Here is some great information Aaron Maller, from Parallax Team, has shared with his customers, and gave me permission to share with the rest of the world here on my blog (in addition to what he has already shred via social media). If you have more questions or want to engage with Parallax Team, you can reach out to Aaron directly via the link above.
Aaron's message:
I wanted to send an update to everyone about the installation procedure related to the security updates you have (no doubt) received about fifteen emails for from Autodesk (and one from me previously). As you may know from those emails, the following updates were released, related to a TLS security update for BIM 360 and Revit:
Keep reading to learn more about which order to install updates on new computers going forward...
The more complicated issues come in to play when you go to install all of these releases on a brand new machine, that currently doesn’t have all of the Revit versions installed yet (deploying to a new computer for a new staff member, or a new machine for an existing staff member, or a reimaged machine).
Update from Aaron:
For BIM Chapters updates, follow @DanStine_MN on Twitter or connect on LinkedIn
I also write blog posts for Enscape - a new paradigm in rendering, animation and VR for AEC.
Aaron's message:
I wanted to send an update to everyone about the installation procedure related to the security updates you have (no doubt) received about fifteen emails for from Autodesk (and one from me previously). As you may know from those emails, the following updates were released, related to a TLS security update for BIM 360 and Revit:
2017.2.5
2018.3.3
2019.2.1
2020 appears to already be up to date
If your machines currently have
2017, 2018, and 2019 installed (current staff machine, for instance), all three
of the updates will install correctly, with no issues at all.
Keep reading to learn more about which order to install updates on new computers going forward...
The more complicated issues come in to play when you go to install all of these releases on a brand new machine, that currently doesn’t have all of the Revit versions installed yet (deploying to a new computer for a new staff member, or a new machine for an existing staff member, or a reimaged machine).
If you install ANY of the updates
listed above, prior to the other versions initial software deployments
(if you install 2017 and then 2017.2.5, but haven’t yet installed 2018 or 2019,
because you are doing them in sequential order) the software deployments for
2018 and 2019 will then fail. That’s because they are installing their original
version of PACR (which is older than the one installed in the 2017 update), and
that Post-requisite install is set (by Autodesk) as a requirement of the
initial deployment.
So if your intent is for the
installations to go: 2017, 2017.2.5, 2018, 2018.3.3, 2019, 2019.2.1: The
2018 and 2019 deployments will fail. This is more tricky because they
fail on a post-requisite, and then ROLLBACK to undo the installation. For
some reason, they also send a *success* code to your installer tools,
which is confusing (because it is wrong). That can get a little sideways, since
we tell our Deployment tools to “proceed with updates” on a successful
deployment, so we try installing the 18 and 19 updates, when Revit isn’t there.
There is a fix for it, so we wanted to make you aware of
it: You can edit the INI files of your original 2017, 2018, and
2019 deployments, as follows:
- Find the PACR
subsection of the INI file.
- Add a line for
IGNORE_FAILURE=YES
- Change the ROLLBACKABLE
line from YES to NO.
(Some folks have asked us if we can forcibly REMOVE the PACR
section altogether, to avoid the issue: We don’t recommend going down
that road. In the event that you haven’t properly installed the required PACR pieces,
Revit and BIM360 could behave unreliably or erratically, and there is no
telling what it could do. Letting the deployment try to do its thing is a
nice safety net, in case you HAVEN'T run the updates yet).
In our testing so far, this makes it so the 2017.2.5 updates
the PACR to the newer version, and then the 2018 and 2019 deployments are able
to install, with their embedded (older) PACR installers failing “gracefully.”
Keep in mind: This problem wont rear its head while patching
existing workstations, as the versions of Revit are all installed
already. It is when you go to deploy to a new machine (and have added
these patches in) that you will see these failures.
If you have any additional questions about what this means,
or what steps you should take, feel free to reach out.
Update from Aaron:
One thing that wasn't included in
the email, because i didn't know it at the time (i have since met with Autodesk
about this issue, and they chased this next bit of info down, which is cool!):
You may NOT see the failures
above, if your Install Media is from the COLLECTIONS. If your Install
Media is from the SUITES, you may (will) see it. For some reason, the PACR
installers are different in the Collections vs the Suites versions of Revit.
So my advice is to simply add the IGNORE_FAILURE's regardless, just to be safe.
For BIM Chapters updates, follow @DanStine_MN on Twitter or connect on LinkedIn
I also write blog posts for Enscape - a new paradigm in rendering, animation and VR for AEC.
