Cannot get Installshield to work via TFS - Error -7159 The product license...

[Andrew_Ch]

I am attempting to use InstallShield Spring 2012 through Team Foundation Server (TFS). So far all attempts have been unsuccessful.

First we installed InstallShield on the TFS build machine and set up the license server details. (We used the "Test Connection" facility and that confirmed that we had entered the correct details). InstallShield ran up as expected.

To get InstallSheild to run as part of a build we added a Batch Script TFS build step. The batch script had a line as follows:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\InstallShield\2012Spring\System\ISCmdBld.exe" -p ".\Installers\IAMT Release\IAMT Release.ism"

When we run the TFS build we got the message:

ISDEV : fatal error -7159: The product license has expired or has not yet been initialized.

Our suspicion is that the license server details are being set on a per user basis and that the account used for TFS builds is different from the account used to set the license server details. I have searched for a way to set the license server details for all accounts on a machine, but to no avail. Our next approach to solve this problem was to create a ".ini" file to specify the license server details. We tried a file named Server.ini with the contents as follows:

[FlexNet Publisher Server]
Server=27000@xx.xx.x.xxx

(Where xx.xx.x.xxx is the IP address of the license server.) We also modified the command line to use this ".ini" file, as follows:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\InstallShield\2012Spring\System\ISCmdBld.exe" -p ".\Installers\IAMT Release\IAMT Release.ism" -i "%BUILD_SOURCESDIRECTORY%\Scripts\Server.ini"

We know that the location of the Server.ini file is correct. Unfortunately, we are still getting the same error message. The account used for the TFS build is "Network Services" (which I understand is the default for TFS).

We would be very grateful for any help offered. We have had a number of people spending a lot of time on this, and we are running out of good ideas!

Thanks in advance,
Andrew Ch.

[barbara_winkler]

I'm having the same problem with InstallShield Limited Edition and Visual Studio 2015 run by a build server.

In my case, the build server (here CruiseControl.Net) runs as a special domain user. A serial number was entered when logged in as that special user, and was accepted. InstallShield works when that domain user runs the build from the command line. Only when the build is run by the build server, as a service, in the background, that it fails with the message "error : -7159: The product license has expired or has not yet been initialized."

[JoeBNdF]

barbara.winkler-wolff wrote:
I'm having the same problem with InstallShield Limited Edition and Visual Studio 2015 run by a build server.

In my case, the build server (here CruiseControl.Net) runs as a special domain user. A serial number was entered when logged in as that special user, and was accepted. InstallShield works when that domain user runs the build from the command line. Only when the build is run by the build server, as a service, in the background, that it fails with the message "error : -7159: The product license has expired or has not yet been initialized."

Same Problem here.
When being locally on the agent with the build agents domain user command line builds or even builds in VS2015 work fine. As soon as the build is prompted by TFS things go astray.

Is there any knowledge on the subject? It has been around for a while now.

[chad_petersen]

Just an idea - if you can - maybe try setting the service on the build server to run under the credentials of the domain user under which you licensed InstallShield?

Maybe you are already trying that. Just a hunch.

Chad

[bestellen]

It has been around for a while now.

[chad_petersen]

There is no longer any support for InstallShield 2012, 2012 Spring and very, very soon 6/4/2017 - no more support for 2013.

So, even if this does reproduce for everyone - all Flexera is going to say is "try with a newer version" - 2016 SP2 is available and the latest as of right now.

Chad

[chad_petersen]

Here's the end-of-life announcements information in case anyone is interested in keeping up.

https://www.flexerasoftware.com/producer/support/additional-support/end-of-life/installshield.html

Chad