For those who are using Citrix Installation Manager as a deployment strategy for MSI packages and hotfixes, etc. you should be aware that if you deploy HRP01 for PS4.5 and then attempt to deploy MSI packages that include transforms (MST files) the installation via IM will fail. Citrix has a private hotfix named PSE450R01W2K3021.msp that resolves this issue. However, there’s still a number of issues which are:
1) The fact that this is still a private hotfix and it came out in August 2007. Come on Citrix, where’s the final public hotfix for this thing already?
2) The fact that it’s private and most people don’t know that it exists.
3) The fact that it seems to be invalidated by newer hotfixes. I’ve done test deployments of hotfix numbers greater than 21, and it seems from my testing that if you don’t deploy limited release hotfix 21 at the very end of your Citrix hotfixes, then you lose the ability to deploy further MSIs that include transforms. So I’ve been putting limited release hotfix 21 as the last hotfix, but who knows what negative side effects that’s going to cause???
4) It’s 2007, Citrix has been through 3 major product releases since MetaFrame XP and they still have problems deploying MSIs with transforms when there’s a space character in the path or filename of the transform file. Come on guys, a first year CompSci student can whip up a function to check for spaces and quote it. Heck, if I had the source code I could do it for you!
Ok, I’m done ranting. I feel better now.
Agree? Disagree? Let me know with a comment...