Deploying LabView through Ansible

[sbmathema]

Hey all,

I'm trying to deploy LabView on a target system but seem to be coming across an issue when deploying through Ansible. I'm trying to deploy LabView 2019 S1 f5 (ni-labview-2019-x86_19.1.5_offline.iso) that uses NI Package Manager (NIPM) 20.5.0. I'm using the command:
`Start-Process -Wait -FilePath ./Install.exe -ArgumentList "--passive","--progress-only","--accept-eulas","--prevent-reboot"`
this works when running the command directly from the target system's powershell, but doesn't work when deploying from a Ansible controller host to the target system. I'm using Ansible win_shell module to run the command on target system, I see that NIPM installs successfully as I see that on the target but the deployment gets stuck after that meaning it's not doing anything after that, has anyone come across this issue?

[Scott_Richardson · Accepted solution]

Subha, looking back at some notes on a previous customer hitting this it suggests that when Package Manager is launched in Command Mode which is what a installer effectively does, it hangs when it tries to start inter-process communication server. Processes launched by Ansible run in session 0, which comes with some restrictions on what APIs and resources are available. It's likely that a named pipe it is trying to create is something that's not allowed in session 0 and is what's causing the hang.

One possible workaround to try is to install Package Manager by itself and then use the Package Manager CLI to install product, as shown below for Veristand using a script. Let me know if this workaround is successful.

start /wait D:\PackageManager Installer\Install.exe --passive --accept-eulas --prevent-reboot

"%ProgramFiles%\National Instruments\NI Package Manager\nipkg.exe" feed-add D:\VeriStand Installer\feeds\ni-veristand-2020 --name=ni-veristand-2020

"%ProgramFiles%\National Instruments\NI Package Manager\nipkg.exe" update

"%ProgramFiles%\National Instruments\NI Package Manager\nipkg.exe" install ni-veristand-2020 --accept-eulas --yes --include-recommended --allow-uninstall --install-also-upgrades

[sbmathema]

Thanks, Scott for helping me, I was to install the LabView using Ansible and used Powershell instead of Command Prompt, the general command looked like below:

# Downloaded NIPM 20.5.0 offline installer

cd C:\Users\YourUser\Downloads

Start-Process -Wait -FilePath ./NIPackageManager20.5.0.exe -ArgumentList "--passive","--accept-eulas","--prevent-reboot"

# Downloaded and mounted (as D:\ drive) the LabView 2019 S1 f5 offline installer ISO file

cd "C:\Program Files\National Instruments\NI Package Manager"

.\nipkg.exe feed-add D:\feeds\ni-labview-2019-x86 --name=ni-labview-2019-x86

.\nipkg.exe update

# Had to find the package name `ni-labview-2019-core-x86-en` from the `NI Package Manager` program after feed-add and hovering over Package Name `LabVIEW (32-bit) English`

.\nipkg.exe install ni-labview-2019-core-x86-en --accept-eulas --yes --include-recommended --allow-uninstall --install-also-upgrades

[Scott_Richardson]

Great to hear, thanks for the detail. Installing from the offline installers feeds is great if you can't connect to ni.com.