brians
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Jul 08, 2019 6:03 pm

Upgrading Instances using "Generate instances at installation time"

Tue Jul 09, 2019 6:46 pm

I'm facing the following issue when upgrading multiple instances using "Generate instances at installation time" I apologize if this is duplicated, but I could not find a post with my exact issue.

Description:
I have a few projects that were originally created with Advanced Installer 11.9. The setting under "Multiple Instances" of "Generate instances at installation time" was used. While new major versions were created using 11.9, upgrading instances with this setting was not an issue.

Earlier this year I upgraded the projects to use Advanced Installer 15.x, and now 16.1. With the same setting still in use, now when upgrading instances, I'm able to upgrade the primary instance (#0), but any other instance I receive the message
The feature you are trying to use is on a network resource that is unavailable. Click OK to try again or enter an alternate path to a folder containing the installation package "example.msi" in the box below.
This messagebox has a combobox pre-filled with the expected location of the msi in a user application data folder and a browse button.

How to reproduce:
Install two or more instances of a version (e.g. v.1.0)
Upgrade primary instance to a higher version (e.g. v.2.0) - This should be successful
Upgrade another instance to a higher version - This displays the messagebox looking for an msi file (Basically cannot continue)

Environment:
I have archived project files, logs, and image of message box.
Multiple Instance Test.zip
Sample project and logs
(104.58KiB)Downloaded 252 times

I have seen in other posts that using this option is not reccommended for major upgrades due to some limitations, however, this wasn't an issue with older versions of Advanced Installer (i.e. 11.9). Also, I see 16.1 had a bug fix
A secondary instance cannot be repaired/upgraded when multiple instances are installed
which from the wording I thought would be the fix to this issue, but it appears to not be.

Eusebiu
Posts: 4931
Joined: Wed Nov 14, 2012 2:04 pm

Re: Upgrading Instances using "Generate instances at installation time"

Tue Jul 16, 2019 12:51 pm

Hi and welcome to our forums.

I apologize for the delayed reply.

Due to the fact that the design of the "Multiple Instances" feature has changed in the newer versions of Advanced Installer to support new functionalities, the upgrade of the secondary instances work only if the steps below are implemented (this steps are necessary only when the "Build major upgrades for multiple instances" option is not used):
- keep the same extract folder between versions (remove [|ProductVersion] from extract location in the "Builds" page)
- check the "Do not delete extracted MSI and CAB files" option from the same page

In order to be able to migrate your product to the latest version of Advanced Installer, you need to first implement the above steps in the packages created with the Advanced Installer version that worked for you (e.g. 11.9), install those package and only after that build them with the latest version of Advanced Installer.

Let me know if you have other questions.

Best regards,
Eusebiu
Eusebiu Aria - Advanced Installer Team
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brians
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Jul 08, 2019 6:03 pm

Re: Upgrading Instances using "Generate instances at installation time"

Fri Jul 19, 2019 5:20 pm

Eusebiu,

Thank you for the explanation and the steps to work around the issue I was having. I've tested the changes you've mentioned and was successful in upgrading multiple instances

Regrards,
Brian S.

Eusebiu
Posts: 4931
Joined: Wed Nov 14, 2012 2:04 pm

Re: Upgrading Instances using "Generate instances at installation time"

Mon Jul 22, 2019 9:10 am

You're welcome Brian. I'm glad you got this working.

Best regards,
Eusebiu
Eusebiu Aria - Advanced Installer Team
Follow us: Twitter - Facebook - YouTube

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