Cannot Change Destination folder

Votuc

Hello,

I am trying to install the RTC on a second HDD F: but I cannot seem to find a way to change the directory? In the help file it says:

To install Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 software to a location other than the default location (C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics NAV\60), click Destination folder on the Customize the installation pane.


But I cannot click on the words Destination folder? Am I missing something? Please help.

Please see screen shot (this is my system and RTC is installed, but I am trying to install on a Client's computer ...their C: drive is FULL and I need to change to F:)

nikolak

If you are trying to install it twice, you will not be able to change the directory. Installer automaticaly picks up the installation directory and will use that one. I don't believe that we support a scenario of having multiple installations on one box.

A good workaround is just to copy the installation directory to a new location. This should do the trick .

rdebath

nikolak wrote:

I don't believe that we support a scenario of having multiple installations on one box.

Sigh, the capabilities of the idiot installer have very little to do with what's supported or not.

As with all versions of NAV I would suggest you avoid the top level installer it's big, fat, stupid and very very slow. Use the installer msi files in the various subdirectories instead. BUT with V6 I'm not so sure because these msi files have also be dumbed down in that they no longer reference the dependencies or recommended components.

Multiple copies of the RTC are only needed if they are of different versions, but IMO it's unlikely that you'll want to keep old V6 RTC versions yet. If you need multiple connections to different databases use the -settings command line option.

For the RTC you need these preqs. Dotnet 3.5 is a very very slow install. The main issue I see for Votuc is that I don't think these can be relocated but once the dotnet 3.5 has installed with all the previous versions and patches it's huge.

Set BASE=D:\Prerequisite Components

start /wait "" "%BASE%\Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5\dotnetfx35.exe" /q /norestart
start /wait "" "%BASE%\Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5\MSChart.exe" /q /norestart
start /wait "" "%BASE%\Microsoft Report Viewer 2008\ReportViewer2008.exe" /q
pause

The RTC is an easy install, but it's a bad idea to relocate once it's been installed because it'll register some objects with COM interfaces for things like linking to Outlook and the rest of office.

\RoleTailoredClient\Microsoft Dynamics NAV RoleTailored Client.msi

Don't forget your language pack, it's no longer installed by default.

\Installers\GB\RTC\RoleTailoredClient.Local.Gb.msi

The MSI files can be run with msiexe as normal and accept things like the INSTALLDIR=.. option. You will HAVE to use that option for the language pack as it doesn't have any GUI questions.

SET INST=F:\NAV\RTC\
start /wait msiexec /qb  /i "D:\RoleTailoredClient\Microsoft Dynamics NAV RoleTailored Client.msi" SETUPTYPE=Minimal NSUPGRADE=New INSTALLDIR="%INST%"
start /wait msiexec /qb  /i "D:\Installers\GB\RTC\RoleTailoredClient.Local.Gb.msi" SETUPTYPE=Minimal NSUPGRADE=New INSTALLDIR="%INST%"

nikolak

rdebath wrote:

As with all versions of NAV I would suggest you avoid the top level installer it's big, fat, stupid and very very slow. Use the installer msi files in the various subdirectories instead. BUT with V6 I'm not so sure because these msi files have also be dumbed down in that they no longer reference the dependencies or recommended components.

I recommend using top level installer (though it might be very very slow and other things ). It is properly and throughly tested, using just msi files is not as much. You might end up with problems if you need to do Repair/Upgrade scenarios in the future or if you missed some steps during installation.

Plus it takes only 20 minutes, you will do it only once and it does stuff for you as well. (checks prerequisites, sets registries.... - it is not just slow without reason ).

You can run setup through command line in silent mode, so you can automate the process as well.

rdebath

That's the difference between suggest and recommend; if you want a dumb install I would also recommend using the top installer despite it's glacial slowness.

You think 20 minutes is okay? When previous versions of Navision installed in 20 seconds and still checked all the prerequisites? When an install of the Windows 7 OS is faster! When everybody who I've seen watching it install thinks the installer has crashed!

Sigh.

Peter_Wibeck_[MSFT]

The reason that the top level installer is slow and as you say can take 20 min is simple that it's installing pre requisites if needed. Installing .NET and SQL server takes some time. But that the top level installer itself should add any significant execution time is just rumors. Try to install all pre requisites needed by hand followed by the individual msi files and check how long time that takes. If you do it by hand, I can promise you that it will take longer time, if you do it by some script it should in the theory take up to 1-2 sec less compared to running the top level installer also from command line. So my question why do you want to develop this additional script when we have a top level installer that already does everything and is well tested.

The only scenario where I can see that you will gain from using the MSI itself is on SMS or group policy deployment to many machines, since MSI is the most common and used way to deploy files in this scenarios.

You can't install multiple client by using the MSI files or the top level installer since windows installer will prevent you to install multiple products with the same product code. I know it's possible for the classic client and NST to copy the files to a new directory and execute it from there without problems (even if it's not official supported).

rdebath

Okay, firstly installation of DotNet.
The classic client does NOT need DotNet unless you install some rarely used addons which only need V2, but all versions are installed anyway. The RTC Client only needs V2 but all versions are installed anyway. And the Service Tier only needs V3.(something).

DotNET version 2 is frequently already installed nowadays and installs much faster that V3.x anyway. So a client only install is far faster from the MSI files that the top level installer because you can install the TRUE prerequisites rather than just throwing everything in.

You CAN install multiple versions of the client; the Windows installer limits you to one of each major version of the classic client, this includes distinct V5, V5 sp1, V6 and V6 sp1. You can install both V6 RTC and V6 sp1 RTC (and service tier) on the same machine too. The only problems you have are with the navision:// url links which cannot cope and occasionally different versions of the COM objects/interfaces which connect to only the most recently installed. Windows Installer does NOT prevent you doing this the setup.exe does.

As you say, you can also do manual copies of any particular version of the Classic client you may need and they work perfectly; this is especially useful for the Microsoft versions of the classic client as user impacting client bugs are much more common BUT it's not what I'm talking about.

As you have brought it up and while I'm whingeing I'll complain about SQL2005/8 too, good god, but it's a slow, slow install even if you avoid what you can of the lumpy 'kitchen sinks' that had no equivalent in SQL2k. It also seems to have gone on a "supersize me" diet; like NAV now I think of it.

Votuc

Hi, I know it has been awhile since I started this post.


I did not want to install 2 RTC on the same PC. The C: drive on the server PC I was trying to install:

1.) Database tier
2.) server tier
3.) RTC

was very full. It only had about 200 megs left. So I was trying to install onto F: instead of C:

Is this not possible?

Peter_Wibeck_[MSFT]

Your scenario is possible.
Root installer only support moving a complete NAV installation (you can actually leave the database on old location). If you are using the RTC MSI you will be able to install it on a separate drive from all other NAV components according to the way "rdebath" describes earlier.

Only moving RTC whit help of RTC MSI
1. Un install RTC
msiexec.exe /qn /x "D:\RoleTailoredClient\Microsoft Dynamics NAV RoleTailored Client.msi"
2. Install RTC on new location
msiexec.exe /qn /i "D:\RoleTailoredClient\Microsoft Dynamics NAV RoleTailored Client.msi" ADDLOCAL=NewClient,en_US,Lib NAVSERVER="localhost" SERVICEPORT=7046 INSTALLDIR="F:\NAV\RTC\"

After you have done this you can’t install any other components with root installer, since root installer will then detect that you have moved the RTC installed and think that something bad have happened and move it back.

Above solution is not an official solution.