Chapter 2 Installing PowerDesigner

Installing PowerDesigner in Silent Mode

If you need to deploy PowerDesigner on a large number of machines and wish to reuse exactly the same setup options and destination folder for each machine, you can use the silent install mode. Silent install runs without user input, by using a response file (called setup.iss) that specifies all the required installation options.

Installation log

The silent installation mode does not provide any information about the installation itself. You can open the setup.log file in the directory containing the setup.exe file to have a report about the silent install. The last section of this file called ResponseResult contains a line ResultCode=X, which indicates whether the installation is successful. If X=0, installation was successful.

CD or network location
You can perform a silent install from the product CD or from a network location where the PowerDesigner installation files have been copied.

To perform silent installs:

To create a setup.iss response file, select Start →Run to open the Windows Run dialog box and enter the following command:
<PD-inst-dir>\setup\setup.exe /r /f1"<path>\setup.iss"

Complete the installation parameters as required and then click Finish to create the setup.iss file at <path>. For example, the following:

G:\setup\setup.exe /r /f1"setup.iss"

References a network drive G:, mapped to a location where the PowerDesigner files have been copied, and creates setup.iss in the setup directory for easy access.

Proceed to install the client machine with the following command:
<PD-inst-dir>\setup\setup.exe /s /f1"<path>\setup.iss".

Each new silent install will replace the content of the setup.log file located in the Installation drive.

Use the /f2 parameter to define a local directory where the setup.log file will be stored on each client machine:
G:\setup\setup.exe /s /f2"c:\temp\setup.log"

Silent installation of administrative mode
From a client machine, map a drive to the server where the PowerDesigner files are copied. The drive letter must be the same as that on the server. For example, if your PowerDesigner files are located on drive R:\admin\setup.exe, you must use the R drive on each client machine to access installation files.