Given some of the environments I've worked in the decision to go to a graphical installer is enough of a security risk for some companies to switch to other software brands. Many of our Remedy installs are in secure environments and something as easy as getting a port opened requires a special request to a national review board. Once it's approved (2-3 weeks) it takes another 2-3 weeks to implement the change and do new security scans. A wise sales person in a competing product line could use that to their advantage. I'm surprised the installers didn't get the axe here (yet). There have been numerous times now in the past two years where it appears BMC is not trying to cater to the enterprise customers to the same degree they cater to the small customers. Assuming root installs on Unix for example in large enterprises in preposterous. There is no such thing as a stand-alone box anymore where this is acceptable - all accounts are centralized to the appropriate groups and we'll never get root access. And it was clear during the past two years that many of the installers had not been tested in real world non-root scenarios (ie, not using default install paths and installing with local limited-permission service accounts). </soap box> William Rentfrow Principal Consultant, StrataCom Inc. [email protected] Corporate Website, www.stratacominc.com <http://www.stratacominc.com/> Blog, www.williamrentfrow.com <http://www.williamrentfrow.com/> 715-410-8156 C
________________________________ From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Lyle Taylor Sent: Tuesday, May 19, 2009 12:08 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: FB Server install issue - RESOLVED ** Agreed on the firewall/ports issue - we had that very same issue here. I was able to work around it, though, by tunneling X11 through SSH. Not perfect, but we were able to get it to work that way. Lyle From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Juan Ingles Sent: Tuesday, May 19, 2009 10:47 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: FB Server install issue - RESOLVED ** Guillaume, I second that thought! I have, on several occasions, had to hack the installer script to get the install to work. It would not have been a pretty scene if we had to delay to wait for BMC to find the problem and issue a fix. Not being able to install has a funny way of bringing a project to a grinding halt. Our current 7.5 project, as a matter of fact, got delayed 2 weeks because of installer issues. And we never actually got them resolved. While I'm griping, the other thing that really annoys me about the new installer is that, solely as a side effect of the installer technology, it adds the requirement of X-Windows for the unix install. This always has the chance of turning into a great big pain -- waiting for network/firewall changes to open ports is never a fun thing. Juan Ingles On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 8:50 AM, Guillaume Rheault <[email protected]> wrote: ** Being able to look at what the installer shell script does is good, but updating it is really great. Well guess what, with 7.5 you cannot do that, since the installers for Windows, UNIX and Linux are the same, they are java based, and they are a black box.... I personally don't like that decision, I think that at the very least the code of the installer should be available to read for the customer. so enjoy this while you can!! -Guillaume -----Original Message----- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) on behalf of William Rentfrow Sent: Mon 05/18/09 3:17 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: FB Server install issue - RESOLVED When all else fails - rewrite the installer.... The installer for this was failing the disk space check. We had lots of disk space - so I just re-wrote the installer to always evaluate to "true" when it checked for appropriate disk space. Elegant? No... Effective? Yes :) For some reason the install script for this did not work correctly in our environment. William Rentfrow Principal Consultant, StrataCom Inc. [email protected] Corporate Website, www.stratacominc.com <http://www.stratacominc.com/> Blog, www.williamrentfrow.com <http://www.williamrentfrow.com/> 715-410-8156 C ________________________________ From: William Rentfrow Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2009 11:05 AM To: [email protected] Subject: FB Server install issue We are putting up some new servers. Part of this build is Flash board server 7.1 patch 005. We have successfully installed/licensed/etc ARS 7.1 patch 006. There is no FB 7.1 patch 006 - only 005. This is on Solaris with a remote Oracle database. Once all the requested information is entered the install immediately terminates with: fb_install: syntax error at line 1: `)' unexpected I am posting the install log below with certain parts censored due to customer sensitivity: -------------------- Script started on Wed May 13 10:36:13 2009 $ fb_install [H [JWelcome to the BMC Remedy Flashboards(r) installation. Do you wish to install BMC Remedy Flashboards (Y or N)> [Y] y A record of the installation will be preserved in /usr/tmp/fb_install.log ******************************************************************** BMC Remedy Flashboards Installation ******************************************************************** BMC Remedy Flashboards requires about 26000 KB of free disk space to install. ******************************************************************** Please enter the product directory name. This is the name of the CD mount directory which contains the solaris/arsystem.tar file. For example: If the tar file is located at <dir>/arsystem/solaris/arsystem.tar, then the product directory would be "<dir>". ******************************************************************** Enter the product directory name: [/cdrom] / /xxx/yyy/a00/installs/FB71p5 Product_path = /xxx/yyy/a00/installs/FB71p5 Looking for the END USER LICENSE and MAINTENANCE AGREEMENT. To continue with this installation, please read the following END USER LICENSE and MAINTENANCE AGREEMENT. Press the Return key to scroll through the agreement. At any time while reading this agreement, you can press "q" to accept, reject or re-read the agreement. q [H [J Please select one of the following, 1) Yes, I agree to the terms of this agreement. 2) No, I disagree to the terms of the agreement. 3) I would like to read the agreement again. (1) I accept, (2) I reject or (3) re-read this agreement. [3] 1 *************************************************************** Select the directory in which to install BMC Remedy Flashboards. *************************************************************** Directory to install BMC Remedy Flashboards? [/usr/ar/flashboards] /xxx/yyy/a00/ar/flashboards FBServer fb_install: syntax error at line 1: `)' unexpected $ cd exit script done on Wed May 13 10:38:49 2009 ----------------------------------------------------------- William Rentfrow Principal Consultant, StrataCom Inc. www.williamrentfrow.com [email protected] Corporate Website, www.stratacominc.com <http://www.stratacominc.com/> 715-410-8156 C ________________________________________________________________________ _______ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org Platinum Sponsor:[email protected] <mailto:sponsor%[email protected]> ARSlist: "Where the Answers Are" _Platinum Sponsor: [email protected] ARSlist: "Where the Answers Are"_ _Platinum Sponsor: [email protected] ARSlist: "Where the Answers Are"_ NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. 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