Is it possible to Uninstall and Install applications at the same deployment in SCCM

deploymentsccmsccm-2012sccm-2012-r2windows-server-2008

We installed an application to some client machines and we want to deploy the new version by
1) Uninstalling the prior version if there is, then

2) Installing the new version at the same step (because the msi of the application cannot uninstall the prior version and we have to perform uninstallation and installation of the application at the same step. Is it possible? If so how can we manage this on SCCM or msi side by using a script, etc? Any help would be appreciated.

Best Answer

My deployment of SCCM uninstalls one version and installs the subsequent version in a single step regularly. Here is how to achieve that.

Package both versions as applications whose full lifecycle is tested and working.

For this to work you need both the original and the new version to be packaged as an SCCM Application that SCCM can successfully put through the full lifecycle (start out uninstalled and undetected, install, detect, uninstall, undetected). Test the full lifecycle of each application separately before moving on to the next step.

Deploy version n

With a well-formed application, you can deploy the application to computers without regard for whether the application is already installed. If the application is already installed, CcmExec will detect it and do nothing. If the application is not detected, it will invoke the installer.

Supersede version n with version n+1

Supersedence is the key to achieving uninstallation and installation in a "single step". CcmExec actually processes uninstallation followed by installation, but I've always seen that happen back-to-back so you don't risk the user going without that application for an extended period of time.

Here is the supersedence screen you are working toward:

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SCCM 2012 R2 Application install argument string too long

I would suggest wrapping the MSI into a self extracting archive using WinRAR and in the SFX options under advanced tell the SFX archive to run the msiexec command string after extraction. This will turn your application type from MSI to Script in SCCM but it will basically mean SCCM will only need to run the EXE archive rather than the MSI with all the properties.

The other option is to download something like InstEdit or Orca and create an MST file containing all the custom properties in the property table.

e.g. some common properties are things like this:

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Now the above command should work as it doesn't seem all that long but you could create LSHOST, PIDKEY, LICENSETYPE, CUSTOMPROPERTY1 and CUSTOMPROPERTY2 as properties in the MST property table and use a shorter command like this:

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