Deploying Matlab 2014a with SCCM 2012 R2

This time I’ll show you how I (silently) deployed Matlab 2014a with custom Toolboxes. There are a lot of customizations taking place for this to be fully working, but luckily I found a good starting point at https://sccmpackager.wordpress.com/category/matlab-deployment/. Thanks a lot to the author for the guide, couldn’t have done this without it.

Steps:

• Copied the Matlab installation files to the SSCM server with directory name “Matlab R2014a”.
• Edited files for silent installation (in the root of “Matlab R2014a”). First off was “installer_input.txt”. I made the following changes:

installer_input.txt

• fileInstallationKey=xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
• agreeToLicense=yes
• outputFile=c:\temp\matlabinstall.log (for logs on the client)
• mode=silent
• automatedModeTimeout=5000
• licensePath=license_2014.lic (We’re using a network license. A license server is already running in the domain. License_2014.lic includes information with the license server IP and the available toolboxes for this license. This file was previously downloaded directly from Mathworks).
• lmgrFiles=false
• lmgrService=false
• setFileAssoc=true
• desktopShortcut=true
• startMenuShortcut=true
• Then you have to specify which toolboxes you are going to install. Just uncomment the ones for your license. Example:
  • product.MATLAB_Coder
  • product.Embedded_Coder
• That’s it for the installer_input.txt. Moving over to “activate.ini”:

activate.ini

• isSilent=true
• activateCommand=activateOffline
• licenseFile=C:\Program Files\MATLAB\R2014a\license_2014a.lic
• activationKey=xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
• installLicenseFileDir=C:\Program Files\MATLAB\R2014a\
• installLicenseFileName=license_2014a.lic

That’s it. These two were Matlabs own files. The following files are custom batch files for installation and uninstallation in SCCM. They are also located/created in the root of the Matlab source files.

 

install.bat

(I’ve modified/simplified the batch file from the guide above, as it was a bit too complicated and wouldn’t work).

@ECHO OFF
TASKKILL /F /IM iexplore.exe >NUL 2>&1
TASKKILL /F /IM winword.exe >NUL 2>&1
TASKKILL /F /IM outlook.exe >NUL 2>&1
TASKKILL /F /IM excel.exe >NUL 2>&1
TASKKILL /F /IM MSACCESS.exe >NUL 2>&1
TASKKILL /F /IM NOTEPAD.exe >NUL 2>&1
TASKKILL /F /IM POWERPNT.exe >NUL 2>&1

if not exist “C:\temp” md “C:\temp”

if %PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE%==x86 (

ECHO Installing Matlab R2014a 32-bit
ECHO Do not close this window. It will close when the install is finished.

:: Wait for 10 seconds
ping -n 20 127.0.0.1 > NUL

REM Main Install
“%~dp0setup.exe” -inputFile “%~dp0installer_input.txt” -activationPropertiesFile “%~dp0activate.ini”

) else (

ECHO Installing Matlab R2014a 64-bit
ECHO Do not close this window. It will close when the install is finished.

REM Main Install
“%~dp0setup.exe” -inputFile “%~dp0installer_input.txt” -activationPropertiesFile “%~dp0activate.ini”

)

REM Return exit code to SCCM
exit /B %EXIT_CODE%

 

It’s actually quite simple. The batch file runs setup.exe from the Distribution Point and uses installer_input & active.ini as input files during the setup. It also passes a “success code” to SSCM when finished. The original script however use:

if not exist “C:\Program Files\MATLAB\R2012a” md “C:\Program Files\MATLAB\R2012a”
xcopy “%~dp0license.lic” /y /e “C:\Program Files\MATLAB\R2012a\”

This step is unnecessary, as the licensing will work just fine without having to “manually” copy the .lic-file to the Matlab directory. Also, if the Matlab directory is present during the installation, the installation will FAIL. Yet again I learned the hard way after reading logs… Here’s an example from the clients c:\temp\matlabinstall.log:

(Nov 20, 2014 14:03:40) Error: Cannot install in the specified folder because there may be files remaining from a previous installation.

So yes, the Matlab directory can’t be created BEFORE the installation, period. I cleaned up the script/batch file (as above) and the installation went just fine;

(Nov 21, 2014 10:19:40) End – Successful.

 

uninstall.bat

@ECHO OFF
TASKKILL /F /IM iexplore.exe >NUL 2>&1
TASKKILL /F /IM winword.exe >NUL 2>&1
TASKKILL /F /IM outlook.exe >NUL 2>&1
TASKKILL /F /IM excel.exe >NUL 2>&1
TASKKILL /F /IM MSACCESS.exe >NUL 2>&1
TASKKILL /F /IM NOTEPAD.exe >NUL 2>&1
TASKKILL /F /IM POWERPNT.exe >NUL 2>&1

if %PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE%==x86 (

“C:\Program Files\MATLAB\R2014a\uninstall\bin\win32\uninstall.exe” -inputFile “%~dp0uninstaller_input.txt”

) else (

“C:\Program Files\MATLAB\R2014a\uninstall\bin\win64\uninstall.exe” -inputFile “%~dp0uninstaller_input.txt”

)

REM Return exit code to SCCM
exit /B %EXIT_CODE%

 

uninstall_input.txt

outputfile=C:\temp\matlabinstall.log
mode=silent
prefs=true

 

With all these files in place, the directory structure looks something like this (Fig 1):

Fig 1. Matlab directory on the SCCM server.

 

Deployment

Now that you have all files configured you are ready to start the actual deployment. Creating the Application in SCCM is very easy now that the underlying work is done. Just create a new Application, use script installer and fill in the desired information. For Deployment Type use script installer once again and use install.bat and uninstall.bat as arguments (Fig 2).

Fig 2. Deployment Type

For the Detection Rule I just used the Setting Type: File System (see Fig 3).

Fig 3. Detection Rule

With these settings in place you are finally ready for deployment. (Don’t forget to distribute your content before the deployment).

 

Here are some screenshots (Fig. 4 & 5) which shows that Matlab has been successfully installed (with the specified Toolboxes):

Fig 4. Matlab successfully installed 🙂

 

Fig 5. Matlab with specified toolboxes from installer_input.txt. (Screenshot is actually from the Matlab uninstaller). Yes, we do use a couple of Toolboxes…

 

There you go. Hopefully this will help someone else out there with their Matlab deployment dilemma 🙂