How to install an application using PowerShell

I was not able to find anything on this on the Internet, which surprised me
since I would have figured it would be a common task, but anyways, I need to
create a PowerShell script that will install a EXE or MSI on a given server.
I will provide the path of the install and the destination server but I am
not sure how to do it in PowerShell. Any ideas?

Thanks!
Michael

First find out what switches you can use on the exe or msi file. Check for
silent switches. For instanace, MSI files can
be installed (and automated with MST files) with no user interaction, Quiet
mode. For a complete list type: msiexec /?. It'll give you a start.
Do the same on the setup file and check the vendor documentation too.

To execute the files use the call operator, check also the invoke-expression,invoke-item
cmdlets.

& setupFile "Arg1" "Arg2" "Arg3"


If you run it inside a script, you can find out if the operation succeeded
by quering PowerShell automatic variable $LASTEXITCODE,
genarally, a value of 0 means success. Remember to pie your command to out-null
to prevent powershell from proceeding to next line of code
and waiting for the command to end.

& setupFile "Arg1" "Arg2" "Arg3" | out-null

if($LASTEXITCODE -eq 0) { "success" }


-----
Shay Levi
$cript Fanatic
http://scriptolog.blogspot.com
Hebrew weblog: http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/scriptfanatic

Hi Shay,

Thanks for the help! I do appreciate it! One last question, how do I get
this to install on a server?

Say I run the PS1 script on my local computer, is there a way to have it
execute the install on ServerA?

Thanks,
Michael

"Shay Levi" wrote:

You can copy the file to that server, to a known path and then use WMI to
create a
new process on the remote computer with the command line switches. I'm not
sure you'll get a safe value
for the $LASTEXITCODE as WMI returns the new process id, and the return value
is of the WMI call (not the installation process
exit code). It will also be a pain to wait for that process to end.

PowerShell v2 remoting will contribute alot to resolve such problems.


-----
Shay Levi
$cript Fanatic
http://scriptolog.blogspot.com
Hebrew weblog: http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/scriptfanatic

I finally solved my problem. Below is how you can install an application on a
remote machine using PowerShell and WMI-Objects.


$product= [WMICLASS]"\\$box\ROOT\CIMV2:win32_Product"

$product.Install("c:\thepathtoyourprogram.msi")

Now, $box is the name of your server and also another thing I noticed, this
works best with MSI files; if you get into exe's it could work depending on
what installer you used to build your exe. Since my company uses
InstallShield, this wouldnt work because for whatever reason InstallShield
did not like the parameters I tried to pass, so I had to do something
different with a exe which is below.

([WMICLASS]"\\$box\ROOT\CIMV2:win32_process").Create("cmd.exe /c
c:\pathtoyourexehere.exe /s /v`" /qn")

So, there are two examples of installing applications on a remote system,
either with an MSI or an EXE.


"Michael" wrote:

Glad you could resolve it. Thanks for posting your solution.

-----
Shay Levi
$cript Fanatic
http://scriptolog.blogspot.com