Error while checking for instances

[richakamal]

Hi,

I have recently started working on Installanywhere 2010.
We are trying to migrate our Installshield installer to Installanywhere.
I was looking at the implicit options available for upgrade with Installanywhere. I found that instance management has been added to the Installanywhere which takes care of the upgrade.
I made a sample project with version 8.5.0.0 and then created a higher version build 8.5.1.0.
In the advances settings, I have enabled the maintenance mode support and checked all its available options.
I have enabled Instance Management and limited it to a single instance.
I have selected to identify instance using location and subrevision.

I installed 8.5.0.0.
When I run the installer for 8.5.1.0 it presents me with an option of modifying the existing instance and Installanywhere is able to find the correct instance. But one I go to next step it gives an error saying

An error occured while trying to manage the selected instance.

I ran the installer in debug mode and found the following error messages.

ChooseBundledVMs: Unable to locate the VMPack Directory
ZGUtil.getInputStream(): unable to load resource:
    uninstaller.properties
java.io.FileNotFoundException: uninstaller.properties (The system cannot find th
e file specified)
        at java.io.FileInputStream.open(Native Method)
        at java.io.FileInputStream.(Unknown Source)
        at java.io.FileInputStream.(Unknown Source)
        at ZeroGd.b(DashoA10*..)
        at ZeroGd.l(DashoA10*..)
        at com.zerog.ia.installer.LifeCycleManager.x(DashoA10*..)
        at com.zerog.ia.installer.LifeCycleManager.m(DashoA10*..)
        at com.zerog.ia.installer.LifeCycleManager.l(DashoA10*..)
        at com.zerog.ia.installer.LifeCycleManager.j(DashoA10*..)
        at com.zerog.ia.installer.LifeCycleManager.a(DashoA10*..)
        at com.zerog.ia.installer.Main.main(DashoA10*..)
        at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
        at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
        at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
        at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source)
        at com.zerog.lax.LAX.launch(DashoA10*..)
        at com.zerog.lax.LAX.main(DashoA10*..)

=======================================================

Error while checking for instances

An error occurred while trying to manage the selected instance

=======================================================

Can anybody explaing why this error is coming and how can I correct this?
I do not find this file on the system and why is the Installanywhere looking for a file?
Under the Install tab for the Uninstall $PRODUCT_NAME$ section I see there is an option to edit Uninstaller properties. Is it this same file? Do I need to configure it differently?

[jijujacob27]

Hi richakamal,

The error message clearly says that the instance management even though it detected the instances could not manage the instance.

Looks like the uninstaller folder was tampered with for the previous instance and hence the Instance Management was not able to manage it.

The file uninstaller.properties which the Instance Management/Uninstaller for IA uses for initializing the Maintenance Mode / Uninstall mode depending on the execution mode, it is in....

Is there any chance that the version 8.5.0.0 was installed by installshield and you are trying to manage this instance through an installed generated by installanywhere.... i think not... but i thought i should clarify...

Thanks,
Jiju

[richakamal]

Hi Jiju,

I ran the two installers back to back on a fresh machine. Both of them are IA installers and I am not using any Installshield installer.
I did not change any data from the previous installation.
I am not even presented with the maintenance option(add, remove, repair, uninstall) screen, then why is the installer looking for uninstaller.properties. Should it be present somewhere? Where should I look for it?
One thing to note is that I am using a trial version of Installanywhere 2010 with a license server.
Can that be a problem?

Regards,
Richa.

[asoma555]

Same issue is observed for my product.

[jijujacob27]

That is strange...

Would it be possible for you to share the project and would you also be kind enough to let me know your platform on which you are trying this issue?

Can you also please check if you have applied the public hotfix a for InstallAnywhere 2010 that was released. Can you please let us know if you face similar issues after applying this patch.

Thanks,

[richakamal]

This installer is for Windows platform.
I was using IA 2009 previousy for evaluation, and then I shifted to IA 2010 for instance management. So the project has been migrated from IA 2009 to IA 2010. For testing, both the installers were built using IA 2010.
I am attaching the project file with this thread.
I applied the IA patch, but still the issue exists.

Thank you.

[asoma555]

I am facing the same problem .
I am using installanywhere 2018 paid version.

[asoma555]

Is there any hotfix available for installanywhere 2018.

[jijujacob27]

Hi richakamal,

You need to make sure that the Create Uninstaller action in your install phase, is linked correctly to your InstallAnywhere Uninstall Component (standard). This is what is causing this issue.

Hope this helps.

Thanks,

[richakamal]

Hi Jiju,

Can you provide me with some sample project files or examples for it?
How is the upgrade handled with maintenance mode and instance management? I am not able to understand the flow here. Why should I add Uninstaller action for my upgrade?
At what point do I need to add this custom Uninstaller action? This requirement was not there with IA 2009.

Does that mean we will be doing major upgrade everytime, i.e., removing the old components and then adding the new ones?
My issue here is that I am installing other products during our product installation. Now during upgrade I dont want to uninstall those products but simply call their respective installers for their upgrade.
But for our product uninstall I want to uninstall these nested installations too.
In IS there is a msi property UPGRADINGPRODUCTCODE which can do this for us. With IA also it should be possible to limit these based on option("Add", "Repair", "Remove", "Delete") provided, right?

Isn't there any provision for minor upgrade, i.e, simply replace the existing files?

Thanks,
Richa.

[richakamal]

Another query was regarding the component version. Can that not be used to upgrade the files without doing the major upgrade?

[jijujacob27]

Hi richa,

Let me explain the scenario.

Let us take an installer for product A with 1.0. Let 1.0 be the base version. The Create Uninstaller action association with the InstallAnywhere Standard uninstall component is given by default in your project, unless it is changed by accident or consciously by the setup author. So for version 1.0, this component association is by default present and if it is installed, then this component mapping is stored in the zerog registries.

On a repeat install of 1.0, the instance management searches the Zerog registry and finds out the version 1.0 location and lets you locate / modify the same instance.

For an upgrade to 1.0, let us call it 1.5, you need not technically have the Create Uninstaller Action / the uninstall phase (especially if you just replace some files as in your case). Hence there is no hard rule to have the uninstall component association in your case. The instance management will continue to work as before. If the installed location is still the same, then the system will continue to have just one instance.

The requirement for Create Uninstaller action to be associated with the InstallAnywhere Standard uninstall component is due to the fact that this is the only way that Instance Management is going to find out your uninstaller location (especially some users create uninstallers in different locations).

I did not understand your second question
"Another query was regarding the component version. Can that not be used to upgrade the files without doing the major upgrade?"

Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Thanks,
Jiju

[jijujacob27]

Forgot to add that Maintenance Mode and Instance Management does not handle the upgrades & restorations by itself now... The install authors will have to setup this item for now. This feature is in the pipeline and will be available in the future releases of IA subject to Product Management approval.

Thanks,

[richakamal]

"Maintenance Mode and Instance Management does not handle the upgrades & restorations by itself now". Does that mean that it is currently being used for just detection of the current installation? After the detection, what is the IA variable that is populated with the current install location? I added a execute uninstaller action but it did not help. Where do I add it? Can you provide me with a sample project.

You can ignore my second question regarding the minor upgrade. I was under the impression that since the uninstaller.properties was being asked for, the instance mgmt will uninstall the current set and then add the new ones. So wanted to know how we can do the minor upgrade. Maybe the component version would have helped in that respect. But as you mentioned that, this is not the case and installer is just looking for uninstall registry in the maintenance mode.

[jijujacob27]

Maintenance Mode by itself has a lot of uses. It can be used to

• add features to your installation
  
• remove features from your installation
  
• repair installation
  
• uninstall installation.
  

The Maintenance Mode brings the non windows world on par with MSI installations.

Instance Management, is not only used to detect instances, but also help to manage individual instances, i.e., they redirect you to maintain the instance.

Variables with Instance Management:
The Variable support for instance management will be made available with the service pack (InstallAnywhere 2010 SP1)

Variable support for Maintenance Mode
Variable support for Maintenance Mode is already available. Following variables are set
[LIST=1]

$IA_MAINTENANCE_MODE$

$IA_MAINTENANCE_OPTION$

Please consult the user guide for more details.

Note for the problem:
You need to ensure that the Create Uninstaller action in your install phase in your base project is associated with InstallAnywhere Uninstall Component. (You can also check if this association is set correctly by examining the key file for the InstallAnywhere Uninstall Component, it should be your uninstaller exe Organization > Components > InstallAnywhere Uninstall Component > key file)

In Install Phase (simplest form):
                                               C1            IA Uninstall Component
Create Uninstaller                                                X
Other files                                  X                      

Thanks,

[nikolis]

Update Your ServiceNow

1. Login into ServiceNow HI support.
2. Click the "Manage Upgrades" box.
3. Select the instance to upgrade and click schedule. Pick a Dev/Test instance so you can test the upgrade/patch before going to production.

[richakamal]

Wow. This is really nice information. I have kept a note of it.
The issue indeed was because my Create Uninstaller action was referring to Common component instead of the uninstall component.
But now I face another issue 😞
When I select the add features, it takes me to the Choose Install set panel. But all the features and next button are disabled there.
I changed the product version and a component version and also updated a file. Even then it is always coming as disabled. How do I proceed ahead with the installation now?

[jijujacob27]

Hi richakamal,

All features will be disabled on the add features, if your installation has already added all features.

Please try to remove a feature and then come back to the add screen and then you would see the removed feature listed.

Thanks,

[richakamal]

Really, but it works in IS. When you select an already existing feature, the feature gets updated. How do I then update my files during upgrade. I do not want to call repair installer option.
Does that mean that I have to then, remove feature and then add feature? Which means the customer now has to remove the feature and then add a feature for the upgrade?
How do I just update the files that have changed then? I have to do my custom coding as in IA 2009?

I want IA to identify the already installed instance, but its not populating any IA variable, as mentioned in your earlier post. Also, if I am trying to upgrade using a lower version, then instance mgr cannot identify the instance. If i have mentioned to use the subrevision, the installer should quit when a higher version instance is found. But since this is not being done currently I have to do my own version check. If I just use the installer location for the instance detection, even then I have to use my own version detection. So the instance mgmt is not really useful here too.

[sturge]

You can't use instance management to perform an upgrade install. When you select an existing installation it really runs the old install in maintenance mode and not your new install at all.

So to use it you really need to select to install a new instance and the user would have to know to select the same install folder.

To get the old values from the previous install, you can read the properties files in the old installs uninstall folder. IA has a custom code utility to read in property files. I modified it to read in only the values I'm interested in instead of excluding what I don't want.

[CinVVL]

I am getting the same issue.
"An error occured while trying to manage the selected instance."
We are using IAW 2011 SP3.
Please do the needful ASAP.