NwSapSetupAdmin Installation Variables Read-Only?

[Matt_Fraser]

Hello,

I have upgraded an SAPGUI Installation Server from 7.30 to 7.40, and updated the packages appropriately. However, when I test auto-update of 7.30 clients via AWUS against this Installation Server, they don't run the package update scripts, but only update components. As a result, the existing configuration for centralized saplogon.ini (ConfigFileOnServer) gets wiped out (the registry keys are deleted), and the client is left in a default state, not pointing to any configuration files. I could fix this on the individual test workstation by directly running the update with the /package parameter, of course, but that's not the point. I need hundreds of existing clients to auto-update correctly.

I'm beginning to suspect the cause may be an artifact of how I setup the test workstation, i.e. by installing a 7.30 GUI on it from a different Installation Server (but using the same package name), and then pointing it to my new 7.40 test Installation Server. I'm thinking that AWUS is looking at package GUIDs instead of package names, and thus not detecting that this is the same package. Therefore it just updates the components, but not the package on the client. Annoying, especially when it wipes out the existing configuration. However, if this is true, then this won't be a problem when I roll this out to production, as this is a test-specific artifact.

Can anyone confirm that I'm right about this?

Along the way, however, I wanted to experiment with the new Installation Variables that 7.40 offers on the Installation Server. One of them that didn't exist in 7.30 is SAPGUI.CONFIGFILEONSERVER. A similar Package Parameter exists at the package level (SapGui.ConfigFileOnServer), and it seems that it's now possible to eliminate the package event scripting that sets this registry parameter on clients.

I can modify the variable/parameter at the package level, but apparently the same variable at the Installation Server level is read-only. If I set it to %SapSrcDir%\CustomerFiles\SapLogonTree.xml in the package, that's fine, but on the Properties page (i.e., server-level), the same parameter remains set to NONE.

Does anyone know how to adjust these server-level parameters? And, what would be the effect of doing so, if it is possible? Would that configure all clients installed from this server to use that parameter, with or without a package installation? And would the same parameter at the package level overwrite one at the server level?

I've looked through all the guides I could find on the topic (SapSetup guide, SAPGUI Installation Guide, SAPGUI Administration Guide), as well as searched here, and I've not found anything that discusses these server-level parameters. I thought perhaps I could edit SapGuiVars.xml from the Installation Server's Setup folder, but I haven't tried that yet, and don't know if it actually influences this.

This Installation server is at SAPGUI 7.40 Compilation 3, Patch 9, and SAPSETUP Patch 77.

Cheers,

Matt

[Matt_Fraser]

As so often happens, the act of writing out the problem as a question leads to at least a partial solution.

I have confirmed that the reason my test workstation didn't do a package update via AWUS was because the GUIDs for the package on the workstation and the package on the server were different. It's not enough for them to have the same name. So, I opened up C:\Program Files\SAP\SapSetup\SapPackageWksta.xml with Notepad++ (I love this tool), found the package, and overwrote the Guid value with the value from my test Installation Server at \\server\share\Setup\SapPackageSetup.xml, and sure enough, when I restarted the AWUS service on the workstation, this time it detected matching packages and updated with the scripts and variables from the server. Now my ConfigFileOnServer setting is correct.

I also figured out why the original configuration for ConfigFileOnServer that was already present on the workstation got overwritten. The answer is right there in that same SapPackageWksta.xml file. That file contains the OnUninstall script from the original package, and one of the things I wrote into that script, a few years ago, was a routine to remove all the registry settings related to SAPGUI whenever it is uninstalled from a workstation. Apparently, when upgrading the workstation via AWUS, it treats it as an uninstall of the old (7.30) GUI before it installs the new 7.40 GUI, and so it runs this script which wipes out the config. If it doesn't simultaneously detect a matching package between workstation and server -- then it doesn't reset those values.

So, most of my questions are answered, but I'm still curious about how to set the variables at Installation Server level, and what the effect would be of doing so. Any takers for that question?

Cheers,

Matt

[former_member743691]

I know this is many years late, but it looks like you can change the SapGuiVars xml file within your setup directory to change the installation variables.

It doesn't seem to have any effect though, so i'm not sure which takes precedence.