Agent Third-Party Deployment: Customizing the Windows Installer Command Line

IT Asset Management (Cloud)

You can customize the Windows Installer in the usual ways.

The two paths for configuring your installation of the FlexNet Inventory Agent are:

• Configuring the mgssetup.ini file (for which see Agent Third-Party Deployment: Edit the Configuration File for Microsoft Windows)
• Modifying the MSI installation, covered in this topic. This entire process is optional, for advanced use by those who have transforms planned.

You downloaded the installer archive in Agent Third-Party Deployment: Collecting the Software, saving it to a convenient directory. Return to that location now.

To customize the Windows Installer command line:

1. Unzip the downloaded archive (named like managesoft-MM.N.B.zip, where the placeholders represent release numbering).
   The MSI file for the FlexNet Inventory Agent is called FlexNet Inventory Agent.msi. You can customize the installation, for example, by installing or preventing installation of particular components, or by applying transforms. To do this, you can edit the Windows Installer command line, stored in the Setup.ini file that is in the same folder as the MSI. (Alternatively, you may prefer to run the Windows Installer from the command line.)
2. In the unzipped archive, open Setup.ini in the flat text editor of your choice.
3. Locate the following section, and amend the command line as required:

   [Startup]
   CmdLine=/l*v "%TEMP%\FlexNet Inventory Agent.msi.log"

   For example:

   • To apply a transform, append TRANSFORMS="custom.mst" to the end of the command line.

     Use semicolons (;) to separate multiple transforms. For example, to apply custom1.mst and custom2.mst for both initial installs and upgrades, the addition would look like: TRANSFORMS="custom1.mst;custom2.mst"

   • Add or remove any other Windows Installer command line options.
     For example, to prevent installation of the application usage agent on computers being brought under management, add REMOVE=aua to the end of the CmdLine:

     [Startup]
     CmdLine=/l*v "%TEMP%\FlexNet Inventory Agent.msi.log" REMOVE=aua

4. Save the modified Setup.ini file.

When you have completed modifications to the configuration file and to the command line of the installer, you can use your preferred deployment tool(s) to pack, validate, and deploy the installation package. See the following deployment notes.