Deployment hangs on end of install of Visual Studio 2015 on Windows 10
I have a Visual Studio 2015 Update 3 ISO from MSDN and am having issues getting it to install using PDQ.
I have a VM setup on my desktop running a fresh copy of Windows 10 just joined to the domain with the VM tools installed and ran Windows updates on it. I then ran a snapshot of and then tried deploying VS 2015. It ran it with these switches but not including the /Quite to watch fro unexpected prompts:
"\\ServerNameHere\Repository\Microsoft\Visual Studio 2015 Professional\vs_professional.exe" /NoRestart /SuppressRefreshPrompt /ProductKey LicenseKeyHere /AdminFile "\\ServerNameHere\Repository\Microsoft\Visual Studio 2015 Professional\adminfile.xml" /Quiet
It installed with no issue so then I rolled back to the snapshot and tried again except now I tried it with the /Quiet from the command line as a logged in user and it worked as well. So then I roll back and try it through PDQ deploy with the same switches and found sometimes it will install with no issues but most of the time it will start and almost finish installing but look to hang in PDQ deploy waiting to finish. I would login to the box and find I can see the install exe running in the processes list but using 0% CPU as it finished but prompted for something in the background right at the end.
Any tips on how I trouble shoot issues like there where I have no error message in PDQ but I can't jump into the session that is running the install to see why it is hung at the end of the install?
Comments
Hey Max,
I used the following parameters to install Visual Studio 2015 Update 3. The only parameter i didn't use that you did was /ProductKey since i didn't have one to try. I've uninstalled and -reinstalled 3 times. Each time it installs successfully on Windows 10.
You mentioned the install exe showing as 0% CPU. The only process i see that you may be talking about is the Windows Installer service, which is constantly calling other installs for prerequisites and shows at 0% CPU through a large portion of the install. The Windows Installer services doesn't stop after the package successfully installs, but this is normal. The install also takes some time, the average install was 15 minutes on very fast machines on a fast network, a slower network could take much longer.
Let me know if this helps at all and if you're still having the issue.
Posted this 16 days ago and ... crickets lol figures
Well just in case anyone else runs into this issue then here is what we did to get it working. A coworker did the smart thing and just skipped the "install" step and just ran it as a "command" step. Not sure why I didn't try that myself as that install step seems to cause more trouble than it is worth but that did the trick. If we ran it as an "install" it would only work when running it as "logged on user".
So to recap Visual Studio 15 on Win 10 install as "Command" not "Install" and this command worked for us:
"\\ServerName\Repository\PathToFile\vs_professional.exe" /adminfile "\\ServerName\Repository\PathToFile\AdminDeployment.xml" /quiet /norestart /ProductKey PutKeyHere
Also you may need to gen the AdminDeployment.xml file. Don't remember the command to do it but google will help ;) Just remember we had issue if we didn't have that file for deployment.
Hi Max,
Interesting. Not sure why this would succeed from the Command step. The only difference (assuming the Run As settings are the same) is that the command step runs from a cmd.exe process where as the Install step uses a Windows API to execute.Thanks for the info. We will spin this up and see if we can duplicate the behavior.
@Nate Blevins we are still having issues as we do get mixed results but I can only assume at this point we have some unique variable in our process that is causing us issues. What we witness is the install will start and appear to continue for some time and depending on the conditions it will eventually finish in 40 minuets or longing but mostly longer.
I have seen install times take about 40 minuets to hours applying to the exact same box rolled back to the exact same snapshot or install state. What will happen is somewhere around three quarters into the install it will just stall and CPU activity in general comes to a halt across all processes and just idles for some time but then by luck of the draw in some cases will continue back up or stay in a permanent comatose state. This pause will take up the bulk of the install time giving it that wide range of time to install.
I wish I had more detailed notes to give on what worked and what didn't, I should have made the effort to document each attempt and may have saved sometime but didn't. I have since then passed the task of pushing the creation of this deployment onto one of our help desk staff to see if he will have better luck than me at it and come at it from a different angle.
But combing over the Visual Studio logs all I was able to see was it just stops in the middle of an install and either picks up where it left or does not with no related error. The only reliable way I could ever get it to install was running it as a signed in user. I was able to achieve getting this to work in an automated way in PDQ by running a script that would place registry settings in the system to auto logon at boot then reboot then run the Visual Studio install as logged in user then remove the registry setting and reboot again. This worked but it is sloppy and will be a break glass in case of emergency option.
If we ever find the cause of this issue I will post it here.