Question
How can I perform a silent or unattended install of the DataMan Setup Tool?
Answer
For silent installation of the DataMan Setup Tool, you'll need to create an installer "answer file", called setup.iss. We recommend creating your own setup.iss file, as there are various options during installation, like installing documentation in different languages, installing Industrial Protocols samples, and more. Additionally, the installer behaves differently if older DataMan versions are detected or if it’s the first DataMan installation on that PC.
The "DataMan_vXX.X.X.exe" compressed single file installer cannot be used to run the installation in unattended mode. You'll need to unpack it by running it from the command line with the parameter -extract_all <path>. For example, if it was downloaded from our website into the downloads folder, the command would be: C:\Users\username\Downloads\DataMan_v24.3.0.exe -extract_all:"C:\SilentInstallTest".
This will create a folder at the specified location. In that folder will be a subfolder called Disk1 that will contain everything built into the .exe, including the installer executable, which was formerly named setup.exe but in the newer versions (24.3.0 at least) is called DataMan_v24.3.0.exe. When you run that executable (the one in the newly created folder) with the -r ("record") switch, it will have you walk through the setup and will create a setup.iss file in the C:\Windows directory. This file includes all your responses to the installer dialogs and allows you to perform unattended installations as if you were giving the same answers again. Continuing with the example- the next step would be to run this command: C:\SilentInstallTest\Disk1\DataMan_v24.3.0.exe -r
Then, to perform the installation, you will need to copy that setup.iss file to the directory created in the first step and run the installer with the -s ("silent") option. This will perform a silent installation, installing the software- the runtime executable for the software will be installed at C:\Program Files (x86)\Cognex\DataMan\DataMan Software v24.3.0. Continuing with the example, once you've moved setup.iss into C:\SilentInstallTest, you’ll run the command: C:\SilentInstallTest\Disk1\DataMan_v24.3.0.exe -s
The installer will fork a separate process and the command line prompt will return immediately, but you cannot really identify when the installation is ready. To work around this, launch the installation with the command: start /wait C:\Program Files (x86)\Cognex\DataMan\DataMan Software v24.3.0 -s -sms. The option –sms will cause the installer to pause until the installation is complete.
