Installing a Software Deployable Package (SDP) using PowerShell

Now the PowerShell involved here is miniscule, so don't expect much. But I'm going to post this either way.

You will most likely install Software Deployable Packages using LCS, as outlined on the official docs, so why would you need a PowerShell script for this? It so happens that you need to install the package manually if you for example need to upgrade from 7.2 to 7.3 of Operations.

You download the package from LCS. After unblocking the zip-file, and extract it somewhere. I typically extract it on the Temporary Drive, the D-drive. Then you simply need to run this small script to initiate the installation locally.

#Requires -RunAsAdministrator

function InstallSDP()
{
    $BinaryPackageLocation = 'D:\Update'
    $Installer = $('{0}\AXUpdateInstaller.exe' -f $BinaryPackageLocation)

    if (Test-Path -Path $Installer)
    {
        Set-Location $BinaryPackageLocation
        & $Installer 'quickinstallall' 2>&1 | Out-String
    }
    else
    {
        Write-Output $("No update found in {0}" -f $BinaryPackageLocation)
    }
}

InstallSDP

Now, this will not work unless you have local admin rights. So the yes, that means if you plan to run the 7.2 to 7.3 upgrade, you need to run it on a machine where you have local admin rights. This is pointed out in question 14 on Robert Badawys FAQ on the matter.

Notice I am using the "quickinstallall" command here, and this is only applicable for OneBox Developer VMs.

So what about "devinstall"-command? You cannot use the devinstall for the upgrade package, but you can use it in other scenarios where you install customization packages and hotfixes. It was introduced in Platform Update 12, and is intended for use without the need for local admin privileges.

PowerShell script to toggle Maintenance mode

In order to change licence configurations on Operations, you need to toggle maintenance mode on or off. This can be done using a Setup tool, but on the development machines where we do not have local admin rights, the only solution would be to hack the database, like Kurt Hatlevik shows us in this blog post.

In this post I will show how you can toggle maintenance mode on or off using PowerShell. The script is intended for OneBox environments. Just paste it into a new ps1 file for future use, or run it through PowerShell ISE.

DISCLAIMER: Don't run this unless you are prepared to take the heat from restarting the entire web application. It stops and starts the web server.

function ToggleMaintenanceMode()
{
    $parm = @{
        ServerInstance = 'localhost'
        Database = 'AxDB'
        Query = "UPDATE SQLSYSTEMVARIABLES SET [VALUE] = IIF([VALUE]=1, 0, 1) WHERE PARM = 'CONFIGURATIONMODE'"
    }

    Get-Service "W3SVC" | Stop-Service -Force
    Invoke-Sqlcmd @parm
    Get-Service "W3SVC" | Start-Service  

    $parm.Query = "SELECT [VALUE] FROM SQLSYSTEMVARIABLES WHERE PARM = 'CONFIGURATIONMODE'"
    $result = Invoke-Sqlcmd @parm
    [int]$value = $result.Value

    Write-Output "Configuration mode $(('disabled','enabled')[$value])"
}

ToggleMaintenanceMode

The script shows you how you can easily run SQL commands, and even retrieve values back to your PowerShell script.

Enjoy!