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Version: DAI 7.4

DAI Silent Install, Upgrade, or Uninstall on Windows

This page provides step-by-step instructions on how to run an Eggplant DAI install, upgrade, or uninstall silently on Microsoft Windows. We use the term "silent" to describe the process of performing these tasks from the command line without user input through a graphical user interface (GUI). The silent method is useful if you are automating the installation of DAI or if you only have command-line access to a machine.

note

DAI support for the silent install, upgrade, and uninstall processes is available in DAI version 7.4 and later.

How Silent Install Works

Our DAI silent install uses the same installer as our regular Setup program, but instead of being prompted to enter configuration information in the Setup program panels, you provide values for the configuration settings up-front in an ini file that the installer reads when it runs. With this in mind:

Unlike a regular install, there is less of a distinction between a Standard Install versus an Advanced Install. We'll show you how to replicate a standard install silently by not populating some settings with values.

note

Silent and regular installs and upgrades are equivalent, so you could install silently and upgrade graphically or vice versa, the same goes for uninstalls.

Install or Upgrade Eggplant DAI Silently

The Eggplant DAI Windows installer supports:

  • Fresh installations
  • Incremental upgrades from the previous supported version (see Release Notes for a full list of supported versions).
note

Downgrades are not supported.

Step by Step: Running Your Silent Install

Use these instructions for a fresh installation or to upgrade an existing DAI installation.

  1. Download the Eggplant DAI Server installer.

  2. If this is an upgrade, you will need to stop the DAI Windows service before installing.

  3. Create a silent.ini file in your DAI data folder C:\ProgramData\Eggplant\Digital Automation Intelligence\silent.ini.

    note

    If this is a fresh installation, you need to create the C:\ProgramData\Eggplant\Digital Automation Intelligence directory. DAI runs under the local system account in Windows so you must make sure this account has permission to write to the Digital Automation Intelligence directory.

  4. Populate the silent.ini file with configuration settings, see Silent Install Configuration Settings below.

  5. Launch a command shell with administrative privileges. For example, click the Windows Start menu, type CMD into the Search box, right-click Command Prompt, and select Run as Administrator from the context menu.

    note

    We recommend running the installation with administrator permissions (Run as Administrator as described in the step above) to ensure DAI is installed with the correct permissions.

  6. Run the installer from the command prompt with the following command or use the command in a batch file for automated installations:

    <file path to >eggplantDAI-<version>.exe /VERYSILENT /SUPPRESSMSGBOXES /NORESTART /LOG="C:\ProgramData\Eggplant\Digital Automation Intelligence\install.log"

    where <file path to> is the file path to the DAI Server installer executable and eggplantDAI-<version>.exe is the version of the installer that you downloaded and are running. The /VERYSILENT flag specifies this is a silent-type install, /SUPPRESSMSGBOXES specifies that no message boxes are displayed, and /NORESTART specifies that the installer should not automatically restart the host Windows machine. Note that restarting the Windows host machine after the install is required. Using the /NORESTART flag puts you in control of the restart.

    note

    The installer can take quite a while to run, but it does not report status to the command shell. You can, however, monitor the progress of the install by looking at the install.log file, which outputs details of the installer's progress. The installer also reports any issues that it encounters to the log file. For example, if your configuration file contains an invalid value, the installer reports the issue to the log file. Near the end of the process, you will see limited activity in the log file for up to 10 minutes while the DAI service launches and any upgrade migrations run.

  7. When the install completes, you should see a message in the install log that says Startup report written to C:\ProgramData\Eggplant\Digital Automation Intelligence\logs\startup_service.html. This DAI Windows Service Start-up Report will list the services that started successfully. You will know the installation succeeded when you see the DAI services are started successfully in the Start-up Report. Any error that occurs during start-up is also detailed here to help you troubleshoot.

  8. Reboot the machine to finish the installation process. This is necessary because we used the /NORESTART setting in our installer command, which specifies not to automatically reboot Windows.

Silent Install Configuration Settings

The .ini File Structure

You need to create a silent.ini file for silent installations and upgrades. Below you will find information about the silent.ini file and a sample you can copy and modify for your system.

note

You don't need a silent.ini file for uninstalls.

The following rules apply to create a valid silent.ini file:

  • The file must have a single section named [settings].
  • The settings you need are defined in the Fresh Install and Upgrade sections below. You need fewer settings for an upgrade.
  • You must provide lines in the file for all settings (except sensitive values see Secrets below).
  • Some settings are optional, for example, a setting of https_cert_path= will provide no value for this setting.
  • Boolean Yes/No settings are represented as either 0 or 1. For example, a setting of use_https=0 will use HTTP not HTTPS.
  • A silent install will use the same validation rules as a regular install, please read the Windows Install Guide for details of what is or is not valid.

Secrets

The Eggplant DAI install process requires you to specify usernames and passwords. You can find information about valid administrator names in Run a Standard Install.

While you can specify usernames and passwords in the silent.ini file (details of which are shown below), we do not recommend this for security reasons. Instead, it is better to exclude these settings and set them via equivalent environment variables.

The equivalent environment variables have the same names but are in all upper-case letters, for example, dai_admin_username is set using the DAI_ADMIN_USERNAME environment variable. This applies to the following:

  • DAI_ADMIN_USERNAME: DAI Administrator Username
  • DAI_ADMIN_PASSWORD: DAI Administrator Password
  • KEYCLOAK_ADMIN_USERNAME: (Keycloak) System Administrator Username
  • KEYCLOAK_ADMIN_PASSWORD: (Keycloak) System Administrator Password
note

Be careful when setting these environment variables not to leak sensitive data into your command shell history. Ideally, you should specify these settings in your organization's secrets manager, which should then be able to set up the environment variables for you.

Fresh Install

To perform a fresh install of Eggplant DAI you will need a silent.ini similar to the one shown below. The example below is for a standard install, an advanced install would require populating some or all of the settings that are empty in this example.

[settings]
pgsql_data_directory=C:\ProgramData\Eggplant\Digital Automation Intelligence\data
server_port=8000
use_https=0
https_cert_path=
https_key_path=
https_server_name=
https_key_requires_password=0
https_key_password_file_path=
report_usage=0
minio_data_directory=C:\ProgramData\Eggplant\Digital Automation Intelligence\minio
server_name=localhost
keycloak_firstname=dai
keycloak_lastname=dai
keycloak_email=dai@keysight.com
# some or all of the following 4 settings can be removed from this file and replaced with equivalent environment variables
dai_admin_username=admin
dai_admin_password=AdminPassword
keycloak_admin_username=sys_admin
keycloak_admin_password=SysAdminPassword

Each field maps to an equivalent form field in the graphical installation process.

SettingEquivalent Setting in the Graphical InstallerInstall Type
pgsql_data_directoryPostgresSQL Data DirectoryAdvanced
server_portServer PortAdvanced
use_httpsHTTPS (checkbox)Advanced
https_cert_pathHTTPS CertificateAdvanced
https_key_pathHTTPS Private KeyAdvanced
https_server_nameNot usedAdvanced
https_key_requires_passwordPrivate key requires password (checkbox)Advanced
https_key_password_file_pathPrivate Key Password FileAdvanced
report_usageUsage Statistics (checkbox)Advanced
minio_data_directorySuites Data DirectoryAdvanced
server_nameDAI Server HostnameStandard
keycloak_firstnameDAI Administrator First NameStandard
keycloak_lastnameDAI Administrator SurnameStandard
keycloak_emailDAI Administrator Email AddressStandard
dai_admin_usernameDAI Administrator UsernameStandard
dai_admin_passwordDAI Administrator PasswordStandard
keycloak_admin_usernameSystem Administrator UsernameStandard
keycloak_admin_passwordSystem Administrator PasswordStandard

Upgrade

To upgrade an existing installation of Eggplant DAI you will need a silent.ini file similar to the one shown below.

[settings]
# some or all of the following 4 settings can be removed from this file and replaced with equivalent environment variables
dai_admin_username=admin
dai_admin_password=AdminPassword
keycloak_admin_username=sys_admin
keycloak_admin_password=SysAdminPassword

Uninstall Eggplant DAI Silently

See the regular Uninstall page for details of what the uninstaller does.

When you install Eggplant DAI, the installer creates an uninstaller file named unins???.exe (typically unins000.exe) in your install directory, for example C:\Program Files\Digital Automation Intelligence\unins000.exe.

Again you will need to run the uninstaller with administrative privileges. To run as administrator in silent mode you will need to:

  1. Launch a command shell with administrator permissions. For example, click the Windows Start menu, type CMD into the Search box, right-click Command Prompt, and select Run as Administrator from the context menu.

  2. Run the uninstaller with a command similar to the following using the name of the uninstaller file created on your system:

    <file path to>unins000.exe /VERYSILENT /SUPPRESSMSGBOXES /NORESTART /LOG="C:\ProgramData\Eggplant\Digital Automation Intelligence\install.log"

    where <file path to> is the file path to the DAI Server uninstaller executable.