Sometimes the installation of a MSI package needs hours

Products

• CA Client Automation - IT Client Manager

Issue/Introduction

Sometimes the execution of a MSI package needs hours.

What may be the reason/solution for such delays, please?

Environment

The Software Delivery Agent is configured to access the Software Delivery Library using the NOS (mapped drive) method.

Cause

From the MSI log we can see that the time is being spent in the phase where the Microsoft Installer is reading the MSI file from the Software Delivery Library share and staging it locally in "C:\Windows\installer\". At that point Software Delivery is not involved, so the time taken is down to the performance of the Network and Scalability Server hardware. 

MSI (s) (94:18) [09:12:03:074]: PROPERTY CHANGE: Adding SourcedirProduct property. Its value is '{########-A470-4BDC-AF8C-########}'.
MSI (s) (94:18) [09:12:03:074]: SOURCEDIR ==> Z:\activate\######-5E87-4984-B2B8-#######.itm\1.vol\
MSI (s) (94:18) [09:12:03:074]: SOURCEDIR product ==> {########-A470-4BDC-AF8C-########}
MSI (s) (94:18) [09:12:03:074]: Determining source type
MSI (s) (94:18) [09:12:03:239]: Incrementing counter to disable shutdown. Counter after increment: 0
MSI (s) (94:18) [09:12:03:239]: Source type from package 'Package_name.msi': 2
MSI (s) (94:18) [09:12:03:239]: Decrementing counter to disable shutdown. If counter >= 0, shutdown will be denied.  Counter after decrement: -1
MSI (s) (94:18) [09:12:03:239]: SECREPAIR: Hash Database: C:\WINDOWS\Installer\SourceHash{########-A470-4BDC-AF8C-########}
MSI (s) (94:18) [09:12:03:257]: Note: 1: 2262 2: SourceHash 3: -2147##### 
MSI (s) (94:18) [09:12:03:257]: SECREPAIR: New Hash Database creation complete.
MSI (s) (94:18) [10:36:09:084]: Incrementing counter to disable shutdown. Counter after increment: 0
MSI (s) (94:18) [10:36:09:259]: Decrementing counter to disable shutdown. If counter >= 0, shutdown will be denied.  Counter after decrement: -1
MSI (s) (94:18) [10:36:09:259]: Transforming table CustomAction.

MSI (s) (94:18) [10:36:09:259]: Transforming table Property.

 

The Scalability Server configuration setting "MaxActSymCheck" had been changed from its default setting of "50" to "200". This caused the mapped drive of the Scalability Server to become overloaded with I/O requests.

Resolution

Set the Scalability Servers configuration setting "MaxActSymCheck" to a value that is compatible with the performance of the Scalability Servers hardware and network connection.