Using the SETUP.EXE to install the ZfD4 Workstation Agent

(Last modified: 07Feb2005)

This document (10078667) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

goal

symptom

Cannot uninstall workstation agent - 1603

Cannot install the MSI patch for the agent on win98se workstations

Cannot install the SETUP.EXE agent as a non-Administrator

fact

Novell ZENworks for Desktops 4 - ZFD4

Microsoft Windows 98SE

Microsoft Windows NT 4.0

Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional

Microsoft Windows XP Professional

fix

The version of the Desktop Management Agents version that shipped with ZENworks for Desktops 4 (setup.exe) is no longer supported. Novell recommends that you use the MSI form of the agent if you are going to deploy the ZENworks for Desktops 4 workstation agent. Explanation:

The shipping ZfD4 agent on the Program CD is in the Agent Install directory as SETUP.EXE. However, the MSI version of this same agent was made available soon after ZfD4's release and has been replaced by the updated Agent found at this Product Updates site. By using the MSI version of the agent, you can avoid a few potential issues that the SETUP.EXE introduces. These issues and their workarounds (in case you have already deployed the agent via SETUP.EXE) are explained below:

1. The patch mechanism that will be used to patch the ZfD4 agent will be in MSI format (and can be found at this Product Updates site). If you try to install one of these MSI patch files on a Windows 98SE manually, the install will fail with an error that says you have to run this MSI with the associated setup.exe. The workaround to this issue is to install the ZfD4SP1 MSI patch file (when it becomes available) in silent mode (as you would normally do anyways in a production rollout), and then this error will not appear.

2. It has been reported that when the agent is installed via the SETUP.EXE that an uninstall of the agent will randomly fail with 1603 MSI errors. This issue has been discovered and should not be present if the agent was deployed via the MSI form originally. However, if you have deployed the SETUP.EXE version of the agent and then if an uninstall of the ZfD4 agent (using the Add/Remove Programs Control Panel) is attempted, you might experience this issue. The workaround for this issue is to do the following: Prior to patching the agent using the MSI patch, delete the string value "InstallPath" in HKLM\Software\Novell\ZENworks. So, the NAL application used to patch the agent should first delete this registry value. This issue is documented in TID 10077416

3. Installing the SETUP.EXE was not possible in some environments where the users were non-Administrators. This is because the SETUP.EXE (from InstallShield) required elevated privileges and the embedded MSI also required administrative privileges. The workaround for this issue is to simply use the MSI version of the agent. This will still require Administrative privileges, but it is much more feasible to elevate the MSI than it is to elevate the SETUP.EXE and it's embedded MSI. This issue is documented in TID 10073212.

document

Document Title:	Using the SETUP.EXE to install the ZfD4 Workstation Agent
Document ID:	10078667
Solution ID:	NOVL85713
Creation Date:	11Jan2003
Modified Date:	07Feb2005
Novell Product Class:	Management Products

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