Installing build 308 on terminal servers

[Seeker45]

Hi,

our sysadmin has installed build 308 on one of our terminal servers. The activation went fine for his account. However, no other user has his/her licence activated. How do we activate the license for all users on a terminal server? Is there an easy way to activate the license for all users on all of our terminal servers? Thank you.

Cheers
Ralf

[Paul - Tracker Supp]

Hi Ralph,

thanks for the post. Much will depend on what version of Windows your Terminal Server is running on. If it is 2008 R2 or later then it should be a s simple as changing the values in HKLM and they should propagate to users. Prior to 2008 R2 this did not happen and the process will be different.

Can you tell me what Windows release this is running on?

regards

[Seeker45]

Hi Paul,

we are running 2008 R2. A method on how to rollout the 308 build to all terminal servers and having it activated for all users (i.e., those in the Active Directory of the servers) would be preferred. However, if this rollout is not supported, a method for installation on one terminal server and having it activated for all users there would work for us as well. Thanks.

CFheers
Ralf

[Paul - Tracker Supp]

Hi again Ralf,

I understand that there was a previous version of the Editor on there before he moved to 308? Right? Was change user /install and change user /execute used before/after the upgrade?

It should have been available for all users if so. I will run a test here today on an upgrade for all users on a 2008 R2 TS. Can you advise from what build the upgrade was done?

regards

[Seeker45]

Hi Paul,

Since the sysadmins install software every now and then, I am sure that they used the "install" and "execute" steps.

The build we upgraded from was 307.2, i.e., the latest build before 308.

Thanks.

Cheers
Ralf

[Seeker45]

Hi Paul,

any results yet? We are not in a hurry with the upgrade, but we would like to get this done in the near future. Thank you.

Cheers
Ralf

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi Ralf,

Paul was away yesterday, but he should be in later today. I will pass this along for his comment, when he's in.

Cheers,

[Seeker45]

Hi.

just checking: Any suggestions on how to go about the installation? Thanks.

Cheers
Ralf

[Paul - Tracker Supp]

Hi Ralf,

I can do a test using a generic license but it would be better to test using your old and new licenses to ensure that you can get the same result. Please don't post it here, but of you can email me at support@pdf-xchange.com with the license details I will run the test with both your old and new keys.

I did do a test generically and didn't see an issue. If I test with your license it will be more easily reproduced at your end.

regards

[Seeker45]

Hi Paul,

I sent the xcvault-file to you.

Please keep in mind, that there was no issue to install the new license on ONE terminal server for ONE user. However, we need a process that installs the licence for ALL users in one shot, preferably even across all terminal servers. Thank you.

Cheers
Ralf

[Paul - Tracker Supp]

Hi Ralf,

thanks for the key file. I ran an installation of 307.2 on a W2\k8R2 Terminal Server installing both the Editor and then Lite. I installed the Editor using PDFXVE3.x64.msi and the Lite driver using PDFX5SA_LE_307.exe as there is not an MSI for that yet. This was using the command line switch change user /install before and change user /execute after doing both installations. The installation went as expected, all users getting a licensed Editor and Lite Printer.

I then updated first the Editor using the following command line:

Code: Select all

C:\Windows\system32>msiexec /i C:\Users\Public\Documents\PDFXVE5.x64.msi KEYFILE
="C:\Users\Public\Documents\Personal.xcvault" /qb

and I ran the installer for the current build of Lite (admittedly through the GUI not a command line but this shouldn't make a difference.) Once again change user /install was used before the upgrades and change user /execute after both installs were complete.

For me it populated the license for both the Editor and Lite with the new key. Having run the Editor first and confirmed the key was present for other users, I ran the Lite installer and used the "Free Version" option. After the installation, because the vault file had been applied to the Editor and is also valid for the Lite printer, it was simply available as licensed for all users.

This how it is expected to work. If you are seeing something different we need to determine why. We can either have you log in the install, for the MSI use /lv!*x to log the installation, or we can do a remote session. To log the install for example:

Code: Select all

C:\Windows\system32>msiexec /i C:\Users\Public\Documents\PDFXVE5.x64.msi KEYFILE
="C:\Users\Public\Documents\Personal.xcvault" /qb /lv!*x c:\WriteableFolder\PDFXCPro_x64.msi.log

If you prefer us to take a look remotely we should use TeamViewer. For a remote session we should not use RDP to your Terminal Server because the Microsoft guidelines say that there should be no RDP sessions active during install. This must be done through the "Console" and we can use TeamViewer for that. Take a look here for details on using TeamViewer.
https://www.pdf-xchange.com/knowled ... e-an-issue

We'll need the signed indemnity form and TeamViewer credentials to proceed. One nice thing about TeamViewer, especially on a Terminal Server is that it can be run as a simple executable without installing it.

Let me know what you want to do here.

regards

[Seeker45]

Hi Paul,

our admin has proceeded as proposed by you:

Code: Select all

change user /install
C:\Windows\system32\msiexec.exe /i U:\PDF-XChange\PDFXVE5.x64.msi KEYFILE=U:\PDF-XChange\Personal.xcvault /qb
change user /execute

The install works fine, but when starting PDF-XChange Editor, each user is asked to update his license, please see the attached screenshot.

In a second run, our sysadmin enabled logging, and it seems that everthing should be fine with the keyfile:

MSI (s) (00:58) [18:16:40:294]: PROPERTY CHANGE: Adding KEYFILE property. Its value is 'U:\PDF-XChange\Personal.xcvault'.

I would strongly prefer that not every user on this terminal server has to "upgrade" tomorrow morning, so please advise how we can fix that license issue quickly. (Manual fix will be fine.)

Thank you.

Cheers
Ralf

[Paul - Tracker Supp]

Hi Ralph,

can you send me the log file please? I will know more when I see the log file, something that comes up for me here is the path to the vault file appears to be a mapped drive. Is that the case? It should work, though I've heard some users say they cannot get it going from a share. You could try this install again with the vault file on a local drive rather than the share.

We really will need the log.

please and thanks.

[Paul - Tracker Supp]

Thanks for the log Ralph,

we have found from the logs that the issue does look like the mapped drive. The problem is that when you run the installer it is not actually running as the same user whom started the install. This is what the UAC does, it elevates the permissions to ones suitable for installing. While this is great for most things, the downside is that since it's a mapped drive it's mapped for the user logged in but not the elevated user that runs the install.

The fix is simple, either put the vault file in a local location or make that share not require credentials and use the full UNC path.

hth

[Seeker45]

Hi Paul,

while this is strange behaviour (why not just copy the context of the xcvault-file into the registry to ensure it is available everywhere), I can confirm that moving the xcvault-file to a local drive has resolved this problem. None of the users on that particular terminal server has been prompted with the need to update the license. Thank you.

Cheers
Ralf

[Paul - Tracker Supp]

Hi Ralf,

I'm pleased that this is working. Just for clarification:

why not just copy the context of the xcvault-file into the registry to ensure it is available everywhere

we cannot copy the values into the HKCU hive, only the HKLM one during the install. So we do copy the serial to the registry and from there when a user logs in if the serial is not present in HKCU the software will look to HKLM and copy it to HKCU. The issue is that with the network share for the key it is simply not available to copy into HKLM in the first place because the installer has no rights to read the share.

It might be possible, in theory, to map the drive for the elevated user that is used during the install, though I would need to do some research on how that may be achieved, in which case using a mapped drive would work. If the vault file was on a share that had read permissions for any user then the installer again would have access to it and would put it in the registry to be available for all users. That would of course be a bad practice, making the licensing available to anyone...

hth