Odtnhj

I built a Msi using InstallShield.

The Msi is for one single Windows Service. Installer's service event is set to wait for event to complete for

[Install Start, Install Stop, Install Delete, Uninstall Stop, Uninstall Delete]

However during upgrade (REINSTALL=ALL REINSTALLMODE=vomus) I keep getting prompt for restart at the end on one of the low power test VM.

So I went ahead and enabled verbose logging to figure out whats going on.

Some of the key log entries are as follows:

MSI (s) (8C:E0) [15:20:59:264]: RESTART MANAGER: Detected that the service my service will be stopped due to a service control action authored in the package before the files are updated. So, we will not attempt to stop this service using Restart Manager
MSI (s) (8C:E0) [15:20:59:264]: Note: 1: 2727 2: 

Kind of expected since the service is running and everything should be unlocked once service is stopped

MSI (s) (8C:E0) [15:21:00:483]: Doing action: StopServices
Action 15:21:00: StopServices. Stopping services
Action start 15:21:00: StopServices.
StopServices: Service: Stopping services
Action ended 15:21:00: StopServices. Return value 1.
MSI (s) (8C:E0) [15:21:00:483]: Doing action: DeleteServices
Action 15:21:00: DeleteServices. Deleting services
Action start 15:21:00: DeleteServices.
DeleteServices: Service: Deleting services
Action ended 15:21:00: DeleteServices. Return value 1.

Service stopped and removed at 15:21:00 (The time stamp suggests that the service was stopped within 1s. However that slow VM takes as long as 10s to fully stop it when its done thru the Service Management Console)

MSI (s) (8C:E0) [15:21:02:232]: Executing op: FileCopy(SourceName=removed,SourceCabKey=removed,DestName=removed,Attributes=16384,FileSize=17488,PerTick=65536,,VerifyMedia=1,,,,,CheckCRC=0,Version=3.6.12.442,Language=0,InstallMode=126091264,,,,,,,)
MSI (s) (8C:E0) [15:21:02:232]: File: C:Program Files (x86)my exe; Overwrite; Won't patch; Existing file is a lower version
MSI (s) (8C:E0) [15:21:02:232]: Source for file 'removed' is compressed
InstallFiles: File: my exe, Directory: C:Program Files (x86)removed, Size: 17488
MSI (s) (8C:E0) [15:21:02:232]: Re-applying security from existing file.
Info 1603. The file C:Program Files (x86)my exe is being held in use. Close that application and retry.
MSI (s) (8C:E0) [15:21:07:700]: Verifying accessibility of file: my exe
MSI (s) (8C:E0) [15:21:07:700]: Note: 1: 2318 2: 
MSI (s) (8C:E0) [15:21:07:700]: Note: 1: 2318 2: 

File copy operation failed at 15:21:07 because the service process is running.

So I decided that I will attempt to stop the service before hand to make sure its fully stopped before it reaches copy file operation

I added a custom event before InstallValidate action which calls

sc stop service name

And make it run synchronously but ignores exit code

MSI (s) (0C:40) [15:30:53:066]: Doing action: AttemptStopService
Action 15:30:53: AttemptStopService. 
Action start 15:30:53: AttemptStopService.
Action ended 15:30:53: AttemptStopService. Return value 1.
MSI (s) (0C:40) [15:30:53:113]: Doing action: InstallValidate
Action 15:30:53: InstallValidate. Validating install
Action start 15:30:53: InstallValidate.

however this resulted in the "the setup must update files or services that cannot be updated while the system is running. If you choose to continue, a reboot will be required ...." popup. When the popup is shown I checked task manager and the process is gone, service is stopped.

Again this kinda implies that sc.exe is not waiting for the process to fully terminated before returning to the caller.

Did I miss something or is it by design? And is there anything I can do on the installer side or service.exe side to prevent this?

Update:

I added another custom action which will pop a cmd window that lists the process currently running associated with my service to see if it is indeed the action did not wait for process to stop.

cmd.exe /k tasklist /FI "Services eq my service name"

The action is placed right before RemoveFiles (which is a little bit before InstallFiles) and heres the new log

MSI (s) (A8:F8) [10:56:42:725]: Doing action: StopServices
Action 10:56:42: StopServices. Stopping services
Action start 10:56:42: StopServices.
Action ended 10:56:42: StopServices. Return value 1.
MSI (s) (A8:F8) [10:56:42:725]: Doing action: DeleteServices
Action 10:56:42: DeleteServices. Deleting services
Action start 10:56:42: DeleteServices.
Action ended 10:56:42: DeleteServices. Return value 1.

...

MSI (s) (A8:F8) [10:56:42:757]: Doing action: Test
Action 10:56:42: Test. 
Action start 10:56:42: Test.
CustomAction Test returned actual error code -1073741510 but will be translated to success due to continue marking

In the CMD window i can clearly see that the process is still running even though the previous stop service action should have stopped and deleted it.

Also gave it more than 1 min on the CMD window and the service is still running, process still alive. so basically the stop service action did not do its job at all.