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simplearc
Participant
March 18, 2014
質問

Acrobat XI Pro Install via CCP Packager for Enterprise unuseable - tips for the unitiated

  • March 18, 2014
  • 返信数 6.
  • 13095 ビュー

Well, after at least six weeks of trying to script and package Acrobat XI via the CCP packager for enterprise (Windows 7 X64) I have learnt many home truths which I thought I would share with the unitiated. This process, from the point of view of an IT admin who has to mass deploy this application to 680 PC's as part of an updated SOE has been the most painful scripting process I have ever found of any package (we successfully deploy Office, and Autodesk apps!). Not only that, but our entire State technical colleges have all purchased the same version. This will be affecting IT staff across a huge area, perhaps worldwide. Below are some some facts relating to this that I will share so others do not have to trawl the minefiled of dead-ends and confusion that is Adobe forums/official documentation. Apologies for not finding direct links to all of the below just yet but I've run out of time as we now have MANUALLY install Acrobat XI on all of these machines. When I get time I will post some of the links:

Facts:

  • Acrobat XI and Lightroom are NOT "CC" packages. Therefore they rely on a spearate serial numbers to install standalone without another major Adobe product (eg Photoshop) to be installed and then run first. Otherwise they will run in trial mode. If your organistaion is wanting to install these products I highly recommend seeing if Adobe can provide you with these.
  • Without the use of serial number for Acrobat XI this almost renders the Customisation Wizard effectively useless, none of the silent install switch will work with "Offline Exception"
  • Yes, one Adobe employee notes that you must install a major package before Acrobat but as the aoplogies for not fixing this were posted last August, we are still in the quandry of not having any useable fix except for the ridiculous "Exceptions" file and Exceptions installer.
  • If you run the Build and/or execeptions msi's it installs Acrobat twice, gold Adobe, gold.
  • http://forums.adobe.com/message/6039529#6039529 - look at this for a working script for Photoshop etc, it's great.Thanks to http://forums.adobe.com/people/PetriRiihikallio for posting this. However, alas, it cannot silently install Acrobat correctly (thus far).
  • It appears that the msi builder for CCP for enterprise is fatally flawed. I have never had as much problem with installing msi's -  ever. For example, I have had to re-package the msi multiples times and many times simply running the msi will fail.
  • The idea that all major installs have to install the 32 bit version AND the 64 bit version is riduclous, enough said.
  • http://blogs.adobe.com/acrolaw/2013/02/acrobat-xi-deployment-guide-for-large-firms/ this guide may be useful for people who have been given a separate serial number.
  • http://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/known-issues-acrobat-xi-reader.html another useful link

I think for the time being I have now wasted enough time trying to tear my hair out with this. I will be waiting for Adobe to announce Acrobat and Lightroom CC. this will enable the correct deployment of a single app without having the bloat my SOE with unnecessary applications that most staff rarely use. Ahhh, I love a good manual install via VNC/RDP, don't you?

    このトピックへの返信は締め切られました。

    返信数 6

    M
    Marist-Sion College
    Participating Frequently
    November 19, 2014

    Hi,

    We're seeing 1603 errors when installing the main suite, has anyone seen and got a solution to this. Sound like CC is a real nightmare to deploy.

    Ben

      Ric5
      Ric5
      Inspiring
      November 19, 2014

      Ben,

      I believe this was one of the errors I was getting when I tried working with an Acrobat-only installer built with the CCP (but not sure, that afternoon has become something of a blur). This is the Adobe helpx article on the error: http://helpx.adobe.com/creative-suite/kb/error-1603-install-cs3-cs4.html (which you may have already found). There's also some good troubleshooting tips here: http://www.itninja.com/question/error-1603-deploying-adobe-packages

      The second link goes to a forum for our deployment tool (KACE/KBOX), but you can often find some good tips for deploy scripting and troubleshooting.

      Hope this helps,

      Ric

      K
      Kamofy01
      Participant
      October 28, 2014

      Simplearc, I just want to clarify that Acrobat does not install twice on your system even though it is listed twice in Programs and Features. If it being listed twice bothers you, as it did me, all you need to do is delete the reg key from the following hive:

      reg delete "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{23D3F585-AE29-4670-8E3E-64A0EFB29240}" /f /reg:32

      For some reason Adobe makes two entries in the registry. One in the 64-bit and the other in 32-bit. Deleting the 32-bit key gets rid of the duplicate listing and does not effect the functionality of the app in any way from what I can tell.

      Ric5
      Ric5
      Inspiring
      October 29, 2014

      At the risk of being over-simplistic, wouldn't the Acrobat Customization Wizard work better for you folks? We're kind of forced into going that route because we have Acro Pro covered under a separate enterprise license (and a whole lot more of them purchased than CC licenses). It generates an mst file with licensing and configuration preferences, optinally surpressing EULA and registration requests, as well as configuring virtually every option the program has.

      It still took me a good part of an afternoon to figure out how to build and deploy Lightroom updates. But that's a totally different story.

      M
      mtarggart
      Participant
      November 18, 2014

      I've been working at this for several hours (going on seven) and if I am correct, the "ExceptionDeployer --workflow=install --mode=pre" command is the same as deploying the AcroPro.msi in the Exceptions/AcrobatProfessional11.0-mul folder. I tested this by manually installing each way and both have the same end result. The difference is that you can then use the Adobe Customization Wizard XI to customize the AcroPro.msi file to create a Transform. The .msi file in the Build folder still needs to be ran afterwards in order to license the application. If you are only deploying Acrobat Pro, there is no need to run the "ExceptionDeployer --workflow=install --mode=post" command. In fact, when I manually installed Acrobat using the ExceptionDeployer method, I tried to run it again using the --mode=post switch. It started and stopped almost immediately with a return code of 0. So I'm not sure if it is even needed at all or if it is like mentioned above and is supposedly merely another way to install the .msi created from CCP.

      When deploying Acrobat X with CS6, it was the same way; deploy the AcroPro.msi file first, then the customized.msi file created with AMMEE.

      I do agree with everyone else with Adobe needing to make it easier to deploy this. I'm not sure who thought coming up with a different way was a better way to go. It was already too complicated as it is. I'll update this post should anything change with this method. We've got CS6 installed on over 10,000 computers, so figuring out the best way to remove that and install CC is the next hurdle.

      X
      xcvergxfg
      Participating Frequently
      October 10, 2014

      Hi all.

      This is pretty ugly but really, not as ugly as an unimportant application like QuickTime or iTunes.

      Anyway, I seem to have this working after creating a build only containing Acrobat XI Pro using Creative Cloud Packager, the serial number for licensing seems to work because on launch it's not giving me an option to register, instead there's a "Deactivate..." option (which is grayed out).

      What I've had to do is:

      1. ExceptionDeployer --workflow=install --mode=pre --installLanguage=en_US
      2. Run the setup.exe

      Running only the pre mode installs Acrobat Pro however I get the message on launch:

      "Adobe Application Manager, required to verify your license, is missing or damaged."

      Same thing happens when I run pre and post mode, first launch behaviour is exactly the same.

      My only requirement now is to make sure I can disable the AcroTray on startup and delete the Acrobat and FormsCentral icons on desktop.

      Edit: I still refuse to finalise this deployment because I can't seem to apply my Adobe Customization Wizard deployment, will continue to search and work on it.

      Edit #2: Ignore what I said. I just used this guide and it seems to work. I had to create a small post install script to disable the Adobe auto updater that gets created for startup which isn't configurable in the Customization wizard.

      Creative Cloud Help | Deploying Adobe Acrobat

      X
      xcvergxfg
      Participating Frequently
      November 26, 2014

      This is doing my head in. I am trying to supersede Acrobat X Standard and Pro using my new XI Professional deployment. Tested on 1 VM repeatedly, both if the VM had Acrobat Standard and Pro, works good. Tested on a physical prod box, works fine. I deploy to 210 computers, mix of Standard and Pro, it works only half the time. I remote in to one PC and disable acrotray.exe, deploys OK. Sometimes it actually installed, but SCCM client detection method fails initially. When refresh happens, it comes good and finally detects detection method. ARGGGHH!!!!

      PetriRiihikallio
      PetriRiihikallio
      Known Participant
      September 5, 2014

      This seems to be the best forum to share experiences with CCP.

      Are you guys familiar with this: Creative Cloud Help | Installing products in the Exceptions folder

      The doc is not dated nor does it refer to any exact version number. The way I read it is that you are supposed to install Muse and Lightroom using MSIExec and not XDA (the Exceptions Deployer), see section "If you are installing Adobe Muse or Adobe Lightroom". However, in my experience MSIExec won't install those MSIs because they are in wrong format. The XDA will install them happily and they seem to work fine. Is it just me or how are you installing them? There is no reasoning for this instruction.

      I am still working on updating my script to the new "enhancements" to the installation process... Don't hold your breaths!

      D
      damienhealy
      Participant
      October 16, 2014

      Petr, did you manage to design a script in the end?

      PetriRiihikallio
      PetriRiihikallio
      Known Participant
      December 27, 2014

      I have now published my updated script at Re: Automating installation of CCP packages for Windows

      Please click Like or rate the post so the Search will promote it for others to find.

      S
      simplearc作成者
      Participant
      April 2, 2014

      Hi Waltpenner and others, yes it can be very confusing and writing script after script got me even more confused.

      Now, the story continues, after 6+ hours on the phone with Adobe Support...

      • When you install Adobe Acrobat XI it asks you to install the C++ Redistributable package and this is where the msi will STOP INSTALLING. even though the MSI says "complete"
      • Now you think to yourself, OK, I'll write a script to install this msi package no problems, solved.
      • Nope, the msi for Acrobat Pro XI will Still Halt even if you write this into the script along with halt no err or something similar in your code.
      • So what do you do?
      • When you create your msi in Cloud Packager, even though this feels completely against your better judgement tick the box under conflicting Process entitled "Ignore Conflicts and Continue installations" This will (finally) allow you to run the msi. Please see the wonderful deployment script above, which you may still need to edit to your needs (I did) - which I post once it's working perfectly.
      • You could then install the C++ redist from Microsoft at a later date ----> On that note however (thanks Microsoft for this gem) the Visual C++ redist is an msi for download, but it's actually a zip file calling an exe inside it. I suggest using the App Deploy Repackager  to help you change registry entries if you need to install this, but choose your favourite tool (and no I'm not talking about that work colleague you don't like
      • Note: You will need to install this for certain features of Acro Pro XI to function, most of which relates to sever functions of Acrobat. I will post the exact reasons when I find them. Under pressure to get this deployed, I have not deployed this pckage as yet. Also, I'm unsure how Visual C++ will affect other major apps across my enterprise just yet.

      Things to still consider

      • Acrobat still installs twice in the program directory (1.7GB nd 1.8GB respectively)
      • As all of the other CC packages are quite easy to install, Adobe needs to provide better service to it's enterprise customers by creating a proper version of Acrobat and Lightroom which is Acrobat CC and Lightroom CC, not version numbers tacked onto their new Cloud Service.
      • As for the above point I would still recommend creating the smallest msi packages you can, as large msi's that install a number of Apps (eg all of the web/image editing apps) take forever and quite often exhibit install errors
      • The amount of time I've spent on this is ridiculous, and we've had to package everything from Office to Autocad.
      • The amount of bandwidth I've chewed up is excessive, with package re-creation (download) of all the products probably about 100GB - however the ability to edit these packages with updates with the CCP is a good step forward.
      • Using the CCP through a proxy is horrendous, and complicated with the amount of exception through the servers you have to prvide (even then it rarely works).
      • The MSI packager still needs quite alot of work. As Petri states why he had to write a script like this when Adobe could have done the same thing is beyond him.
      • Adobe needs to trawl it's forum posts and take out the many false leads and dead ends provided by it's experts.

      When I Think of anything else, or wite more scipts I'll let you all know.

      Cheers,

        S
        ShawnF5
        Participant
        April 8, 2014

        Thanks simplearc for posting this. Those of us who are having issues appreciate it.

        I am using creative cloud for teams and am experiencing the same issues.

        I'm trying to install Acrobat CC on 20 machines.

        I create an Acrobat Creative Cloud package with the Creative Cloud Packager.

        It downloads Acrobat and creates the package.

        I run the Exceptions deployer with the command:

        "ExceptionDeployer.exe --workflow=install --mode=pre --installLanguage=en_US"

        Acrobat installs successfully but guess what, it doesn't work, saying that, "Adobe Application Manager, required to verify your license, is missing or damaged."

        So i then run the Acrobat.msi file from the Build folder with this command:

        msiexec /i "Acrobat.msi" /Lime cclog.txt

        The log file ends with this line:

        Action start 12:01:37: InstallFinalize.

        I dont see any Creative Cloud and and there are stil 3 msiexec's waiting in the task manager.

        I eventually have to just end task on two of them and automagically windows explorer restarts and i see creative cloud.

        I see two Adobe Acrobat XI Pro's in the Control Panel, which is idiodic that Adobe would be ok with this.

        I'm going to try some of things that you have suggested.

        Thanks,

        Shawn

        A
        AndrewParry@LJMU
        Participant
        September 1, 2014

        The VC++ Redist is listed in some prerequisite doc. I don't install it myself, because it is included in our base Windows installation. My job is to cater for the Adobe installs (a headache in itself). Can't help you there.

        Yes, you have the correct order, but you don't install Acrobat using MSIExec. The ExceptionDeployer installs Acrobat in the pre-pass. If you are only installing Acrobat, you won't need the Build directory at all (AFAIK). Just run ExceptionDeployer twice: first in pre mode and then in post mode. The post mode will install help and some other stuff (IIRC).

        You can use my script at http://forums.adobe.com/message/6039529 It doesn't hurt to run MSIExec in Build for an Acrobat only installation. That's how we use it continuously.

        My current headache with the script is that nowadays Acrobat, Muse and LightRoom need to be activated with adobe_prtk to suppress registration and eula. I just looked at it last week, but can't really work on it before next week. This week is too busy. I'll update my script when I am done. Oh, why can't Adobe just create an installer for us?


        Hi ,

        Do you have a link to the reference aricle for this prereq ?

        So if your installing Acrobat on its own you just need to run an exception deployer pre to install it and then run it post again. Without an MSI line inbetween? Again do you have a reference article for this?

        What I wrote is working post build via SCCM and also as an install on demand but it isnt working during our build phase.

        We have all other packages working post build via SCCM and in our build...including Muse and Lightroom...I found an article which discusses the adobe_prtk.exe and using it to remove the EULA information and the sign in stuff.  Here it is

        Creative Cloud Help | Installing products in the Exceptions folder

        So we have a script for all packages that

        Runs Pre exceptiondeployer

        runs MSI

        runs Post exceptiondeployer

        and then runs the following commands:

        adobe_prtk.exe --tool=EULA --leid=V7{}Muse-80-Win-GM --eulasuppress
        adobe_prtk.exe --tool=EULA --leid=V7{}Lightroom-55-Win-GM --eulasuppress

        adobe_prtk.exe --tool=Register --leid=V7{}Muse-80-Win-GM --regsuppress=ss
        adobe_prtk.exe --tool=Register --leid=V7{}Lightroom-55-Win-GM --regsuppress=ss

        Hope this helps,

        Andy

        W
        waltpenner
        Participant
        April 1, 2014

        Thanks. I thought i was crazy until I ran across this post.

        Exceptions installer is kinda of wonky when all we really want is an msi and mst .

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