TV 14 Mass Deployment

Hello,

I'm having some difficulty deploying Teamviewer Host module via Group Policy. I'm trying to follow along with the post that was created about "Deployment via GPO for TeamViewer Host (v13.2+) / Full (v14+)." Link: https://community.teamviewer.com/t5/Knowledge-Base/Deployment-via-GPO-for-TeamViewer-Host-v13-2-Full-v14/ta-p/49088 I'm confused with the part about entering the correct parameters using Orca. I'm not exactly sure where and how I should be entering these parameters. I go to the "property" table and then I see "securecustomproperties" and "msihiddenproperties". Which ones should I fill? How should they look? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

-Gerken

Find more posts tagged with

TeamViewer 14

Comments

WilliamW

G'day JD168,

I don't believe you can do what you're after. This may have something to do with the fact logging has already started before the MSI is loaded (which when you think about it makes sense).

When you pass the log arguments, you're passing them to msiexec, not the MSI itself. This configures the Windows Installer what to log and where to log. By the time the transforms are read, it has already started logging, loaded the MSI and is now processing transforms to determine what changes need to be applied for installation.

I reviewed the documentation and did a test and can't do what you're after fully. You can change the logging level with a transform by setting the MsiLogging field in the Property table. This makes sense as the verbosity of logging should be toggleable after an install has commenced.

The problem is you also want to set the log location. The property which contains this is the MsiLogFileLocation property, however, that property is not configurable by a transform. This property appears to be set by the Windows Installer on invocation. It defaults to %temp%\MSI*.log if you don't specify the log path argument to msiexec. You cannot change this property during install. This makes sense as the installer could potentially end up in a situation where it's being asked to move a log file currently being written to to an invalid location, which could cause havoc.

The short version: You can change the logging level with a transform but not its location. The location must be specified as an argument against msiexec or it defaults to %temp%\MSI*.log.

JD168

Yes, yes...one of my first TV14 Install test looks like "msiexec.exe /i \\dc01\tv\TeamViewer_Host.msi /qn /log \\dc01\tv\%computername%_INST.log". This worked. Now I would like to know how to put the "log line" into the transformed mst file.

EmilV

@JD168

Without knowing anything about ORCA or error logs in TV.

The \\dc01\%computername% seems kind of wrong

In my head it should be: \\dc01\shared-folder$\%computername%.log
in the current you are logging to a folder name not a file, the $ at the end signifies a hidden folder. Make sure all users have read/write access to the folder

JD168

Yes, that is what I know from other scripts/installations. But in this case I am using orca.exe to transform it to a .mst and then deploy it via gpo (software installtion).

Is it possible to add a LOG option via orca?

WilliamW

@Gerken wrote:
Thank you for the reply. I will go ahead and create a new transform and add new rows as required. Do I still need to create a batch file with the MSI exec command in order for it to work over group policy?

Sorry, Gerken. I would've thought someone from TeamViewer would've answered this question for you. I'm guessing you've already answered it by now but if not, it depends on what which SKU you're installing.

If you're just installing the Host via Group Policy, I would imagine you can just install the MSI directly with your transforms. This is what I do, albeit with SCCM and a PowerShell wrapper script as I need to deploy both the Full and Host SKUs on different computers. My host install has a number of transforms I use to clean up shortcuts, assign to our account, set our master device password and uninstall the old wrappers during upgrade (Why TeamViewer couldn't do this is beyond me, it's not hard to do).

What may throw you, however, is if you have multiple custom config IDs to automatically assign clients to groups. I organise my clients by sites and I wanted this done automatically. This is another reason why I wrapped it in a PowerShell script as I was able to substitute the CUSTOMCONFIGID MSI property with the proper config ID and reuse the same PowerShell script by having it dynamically select it from a list. If you only have one or you want to create transforms for each config ID, this is not necessary. I only have one deployment that dynamically allocates computers to their respective groups so I had no choice but to script it.

If you're intending to push the Full SKU and have it automatically assign to an account, this requires you to script the install (at least, it did with v14.1.3399 as I haven't updated my packaged yet to the newer versions to see if it's still the case). In this case, you also need to invoke the account assignment command line against the installed TeamViewer.exe executable on the computer. It's a pain and I wish it worked the same as the Host SKU but they weren't interested in fixing this when I raised a support request for it.

WilliamW

@JD168 wrote:
Good morning,

I am currently setting up the mst file with orca, too. Is it possible to add a log option?
In a bat file it is possible to use "/log \\fileserver\tv\%computername%_INST.log" to generate a log file when install of the specific client is finished.

Yes. As it's a standard MSI, you simply add the standard logging arguments to msiexec to create the log. I use /lvx <LogFile> but you can use whatever you want.

JD168

Good morning,

I am currently setting up the mst file with orca, too. Is it possible to add a log option?
In a bat file it is possible to use "/log \\fileserver\tv\%computername%_INST.log" to generate a log file when install of the specific client is finished.

Gerken

Thank you for the reply. I will go ahead and create a new transform and add new rows as required. Do I still need to create a batch file with the MSI exec command in order for it to work over group policy?

WilliamW

G'day Gerken,

You should be creating a new transform; never modify the original MSI using Orca. Once you've done that, add a new row to the Properties table named ASSIGNMENTOPTIONS and set it as required. If you need to change a property which already exists (Such as DESKTOPSHORTCUTS), change its value directly.

Once you're finished, generate a transform then install the MSI with the transform.