Creating a GP 2010 installation package

One of the methods I use to make upgrades and new installs more efficient is creating an installation package.  By pre-selecting the products to install, the location of the modified forms and reports dictionaries, and the location of the letter wizard templates and OLE Notes, I can be certain that all of the workstation installs will be the same.  This also saves a lot of time when a user gets a new machine down the road, since I don’t have to remember to select Fixed Assets and Smartlist Builder, or update the dynamics.set and dex.ini files with the correct paths. 

1.  To create the installation package you begin by running setup.exe from the installation media.  If there are prerequisites that need to be installed, you will be notified and they will be updated, then you are presented with the install menu.  Choose Create Installation Package from menu.

2.  Enter a path for the install package – this is where the install package will be created, which you can move at any time after the package has been created.

3.  Choose the correct County/Region

4. Select the feature you want to have installed on every machine installed with the installation package – you won’t be prompted to change these when to run the package, so try to get everything you need selected here.  If you miss something you can always add it through the add/remove programs option in the control panel on the workstation.  Set the Install location to the path where you want GP installed on every machine.  If you’re creating the installation package on a 64-bit machine and you will be installing on 32-bit machines, be sure to remove the (x86) from path. 

5. Enter the name of the SQL Server instance where GP is installed.  A new ODBC data source will be created on the client machines for you, or you can skip that option by marking the box. 

6. Set the path for any modified reports or forms dictionaries.  This will be the path used in the dynamics.set file for the forms and reports dictionaries of all products installed.  It will also update the ReportDictionaryPath and FormDictionaryPath values in the dex.ini file so that any products that are installed later will also use this path.  If you leave the paths set to the Installation Folder option, the path will be set to the default location of the Data subdirectory of the install location folder, which by default is C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics\GP\Data\.

7. Set the path for the OLE Notes and letters locations.  This path sets the Letters Directory and OLEPath values in the dex.ini file. 

8. Click on the Install button to begin building the install package. 

9.  When the package is complete, choose Exit and you’re ready to use the package on your workstations. 

**Additional Installation Package Tip - If creating the installation package fails immediately with the message, “The installation has failed”, copy the folder with your GP 2010 installation media in it to your C drive and creating the installation package again.  This has been confirmed as a bug. 

Comments

[Creating a GP 2010 installatio]

[...] Nifong has a nice look at Creating a GP 2010 installation package. Published: Tuesday, June 29, 2010, 12:30 [...]

[David Musgrave]

Hi Andy

We have some more details on the "The installation has failed" issue.

You don't need to copy the DVD to a local drive. Just make sure there are no spaces in the path it resides in.

It can be a network drive (using letter or UNC) or a local extra drive (internal or external).

David

[andy]

Thanks for the follow-up, David. I'll give that a try, as that's an easy enough workaround. Again, thanks for the info.

Andy

[Kris]

So glad I found this. Worked like a charm for the failed error. Great Resource! Thanks for the help!!

[andy]

Kris - glad you found it useful!

[Bruce Moreno]

Andy, After searching Dynamics Customer Source for what seemed like forever to resolve the 'Installation has Failed' message, I found your site via Google. Reading David's reply about the space in the directory name was the 'silver bullet' I needed to move on with the installation of my test clients for GP 2010. Much thanks!

[GP 2010 SP1 Installation Packa]

[...] 2010 SP1 Installation Package doesn’t apply SP1 Here’s an update to my previous post, as the GP 2010 installation media has been updated to include SP1 for GP 2010.  Installing GP [...]

[Jordon Rewa]

Problem i'm facing with the deployment is even with a silent installer created with the GP installer it does not silently install the pre components needed to actually install GP2010, such as:

Dexterity shared components 11
Microsoft application error reporting 11.0
Micrososft SQL server native client 10.0
Open XML SDK 2.0 for MS office

Anyone have a idea how to silent install these applications prior to running the GP installer. Without this figured out the GP unattended installer is really useless as it prompts you to install the applications above.

[Jordon Rewa]

I ended up writting a batch file and used MSIEXEC command lines to install them silently.

Everything works like a charm except occasionally Dexterity Shared Components 11.0 fails to install even thou no errors come up. I only know this due to when i run the GP2010 MSI it says it is not installed :(

Any ideas?

[Jeremy Lynch]

I'm having the same problem with the last two products, error reporting and shared components. The msiexec silent install seems to work as it always does, but then GP setup still pops up and asks to install them. DexCmn is in Add/Remove programs and DrWatson has created it's directory/files under ProgFiles\common files\microsoft shared\DW, so they're both definitely successful.

I'm wondering if there's a routine that registers those particular components that doesn't fire when we're using the silent method? Rebooting post-installation doesn't seem to help the GP installer recognise them either.

The GP Install package also leaves a prompt on screen saying that installation is successful, which stops the next set of packages from firing until someone hits the Exit button, anyone know how to get around that?

I've been working with GP since version 7 and being able to silently install it has always been something I've never quite been able to achieve, we're a major step in the right direction now though =)

[John O]

I am having the same issue as Jeremy above. I am unable to get Application Error Reporting to install by using a batch command or even by just clicking on the msi.