Autoupdater Process Hanging When Multiple Distribution Channels Have Simultaneous Updates

[ekatarina.belousova]

Hi Advanced Installer Team,

We are experiencing issues with autoupdater being stuck when multiple distribution channels have updates available at the same time.

Details:
- Multiple distribution channels (dev, beta, stable) can be installed simultaneously on the same machine. Each distribution channel is a separate advanced installer project.
- Updates are installed using advanced updater
- Advanced updater runs via scheduled tasks on user logon in silent mode (/silentall -nofreqcheck command line arguments)

Problem:
When two channels both have updates available during user log on:
- One channel updates successfully
- The other channel’s updater process hangs and remains stuck
- The stuck updater does not recover until the machine is restarted

Additional Context:
- This occurs specifically when multiple channels have updates at the same time. Single-channel updates appear to work correctly.
- We can see that both updaters were able to download updates successfully
- In process explorer we can see that updater that remains stuck has a child process "C:\Windows\System32\msiexec.exe" /i "C:\ProgramData\<Manufacturer>\<ProductName>\updates\<ProductVersion>\<update_msi_file_path>.msi" "

Please advise on configuration changes or fixes to prevent this blocking behavior.

Ekaterina

[Daniel]

Hi Ekaterina and welcome to our forums,

Usually the updater process hangs when launched in silent mode if the updates setup is not launched silently too. For instance when the updates setup is launched with full UI.

Can you please make sure you are using a silent install command line (i.e. /qn) for your updates installer in your updates configuration project? And then test again the scenario and see if this helps?

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If this still does not help you, then can you please share with us the following files from your side:

1. .AIP (setup project) files of your install projects and of your updates configuration project
2. the installation logs created by your update installers (i.e. <update_msi_file_path>.msi)

so we can check and investigate them? Just send us the above files by email at support at advancedinstaller dot com.

All the best,
Daniel

[ekatarina.belousova]

Thank you for the reply Daniel,

Unfortunately adding command line arguments to the update project didn't resolve the issue. I still see one of the updater hanging. The only difference is now it doesn't have a child msiexec process. Is there a way to see logs from updater.exe when its launched via scheduled task?

I sent an email and attached our aip projects and logs for further investigation.

Thank you,
Ekaterina

[Catalin]

Hello Ekaterina,

I noticed my colleague Daniel has continued the thread with you over the email.

I will consider this one closed, since the conversation can continue over the email.

If you require any other assistance, please feel free to open another ticket either here or by email.

Best regards,
Catalin

[Daniel]

Hi Ekaterina,

Using your help I was able to narrow down the root cause of this behavior.

The cause of this behavior is the fact that both of your products/updates channels trigger their updates installation at the same time. Windows Installer does not have support to run two installation processes at the same time. Thus one of the updates setup will trigger an error exit code: 1618 - Another installation is already in progress.

Now, both of your check for updates scheduled tasks are launching the Updater.exe using the following command line: /silentall -nofreqcheck.

The issue is that when the Updater is called using "/silentall -nofreqcheck" command and the updates setup installation fails, in this case the Updater tool will trigger an error displayed with GUI. Now since your scheduled tasks runs under System account which cannot handle nor display any GUI, the updater.exe process will remain hanging.

To avoid this issue you should simply use the following command line: /silentall -nofreqcheck -nogui for Updater.exe in your scheduled tasks.

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We will update this info in our user guide articles, it seems currently this info is missing. Thank you for helping us to isolate this scenario.


Now, regarding the Windows Installer design not to support two installations at the same time, to overcome this issue you should simply try to add a delay (e.g. 30 seconds or more) in one of your scheduled tasks before actually launching the Updater.exe check for updates.

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Hope this helped.

All the best,
Daniel