Wix MSI fails when setting permissions on network path (util:PermissionEx) - wix

Question

I have an MSI that works perfectly when installing locally. If the data path is set to a network location, it fails.
Relevant LOG:
MSI (s) (BC:4C) [17:01:57:322]: Executing op: ActionStart(Name=ExecSecureObjects_64,,)
MSI (s) (BC:4C) [17:01:57:322]: Executing op: CustomActionSchedule(Action=ExecSecureObjects_64,ActionType=3073,Source=BinaryData,Target=ExecSecureObjects,CustomActionData=\\ravel\TeamData\lrieger\Tim2015Pre_Data\CreateFolderEveryone-1073741824C:\ProgramData\Nemetschek Engineering\TIM 2015.0.0.477590057-pre\CreateFolderEveryone-1073741824)
MSI (s) (BC:78) [17:01:57:324]: Invoking remote custom action. DLL: C:\Windows\Installer\MSIAEDE.tmp, Entrypoint: ExecSecureObjects
MSI (s) (BC:A8) [17:01:57:324]: Generating random cookie.
MSI (s) (BC:A8) [17:01:57:325]: Created Custom Action Server with PID 4488 (0x1188).
MSI (s) (BC:60) [17:01:57:335]: Running as a service.
MSI (s) (BC:60) [17:01:57:337]: Hello, I'm your 64bit Elevated custom action server.
ExecSecureObjects: Error 0x80070005: failed to get security info for object: \\ravel\TeamData\lrieger\Tim2015Pre_Data\
CustomAction ExecSecureObjects_64 returned actual error code 1603 (note this may not be 100% accurate if translation happened inside sandbox)
MSI (s) (BC:4C) [17:01:57:393]: Note: 1: 2265 2: 3: -2147287035
MSI (s) (BC:4C) [17:01:57:393]: User policy value 'DisableRollback' is 0
MSI (s) (BC:4C) [17:01:57:393]: Machine policy value 'DisableRollback' is 0
Action ended 17:01:57: InstallExecute. Return value 3.
WIX Code:
<Component Directory="DATA_DIRECTORY">
<RegistryValue Root="HKLM" Key="$(var.RegRoot)\Setup" Name="TIM_DATA_DIRECTORY" Value="0xff" Type="string" />
<CreateFolder>
<util:PermissionEx User="Everyone" GenericRead="yes" GenericWrite="yes" Domain="[LOGONDOMAIN]" />
</CreateFolder>
</Component>
Without the util:PermissionEx it works on the network share, but setting these permissions is a requirement, at least if the target directory is local.
Q: Is it possible to set permissions on a network location with wix/msi?
If Not, how can I detect that it is a network directory?
Or is there, in MSI, any way to mark a component as allowed to fail?
If it is not possible to do any of the above, I will probably need to write a custom action that tries to set the permissions but suppresses any failures...

Answer 1

Briefly, I don't think it's possible. The issue is that elevated custom actions run with the system account, and that account doesn't have any network privileges. That WiX utils code is already a custom action that's supplied as a helper for a common task, so writing your own custom action isn't going to help. If you run the CA not impersonated it won't run elevated (unless you elevate the entire MSI install at launch time) so that's not likely to help either. You need an elevated user app to do this for the network share, maybe run at first use of the app itself. This might help:
http://wixtoolset.org/documentation/manual/v3/howtos/ui_and_localization/run_program_after_install.html
I would assume it's a network share if it starts with \. A drive letter won't work with the CA anyway because drive letters are a user profile mapping (not a system mapping), so the system account won't know of them. In .Net, FileSystem.GetDriveInfo would help.