Unattended installation using Tentacle

Integration
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Hi all,
I am trying to automatically install an AutoIT installation file using runbook. It seems that Tentacle cannot support this operation and even though I tried either with psexec and remote pssession, I haven’t been able to succeed, as it seems that the process hangs.
I have seen a similar older post and I was wondering if there is any solution recently added.
Thank you.

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Hi 1n3l4st1c,

Thank you for reaching out to us with your query.

I’ve been looking into this and it appears that AutoIT is not compatible with Tentacle. The issue appears to be that AutoIT essentially scripts the application and desktop interface but, as Tentacle deployments and their subprocesses are headless and they don’t have an interface, this fails and the process hangs.

One option that might work could be to use Tentacle to place the AutoIT file on the destination machine and then use something like the Windows Task Scheduler to automatically launch it when a user is logged in to the desktop. However, even if this approach works, it would come with significant downsides including Tentacle not knowing if the activity was successful, no logs regarding the activity in Octopus and no guarantee that anyone would log in to the desktop in a timely fashion.

I hope this is helpful. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Best Regards,

Charles

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Thank you @charles.hague
Given that we are in the process of incorporating Octopus Deploy on our entire infrastructure, do you have any alternative options for executable unattended installation?
It would be much appreciated.
Thank you.

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Hi 1n3l4st1c,

Just stepping in for Charles while he’s signed off for the day.

While it’s not completely clear from your replies above, it seems like Windows DSC could be what you are after. Typically Octopus is used for Application Deployments instead of Configuration Management, but with DSC you can define desired configurations for your instances and confirm their compliance.

Another option could be the step template “Deploy a Windows Service” which will install an MSI as a Windows Service, or using one of the other community templates. Using Custom Scripts, you could bootstrap most installation procedures.

If you would like to expand on your exact requirements, i.e. which program you are trying to install, I could possibly suggest some more relevant advice!

Best Regards,

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Hi @finnian.dempsey ,

Thank you for your reply. Basically the use case I am trying to implement is to install automatically some executable files. By this it means that some of them are not msi but exes which means those do not have any silent switches or cannot be installed via cli. So, the solution was to create an automatic installation using AutoIT, which compiled into an executable which follows the recorded instructions in order to install an application.
In order to do that, AutoIT seems that it requires an interactive session to be opened and by invoking the executable via a process in a runbook, cannot initiate the executable process.
Since we are in the process of incorporating Octopus server in our entire infrastructure, it is crucial for us to be able to automatically deploy executables to our targets. So, any alternative compatible with Octopus and Tentacle abilities would be helpful, in order to not shift away from Octopus into other third party solutions that might meet our needs.
Thank you and appreciate your reply.

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Hi 1n3l4st1c,

Thank you for getting back to us.

We’ve discussed this within the support team and with our customer solutions team and unfortunately it seems that this is unlikely to be possible. The Tentacle software runs non-interactively and so it isn’t possible to automate the user interface from it. The following article, while focused on browser testing, addresses many of the considerations and issues relating to this:

The next steps that you could consider are as follows:

  • Can you confirm exactly what you are installing? It’s possible that another customer has previously found a way to install it and could share a solution.

  • Can you recreate the installation process in a different way? For example, using PowerShell/Python scripting, manually dropping files into place, making needed registry changes and so on.

  • Could the maker of the software in question provide a silent installation utility?

I’m sorry that we can’t be of more help in this instance. Please let me know if you have any questions or if you find a solution.

Best Regards,

Charles

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