NVBU upgrade proposed even after complete removal of a previous installation on Windows (4035646)

Return

Feedback Submitted

Did this article solve an issue for you?

Select Rating

Title

NVBU upgrade proposed even after complete removal of a previous installation on Windows
Description

Following complete removal of NVBU on Windows - via Add/Remove Program and removal of the NVBU installation directory, all subsequent clean installation attempts propose an upgrade.
Carrying on with the upgrade will result in failure as the NVBU installation directory is missing.
All NVBU installation scripts (checkinstall, postinstall and preinstall) will error out showing the PKG_BASE variable is set to a path which no longer contains the NVBU installation directory.
How can NVBU be installed?
Cause

To determine whether an upgrade is to be performed, msiexec.exe looks for the value of the following registry key:
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/WoW6432Node/BakBoneSoftware/NetVault"
If set to the directory NVBU was installed to in the original installation, the upgrade warning dialogue is displayed and a TARGETDIR variable is set to this key's value.
The TARGETDIR variable will then be used in the checkinstall, preinstall, postinstall scripts to define the PKG_BASE variable.
In the case of a fresh install, this will point to where ever the user chose to install NVBU.
In the case of an upgrade, it will point to the location of the previous installation.
The checkinstall, preinstall and postinstall scripts all have access to the value of a variable called NV_UPGRADE.
This gets set in the checkinstall script (which runs first) according to the presence or absence of NVBU's configure.cfg file under the PKG_BASE directory.
Resolution

Quest Software does not provide support for problems that arise from improper modification of the registry. The Windows registry contains information critical to your computer and applications. Make sure you back up the registry before modifying it. For more information on the Windows Registry Editor and how to back up and restore it, refer to Microsoft Article ID 256986 “Description of the Microsoft Windows registry” at Microsoft Support.
PKG_BASE is the path where NVBU is currently installed and is defined in 2 locations:
1) In the following file:
NV_HOME\config\configure.cfg
2) In the registry: "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/WoW6432Node/BakBoneSoftware/NetVault"
If the NVBU installation directory had been removed in an attempt tp uninstall NVBU, then deleting the above registry key will allow for clean install to occur.
IMPORTANT:
In the event a user uninstalls NVBU by removing the registry key "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/WoW6432Node/BakBoneSoftware/NetVault" and or the configure.cfg file from the existing installation.
The absence of these can result in msiexec not proceeding down the upgrade route and/or the checkinstall, preinstall, postinstall scripts not detecting that this is an upgrade.
This has the potential for an NetVault installation to lose all data from a previous installation when attempting an upgrade.
In the context of fixing a broken upgrade installation, manual removal of files and/or registry keys is to be avoided on an NVBU server.
It can only be recommended on clients which essentially don't have an NVDB and can be reinstalled at will.
Additional Information

NVBU can be installed on a number of platforms, (Windows, Linux, Solaris etc). Our installers for all these platforms run exactly the same scripts: checkinstall.sh, preinstall.sh, postinstall.sh Running these shell script on 'unix' style platforms is straight forward, but requires additional steps for Windows. Installing ANY application on Windows involves pointing the native installer msiexec.exe at the application installation database file *.msi. i.e. double clicking a *.msi file starts an instance of msiexec.exe and passes the *.msi file to it. Note, the debug level of msiexec can be changed. It can be useful to set it to max debug ( http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314852 ). The NVBU installation package contains the msi file and a number of other essential files, importantly in this context, the resources in the installfiles directory. The netvault *.msi file contains the main components of the NVBU core as well as code that controls installation/upgrade/removal. Importantly, it contains a library (libnv6msi.dll) which provides support for running the checkinstall, preinstall, postinstall scripts found in the installfiles directory of the NVBU installation package. Amongst other things, the libnv6msi.dll library contains code to 'pass the values of variables' from the environment of the 'msiexec' program to the nvsh.exe environments running the checkinstall, preinstall, postinstall scripts. Knowing this can be relevant when comparing the contents of the MSI log generated by msiexec and the logs generated by the checkinstall, preinstall, postinstall scripts themselves. The 'installfiles' directory also contains a 'unix type' shell program (nvsh.exe) for parsing/executing the scripts and various other 'unix type' programs that are invoked by 'nvsh.exe' as it parses the checkinstall, preinstall, postinstall scripts.

Feedback Submitted

Did this article solve an issue for you?

Select Rating

Request a KB Article

Please select your product:

To serve you better, please complete the Purpose of your Chat:

Recommended Solutions for Your Problem

NVBU upgrade proposed even after complete removal of a previous installation on Windows (4035646)

Title

Description

Cause

Resolution

Additional Information

Leave a Comment