Difference between revisions of "Lotus Notes"

Revision as of 09:27, 4 September 2009

Lotus Notes 8.5.0.1 (aka 8.5 FP1)

IBM released Fix Pack 1 for Lotus Notes 8.5. Find it at IBM's Fix Central: http://www-933.ibm.com/support/fixcentral/ This Fix Pack is an incremental update for Lotus Notes 8.5 so you should keep your original 8.5 installation package and add the fix pack to it:

• Download the fix pack and start the Notes_85FP1Standard_W32.exe file on a test-pc to get the actual installation files.
  • Set the extraction path to %SOFTWARE%\LotusNotes\Lotus85FixPack1 or something alike
  • When all files are extracted, the real setup wizard will now start. Choose cancel to abort it.
• Start adapting your LotusNotes85 package XML file:
  • First add a new check, to be able to confirm if the fix pack is installed or not:

<check type="file" condition="versionequalto" path="C:\Program Files\IBM\Lotus\Notes\notes.exe" value="8.5.1.9167" />

• • Next add an install and an upgrade command after the current install and upgrade commands:

<install cmd='"%SOFTWARE%\LotusNotes\Lotus85FixPack1\setup.exe" /s /v/qn' />
<upgrade cmd='"%SOFTWARE%\LotusNotes\Lotus85FixPack1\setup.exe" /s /v/qn' />

• • The removal commands should not be changed as they still work.

Warning: It seems that Lotus Notes needs access to the UpdateSite.zip from the setup-files at first startup of the client to perform some last minute update steps. So be sure the users have read access to your WPKG software repository containing this file.

Lotus Notes 8.5.0

The installation method is exactly the same as for #Lotus Notes 8.0.x. Only does it seem to be necessary to manually uninstall the previous version during the upgrade; otherwise it fails on most workstations with the error "Some files that need to be updated are currently in use"

Use the instructions in #Lotus Notes 8.0.x to create a deployable silent installer package. And create a package xml similar to:

<package id="lotusnotes8"
	name="Lotus Notes Client 8.5.0"
	revision="8500"
	reboot="false"
	priority="0">
 
	<check type="uninstall" condition="exists" path="Lotus Notes 8.5" />
 
	<install cmd='"%SOFTWARE%\lotusnotes\Package850\setup.exe" /s' />

	<!-- first uninstall Lotus 8.0.2 -->
	<upgrade cmd='msiexec /qn /x {D671062E-44AF-4DC6-AD89-92921D1E1779}' />
	<upgrade cmd='"%SOFTWARE%\lotusnotes\Package850\setup.exe" /s' />
 
	<remove cmd='msiexec /qn /x {7482779A-D19E-48DA-9CAC-8DB51F949864}' />
</package>

Lotus Notes 8.0.x

This is a silent installer for Lotus Notes 8.0.x (tested for 8.0.1 and 8.0.2). To use this, it is necessary to prepare Lotus Notes for silent installation, which can be done either by extracting the necessary files from the CD or alternatively launch the installation, and whenever it is making first inquiries (except in some cases the inquiry of where to temporarily store the installation files), locate the "temp" directory to extract the files.

You can now use the "Installshield Tuner for Lotus Notes 7 and 8" provided by IBM (probably on the CD, and certainly trough their Passport Advantage program) to generate an .mst transform file and customize the installation. You need this to automatically accept the License, otherwise the silent install will fail:

• Start the InstallShield Tuner for Lotus Notes 7 and 8
• Choose "Create a new transform"
• Select the .MSI file from installation files in the temp directory
• Change the filename in "Windows Installer Transforms" so that it does NOT contain spaces (this because of a bug in the installation program)
• Perform any customizations you want
• Automaticaly accept the EULA:
  • Go to "Application Configuration" -> "Setup Properties"
  • Set LAPEnAgree to Yes
  • Set LAPAgree to Yes
  • Set AgreeToLicense to Yes
• At last generate the transformated installation:
  • Save the .MST file by performing File -> Save
  • Now choose menu Project -> Packaging Wizard (do not attempt to validate the install as this will fail)
  • Specify a subdirectory in your WPKG Software repository: for example: %SOFTWARE%\LotusNotes\Package802
  • Choose "Create Installation Launcher" and specify "/qn" as the "Windows Installer Command Line Arguments" to create a silent installation package.
• Now you need to edit the setup.ini file in the resulting installation directory:
  • remove all occurrences of quotes from the CmdLine= line. So CmdLine="/qn TRANSFORMS=Lotus_Notes_802.mst" becomes CmdLine=/qn TRANSFORMS=Lotus_Notes_802.mst (this is also the reason why the .mst file cannot contain spaces, because of a bug in the installer prevents using quotes in the CmdLine.

Then for the WPKG package (change the version numbers if needed):

• for install and upgrade we start setup.exe with /s for silent install
• for the removal ID check "ProductCode" in setup.ini
• IMPORTANT: If your WPKG share contains a "$" to make it a hidden share, this package will fail to install due to another bug in the installer. If that is the case in your environment, you will first need to copy the complete installation directory to the client pc before running setup.exe. This however almost doubles the installation time, which is already very long..

<package id="lotusnotes8"
	name="Lotus Notes Client 8.0.2"
	revision="8020"
	reboot="false"
	priority="0">
 
	<check type="uninstall" condition="exists" path="Lotus Notes 8.0.2" />
 
	<install cmd='"%SOFTWARE%\lotusnotes\Package802\setup.exe" /s' />
 
	<upgrade cmd='"%SOFTWARE%\lotusnotes\Package802\setup.exe" /s' />
 
	<remove cmd='msiexec /qn /x {D671062E-44AF-4DC6-AD89-92921D1E1779}' />
</package>

Lotus Notes 6.5.5

This is a silent installer for Lotus Notes 6.5.5. To use this, it is necessary to prepare Lotus Notes for silent installation, which can be done either by extracting the necessary files from the CD or alternatively launch the installation, and whenever it is making first inquiries, locate the "temp" directory to extract the files, -mainly:

0x0409.ini
Data1.cab
instmsia.exe
instmsiw.exe
Lotus Notes 6.5.5.msi
LotusNotes.itw
setup.exe
Setup.ini

<package
    id="notes655"
    name="Lotus Notes 6.5.5"
    revision="2"
    reboot="false"
    priority="0">
    <check type="uninstall" condition="exists" path="Lotus Notes 6.5.5" />
    <install cmd='msiexec /qb+ /package "%SOFTWARE%\LotusNotes\Lotus Notes 6.5.5.msi"' />
    <remove cmd='msiexec /passive /uninstall "%SOFTWARE%\LotusNotes\Lotus Notes 6.5.5.msi"' />
    <upgrade cmd='msiexec /qb+ /package "%SOFTWARE%\LotusNotes\Lotus Notes 6.5.5.msi"' />
    <upgrade cmd='%SOFTWARE%\LotusNotes\setup.exe /s/v"qb+"' />
</package>