Scripting out the installation of Team City agents

Just an idea, but maybe a batch script in a scheduled task to automagically login as a maintenance user to run the install?

• Write the login credentials to the Registry (see KB315231)
• Add another script to Startup to clear out the credentials and launch the AutoIt enhanced install
• Reboot
• Profit!

It's crazy enough that it just might work.

There are many ways to automate (un)installation of MSIs, WMIC being one of them. Have you thought about a simpler approach, like a batch file that does:

rem Uninstall old program:
msiexec /qb /x {05EC21B8-4593-3037-A781-A6B5AFFCB19D}
rem Install new program:
msiexec /qb /i MyNewProgram.msi

(of course, replacing the GUID above with your program's GUID or Uninstall key name).

Or, you could use the Automation interface to the Windows Installer.

Or, you could use WMI via VBScript or PowerShell to accomplish the same thing as WMIC will do. But it looks like WMI might be a bit hosed.

I don't have a fix for what I'm seeing, but I do have a couple of things you can try. I recently spent a bit of time troubleshooting WMI issues, so maybe a couple of those same techniques will work here.

First, here is a VBScript that should output the same thing as product get name. Save it to a file getProductNames.vbs and execute it.

Option Explicit

Dim strComputer
Dim objWMIService, colProducts, objProduct
Dim arrstrProducts(), i

strComputer = "."
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")
Set colProducts = objWMIService.ExecQuery("Select * From Win32_Product")

i = 0
For Each objProduct in colProducts
    ReDim Preserve arrStrProducts(i)
    arrStrProducts(i) = objProduct.Name
    i = i + 1
Next

WScript.Echo Join(arrStrProducts, vbNewLine)

Now, if that works, then try the same thing with wbemtest.

1. Launch the wbemtest program.
2. Click Connect...
3. Change root\default to root\cimv2, then click Connect.
4. Click Query...
5. Enter Select * from Win32_Product, then click Apply.

This should return a list of products. If it does, then WMI is probably fine, and something is up with WMIC. If the script worked, but this did not, try the following at a Command Prompt:

regsvr32 wbemdisp.dll

then run the wbemtest query again.

If neither the script nor the wbemtest work, then probably WMI is super hosed, and you'll have to repair it.