Automated MSI installation does not override old version

[log1-c]

Hello. First of all thank you for developing NSClient!

Describe the bug
I'm currently in the process of replacing old (like 0.5.x) versions of NSClient with the 0.11.30 release and stumble upon the following issue.

When I manually tried if updating the NSClient breaks any monitoring check prior to an automated approach, I simply executed the MSI installer and clicked through it to update the client.

When I now try that via a script with msiexec /i "%msifile%" REMOVE=NSCPlugins,Shortcuts,WEBPlugins /l*vx "%scriptpath%Install.log" /quiet /norestart the version does not get updated.
Also: With the installation via SCCM deployments we saw parallel installations of the old and new version.
(Though I'm not sure about the way the SCCM deployment is exeecuted, waiting for feedback from the admins.)

Is there something I'm missing for updating to the newer versions?
From memory inplace-updates during the 0.5 era of the client were no problem.

What further confueses me is that, in a diffenrent environment, the update from 0.5.2.35 to 0.9.1+ and then 0.10.6 worked as expected.
Only differences I can spot: There it is done via Ansibles win_package module and the service is stopped/killed before the installation.

System

• Windows Server 2022 & 2025
• 0.11.30

[mickem]

MSI installer unfortunately has a lot of surprises :(

One thing to try is to remove the remove from the command line.
When you upgrade the entire service is "removed" so could be adding more removes makes it confused.
If you want to remove the features (i.e. they were installed) you could try running once first to upgrade and then follow up with the remove to remove them after.

For duplicate installs how can you have two version in the same folder or were they installed in different folders? Or do you mean two entries in the installer database?

The MSI log could be helpful to diagnose this issue (then I can see what happened during the installer).

BEWARE it contains sensitive information You can email michael@medin.name if you do not want to publish it here.

[log1-c]

Thanks for the quick reply!

Here is the MSI log for the v.0.11.30 installation with the msiexec /i "%msifile%" REMOVE=NSCPlugins,Shortcuts,WEBPlugins /l*vx "%scriptpath%Install.log" /quiet /norestart command line.
v0.11.30_install.log

One thing to try is to remove the remove from the command line.

This worked!
Log file from that installation

v0.11.30_install_no_remove.log

If you want to remove the features (i.e. they were installed) you could try running once first to upgrade and then follow up with the remove to remove them after.

this reduced the installation folder size, so I guess this also worked :)
Though the SCCM team probably won't like installing twice very much :D

Or do you mean two entries in the installer database?

Yes, the installed applications control panel showed both versions as installed.
I'm not aware, that they were installed in separate locations.
In case a duplicated installation happened the monitoring checks stop working. Presumably because the two instances block each other from accessing the port.

I will try to ge more information on the SCCM installation procedure on Monday.

[mickem]

Could you try adding ADDLOCAL=ALL:

 msiexec /i "%msifile%" ADDLOCAL=ALL REMOVE=NSCPlugins,Shortcuts,WEBPlugins ^
          /l*vx "%scriptpath%Install.log" /quiet /norestart

[log1-c]

Thanks, that did also work with my manual test.
So close, but yet so far, that I didn't think of that myself...

Will forward it to the SCCM crew.

[mickem]

Thanks for reporting back. I will try to remeber to update the docs with this.

Did you get any more details from the "double install" issue?

[log1-c]

No, had no feedback from the SCCM team so far.
Will update here if that has happened.