WiX created msi file, strange major upgrade behaviour - wix

Question

I'm using WiX toolset to create my msi file from a C++ codebase with cmake and cpack. This setup works great for the past 6 months, but now i'm getting sporadic bad behaviour.
My Setup uninstall older products with the same upgrade-code to guarantee that there is only one version of my product installed (always major upgrade). I rolled out the newest version to my users (via SCCM) two days ago and in 10% of all installations I have the following problem.
The uninstall of the old installation seems to be sometimes wrong. The uninstall process remove the files, but left the root directory and the bin directory but all files are removed. When I query for the installation of the old product via WMI it say that it is installed, which is strange. The other 90% of the instllations everything works great. I also can not reproduce that locally.
I have a log file, but i'm not sure if it is from an misbehaving installation or not.
The logfile is very long, so I post only snippets which makes me sceptical.
MSI (s) (0C:9C) [15:21:35:083]: Component: CM_CP_runtime.bin.main2.exe;
Installed: Absent; Request: Null; Action: Null
...
MSI (s) (0C:78) [15:21:43:591]: Executing op: FileCopy(SourceName=-dbqfin2.dll|FreeImage.dll,SourceCabKey=CM_FP_runtime.bin.FreeImage.dll,DestName=FreeImage.dll,Attributes=512,FileSize=6201856,PerTick=65536,,VerifyMedia=1,,,,,CheckCRC=0,Version=3.17.0.0,Language=1033,InstallMode=58982400,,,,,,,)
MSI (s) (0C:78) [15:21:43:591]: File: C:\Program Files\LDS Studio\bin\FreeImage.dll; To be installed; Won't patch; No existing file
The Action: Null means that there is no operation (but it should be local), but I'm not sure why. When I start the installation a second time everything works fine (because there is no old version). I had that behaviour a year ago (but only for two single files) when we are porting from Visual Studio to cmake and forgot to add a version to our dll (previous dll had a version, new one had no version, so msi think that's not a new version and skip it in REINSTALLMODE default mode 'omus'). Since then we have changed nothing and everything works fine until 2 days ago.
Here is my wix_main.wxs file
<Product Id="$(var.CPACK_WIX_PRODUCT_GUID)"
Name="$(var.CPACK_PACKAGE_NAME)"
Language="1033"
Version="$(var.CPACK_PACKAGE_VERSION)"
Manufacturer="$(var.CPACK_PACKAGE_VENDOR)"
UpgradeCode="$(var.CPACK_WIX_UPGRADE_GUID)">
<Package InstallerVersion="301" Compressed="yes" InstallScope="perMachine"/>
<Media Id="1" Cabinet="media1.cab" EmbedCab="yes"/>
<Property Id="PREVIOUSVERSIONSINSTALLED" Secure="yes" />
<Upgrade Id="$(var.CPACK_WIX_UPGRADE_GUID)">
<UpgradeVersion
Minimum="1.0.0.0" Maximum="99.0.0.0"
Property="PREVIOUSVERSIONSINSTALLED"
IncludeMinimum="yes" IncludeMaximum="no"
/>
</Upgrade>
<WixVariable Id="WixUILicenseRtf" Value="$(var.CPACK_WIX_LICENSE_RTF)"/>
<Property Id="WIXUI_INSTALLDIR" Value="INSTALL_ROOT"/>
<?ifdef CPACK_WIX_PRODUCT_ICON?>
<Property Id="ARPPRODUCTICON">ProductIcon.ico</Property>
<Icon Id="ProductIcon.ico" SourceFile="$(var.CPACK_WIX_PRODUCT_ICON)"/>
<?endif?>
<?ifdef CPACK_WIX_UI_BANNER?>
<WixVariable Id="WixUIBannerBmp" Value="$(var.CPACK_WIX_UI_BANNER)"/>
<?endif?>
<?ifdef CPACK_WIX_UI_DIALOG?>
<WixVariable Id="WixUIDialogBmp" Value="$(var.CPACK_WIX_UI_DIALOG)"/>
<?endif?>
<FeatureRef Id="ProductFeature"/>
<UIRef Id="$(var.CPACK_WIX_UI_REF)" />
<?include "properties.wxi"?>
<?include "product_fragment.wxi"?>
<CustomAction Id="RegisterExtensions"
FileKey="CM_FP_runtime.bin.main.exe"
ExeCommand="-regext"
Execute="deferred"
Return="check"
HideTarget="no"
Impersonate="no"
/>
<CustomAction Id="UnregisterExtensions"
FileKey="CM_FP_runtime.bin.main.exe"
ExeCommand="-unregext"
Execute="deferred"
Return="ignore"
HideTarget="no"
Impersonate="no"
/>
<InstallExecuteSequence>
<RemoveExistingProducts Before='InstallInitialize'>
NOT REMOVE
</RemoveExistingProducts>
<Custom Action="RegisterExtensions" After="InstallFiles">
NOT REMOVE
</Custom>
<Custom Action="UnregisterExtensions" After="InstallInitialize">
Installed AND (REMOVE = "ALL")
</Custom>
</InstallExecuteSequence>
</Product>
I've found some blogpost where people deal with the OnlyDetect mode in but I'm not sure if it can help me or not because I'm not able to reproduce it on my machines.
Switching to REINSTALLMODE amus (https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa371182(v=vs.85).aspx) maybe is my last resort, but that would be my last resort.
I've found this blogpost https://jpassing.com/2007/06/16/where-to-place-removeexistingproducts-in-a-major-msi-upgrade/ => could it be that i have to change from
<RemoveExistingProducts Before='InstallInitialize'>
NOT REMOVE
</RemoveExistingProducts>
to
<RemoveExistingProducts After='InstallInitialize'>
NOT REMOVE
</RemoveExistingProducts>
???
Maybe somebody can help me with the problem
Greetings
Tonka

Answer 1

The most likely explanation for what you see is that RemoveExistingProducts (an uninstall of the older product) is failing. That will result in a rollback that restores that older product. The old product is then installed, and then the new product continues with its install. At some point in time the install of your new upgrade fails and rolls back, and this will potentially damage the older installed product. That's the general issue with doing an upgrade RemoveExistingProducts outside of the upgrade's transaction. If your REP was after InstallInitize it would fail and the upgrade would not proceed.
(As an aside, asimilar issue can happen if you sequence REP after InstallFinalize and outside the upgrade's transaction, because you install the upgrade product, the transaction finishes, the uninstall of the older product is attempted and fails, it rolls back and restores the older product so now you have both old and new products installed. )
You need to create a verbose MSI log of the upgrade to see why the REP is failing and leaving the older product installed, and why the new upgrade is failing (because otherwise it would show in Program&Features). Also it is safer to keep RemoveExistingProducts inside the upgrade's transaction.