go back to work

[edie209]

Here we go ....nothing ever goes as simple as you hope

 

I get to this stage

 

You can now check CS3 will install using these settings using the following command (all on one line!) from the Run box:\\servername\deploy\AdobeCS3\Setup.exe --mode=Silent --deploymentFile=\\servername\deploy\AdobeCS3\deployment\install.xml --skipProcessCheck=1

Nothing will appear to happen because it’s running silent. You can check that it is, however, by opening Task Manager and looking for active setup.exe and mesiexec.exe processes, as well as monitor that files are appearing (and in some cases, disappearing) in c:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\ and c:\Program Files\Adobe\. This install may take a little while (like, an hour, depending on your network, setup options, and machine). You may need to reboot afterwards before the CS3 apps will work.

 

then I get a "End Adobe Setup. Exit Code 7"

 

I have searched around the web and people refer to adding the --skipProcessCheck=1 which is already done. I am hoping someone else has had the same problem and found an answer.

[Arthur]

Not sure if the order of the commands makes a difference, but we use the following without any issues.

 

Setup.exe --mode=Silent --skipProcessCheck=1 --deploymentFile="\\Server\Deploy\Adobe CS3 Design Premium\deployment\install.xml"

Edited August 20, 2012 by Arthur
Spelling

[edie209]

Hi Arthur thanks for that just tried it and I get the same error.

[edie209]

I have found the issue its failing the requirement check for each part of the software install

 

The minimum system requirements listed below are needed in order to run Adobe Illustrator CS3 and are not met. - Windows XP Service Pack 2 and greater

- Windows Vista

 

I am installing on Windows 7 x86, so has anyone else had this issue and if so how did you get over it?

[Arthur]

Did you create the install.xml file using setup.exe --record=1?

[edie209]

Yes I did the line i used was

 

"\\network location\AdobeCS3\setup.exe" --record=1

[Arthur]

This is what my XML files for CS3 Design Premium look like. Not sure if it helps?

 

Install.xml

 
   en_US
   Q:\Applications\Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium\v1.0.0.0\
 
 
   
   
     install
   
   
   
     install
   
   
   
     install
   
   
   
     install
   
   
   
     install
   
   
   
     install
   
   
   
     install
   
   
   
     install
   
 

 

Uninstall.xml

 
   en_US
 
 
   
   
     remove
   
   
   
     remove
   
   
   
     remove
   
   
   
     remove
   
   
   
     remove
   
   
   
     remove
   
   
   
     remove
   
   
   
     remove
   
 

 

On our XP network, CS3 gets installed under the SYSTEM account before anyone logs in.

Edited August 20, 2012 by Arthur

[edie209]

Thanks again Arthur

 

my two xml files are exactly the same as yours, I have even just tried yours just in case I missed something but no I get the same error.

 

I have tried this

 

"\\network location\AdobeCS3\setup.exe" --mode=Silent --deploymentFile="\\network location\AdobeCS3\deployment\install.xml" --skipProcessCheck=1

 

and the way you suggested earlier, the machine is a fresh Windows 7 install. I must be missing something, I have noticed that if I change the --skipProcessCheck=1 to --skipProcessCheck=0 or --skipProcessChecks=1 I still get the same error which suggests that the --skipProcessCheck=1 is not being seen.