{"id":2046,"date":"2016-08-04T00:22:23","date_gmt":"2016-08-04T00:22:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leinss.com\/blog\/?p=2046"},"modified":"2016-08-04T00:22:23","modified_gmt":"2016-08-04T00:22:23","slug":"deploy-infor-xa-client-with-powershell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leinss.com\/blog\/?p=2046","title":{"rendered":"Deploy Infor XA Client with PowerShell"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here was a fun installer to get working silently. \u00a0This one uses something called InstallAnywhere. \u00a0It is a java based installer and if you Google InstallAnywhere silent<\/em>, you will happen upon several command line options. \u00a0The correct set for this version of the installer (2009 version<\/em>)\u00a0can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here’s the command to install it silently:<\/p>\n

xaclient_Hgenas400_P36001.exe -i silent<\/code><\/p>\n

We can also record settings into a file and play those back. \u00a0To record:<\/p>\n

xaclient_Hgenas400_P36001.exe -r C:\\temp\\powerlink.properties<\/code><\/p>\n

Finally, we end up with this to install silently:<\/p>\n

xaclient_Hgenas400_P36001.exe -i silent -f powerlink.properties<\/code><\/p>\n

The installer launches the program at the end: I didn’t see any settings to turn that off.<\/p>\n

The PowerShell code starts off pretty boring:<\/p>\n

$p = start-process .\\xaclient_Hgenas400_P36001.exe -ArgumentList '-i silent -f powerlink.properties' -Wait -Passthru
\nicacls *.lnk \/grant:r everyone:RX
\ncopy-item *.lnk -Destination C:\\users\\public\\desktop<\/code><\/p>\n

We kick off the installer, tell PowerShell to wait for the process to end and return an object (-Passthru), grant Everyone read and execute rights to the icon and then copy that icon to the the system shared desktop.<\/p>\n

If you execute this code, however, the PowerShell script never progresses. This is because the installer runs the full program as a child process from the installer\u00a0and until the\u00a0program is closed, it waits for the installer’s termination forever.<\/p>\n

The program is Java based and executes two processes:\u00a0Infor XA Power-Link and javaw. \u00a0We can create a loop waiting for these two processes, then kill them:<\/p>\n

Do {<\/code><\/p>\n

$status = Get-Process -Name \"Infor XA Power-link\" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
\n<\/code>
\nIf (!($status)) {
\nWrite-Host 'Waiting for process to start' ;
\nStart-Sleep -Seconds 2
\n}<\/code><\/p>\n

Else { Write-Host 'Process has started' ;
\n$started = $true
\nStop-Process -name \"Infor XA Power-Link\"
\nStop-Process -name javaw
\n}<\/code><\/p>\n

}
\nUntil ( $started )<\/code><\/p>\n

I picked 2 seconds\u00a0to keep checking the process list and not hammer the CPU. \u00a0So obviously for this to work, we need to remove the -Wait and -Passthru options from Start-Process, but then how do we check if the program installed OK? \u00a0We can check if the program executable exists and then return the proper exit code:<\/p>\n

if (Test-Path('C:\\infor\\ERP XA Client\\Infor XA Power-Link.exe')) {
\n$LASTEXITCODE = 0
\nexit 0
\n} #end if<\/code><\/p>\n

else {
\n$LASTEXITCODE = 1
\nexit 1
\n} #end else<\/code><\/p>\n

Anything other than exit code 0 is usually a failure (MSIs usually return\u00a0exit code\u00a03010 to indicate a reboot<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Using the exit command with a specific number seems to pass the exit code properly back to SCCM. \u00a0Based on my Google-fu: it’s then best to wrap your PowerShell script in a batch file and then fire that from SCCM to get the exit code of any non-native command ran from within a PowerShell script:<\/p>\n

powershell -executionpolicy bypass -file .\\install_powerlink.ps1
\necho %errorlevel%
\nexit \/b %errorlevel%<\/code><\/p>\n