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Accepted
Tim Lentine
Asked: 2009-07-30 12:41:27 +0800 CST

Unable to create a Group Policy in Windows Server 2003 to install software

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This is my first attempt at creating a Group Policy to install a software product for computers on our domain. When I attempt to add a package I receive the following error:

Add operation failed. Unable to extract deployment information from the package. Run validation on the package to ensure that the package is correct.

Here are the steps I have taken to get to this point:

  1. Within Active Directory, right-click on the Domain and choose Properties
  2. Click on the New button to create a New Group Policy Object
  3. Named the object
  4. Selected the new Group Policy Object and clicked on the Edit button
  5. On the Group Policy Editor dialog, under Computer | Software Settings | Software Installation node, right-click and choose the New Package command.
  6. The path to the MSI file is a valid UNC path (the share where the MSI file resides has been shared to users within our Domain - full control).
  7. Click "Open" to select the MSI file
  8. Under the Deploy Software dialog, select "Assigned" and click OK
  9. After a few moments (10 - 15 seconds) the error message described above is displayed

Troubleshooting Steps I've tried to Date:

  1. Made sure that the software is not installed on the server already
  2. Used the MSI file to install the software on another machine to make sure the MSI works.
  3. Verified that the Windows Volume on the server has adequate free disk space (100+GB).
windows-server-2003 group-policy domain-controller msi

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    That's bad mojo, then. That's nothing that you're doing w/ your procedure, but rather something wrong with the MSI. Did you build the MSI yourself or is it 3rd party? If it's third party, does the manufacturer indicate the MSI works in this type of deployment scenario?

    I can't tell you which specific validations you should run because I don't know exactly what Windows is doing when it "extracts" the "deployment information" out of the MSI. I know that I've seen this with a couple of fairly poorly made MSIs from third parties. I belive that I ended up giving up on them, extracting the contents myself, and re-packaging them into MSIs w/ WiX.

    (This is one of those places in Windows where I'd love to have some visibility into the source code...)

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  2. Some .msi packages arent designed for unattended installation. Which might explain why it installed ok when you ran it manually. I've seen this a couple of times when extracting the .msi from an .exe. As Evan said, you are doing everything you should to make this work.

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