MsDeploy remoting executing manifest twice

Question

I have:

1. Created a manifest for msdeploy to:
   Stop, Uninstall, Copy over, Install, and Start a Windows service.
2. Created a package from the manifest
3. Executed msdeploy against the package against a remote server.

Problem: It executes the entire manifest twice.

Tried: I have tinkered with the waitInterval and waitAttempts thinking it was timing out and starting over, but that hasn't helper.

Question: What might be making it execute twice?

The Manifest:

<sitemanifest>
  <runCommand path="net stop TestSvc"
              waitInterval="240000"
              waitAttempts="1"/>

  <runCommand 
    path="C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\installutil.exe /u
       C:\msdeploy\TestSvc\TestSvc\bin\Debug\TestSvc.exe"
       waitInterval="240000"
       waitAttempts="1"/>

  <dirPath path="C:\msdeploy\TestSvc\TestSvc\bin\Debug" />

  <runCommand 
    path="C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\installutil.exe
    C:\msdeploy\TestSvc\TestSvc\bin\Debug\TestSvc.exe"
    waitInterval="240000"
    waitAttempts="1"/>

  <runCommand path="net start TestSvc"
    waitInterval="240000"
    waitAttempts="1"/>

</sitemanifest>

The command issued to package it:

"C:\Program Files\IIS\Microsoft Web Deploy V2\msdeploy" 
         -verb:sync 
         -source:manifest=c:\msdeploy\custom.xml 
         -dest:package=c:\msdeploy\package.zip

The command issued to execute it:

"C:\Program Files\IIS\Microsoft Web Deploy V2\msdeploy" 
         -verb:sync 
         -source:package=c:\msdeploy\package.zip 
         -dest:auto,computername=<computerNameHere>

I am running as a domain user who has administrative access on the box. I have also tried passing credentials - it is not a permissions issue, the commands are succeeding, just executing twice.

---

Edit:

I enabled -verbose and found some interesting lines in the log:

Verbose: Performing synchronization pass #1.

...

Verbose: Source filePath (C:\msdeploy\MyTestWindowsService\MyTestWindowsService\bin\Debug\MyTestWindowsService.exe) does not match destination (C:\msdeploy\MyTestWindowsService\MyTestWindowsService\bin\Debug\MyTestWindowsService.exe) differing in attributes (lastWriteTime['11/08/2011 23:40:30','11/08/2011 23:39:52']). Update pending.

Verbose: Source filePath (C:\msdeploy\MyTestWindowsService\MyTestWindowsService\bin\Debug\MyTestWindowsService.pdb) does not match destination (C:\msdeploy\MyTestWindowsService\MyTestWindowsService\bin\Debug\MyTestWindowsService.pdb) differing in attributes (lastWriteTime['11/08/2011 23:40:30','11/08/2011 23:39:52']). Update pending.

After these lines, files aren't copied the first time, but are copied the second time

...

Verbose: The dependency check 'DependencyCheckInUse' found no issues.
Verbose: Received response from agent (HTTP status 'OK').
Verbose: The current synchronization pass is missing stream content for 2 objects.

Verbose: Performing synchronization pass #2.

...

---

High Level

Normally I deploy a freshly built package with newer bits than are on the server.

During pass two, it duplicates everything that was done in pass one.

In pass 1, it will:

• Stop, Uninstall, (delete some log files created by the service install), Install, and Start a Windows service

In pass 2, it will:

• Stop, Uninstall, Copy files over, Install, and Start a Windows service.

I have no idea why it doesn't copy over the files in pass 1, or why pass 2 is triggered.

If I redeploy the same package instead of deploying fresh bits, it will run all the steps in pass 1, and not run pass 2. Probably because the files have the same time stamp.

Answer 1

There is not enough information in the question to really reproduce the problem to give a specific answer... but there are several things to check/change/try to make this work:

• runCommand needs specific privileges
• waitInterval="240000" and waitAttempt="1" (double quotes instead of single quotes)
• permissions for the deployment service / deployment agent regarding directories etc. on the target machine
• use tempAgent feature
• work through the troubleshooting section esp. the logs and try the -whatif and -verbose options

EDIT - after the addition of -verboseoutput:

I see these possibilities:

• Time
  Both machines have a difference in time (either one of them is just a bit off or some timezone issue...)
• Filesystem
  If one of the filesystems is FAT this could lead to problems (timestamp resolution...)

EDIT 2 - as per comments:

In my last EDIT I wrote about timestamp because my suspicion is that something goes wrong when these are compared... that can be for example differring clocks between both machines (even a difference of 30 sec can have an impact) and/or some timezone issues...

I wrote about filesystem esp. FAT since the timestamp resolution of FAT is someabout 2 seconds while NTFS has much higher resolution, again this could have an impact when comparing timestamps...

From what you describe I would suggest the following workarounds:

• use preSync and postSync for the Service handling parts (i.e. preSync for stop + uninstall and postSync for install + start) and do only the pure sync in the manifest or commandline
  OR
• use a script for the runCommand parts

EDIT 3 - as per comment from Merlyn Morgan-Graham the result for future reference:

When using the runCommand provider, use batch files. For some reason this made it stop running two passes.

The problem with this solution is that one can't specify the installation directory of the service via a SetParameters.xml file (same for dontUseCommandExe / preSync / postSync regarding SetParameters.xml).

EDIT 4 - as per comment from Merlyn Morgan-Graham:

The timeout params apply to whether to kill that specific command, not to the closing of the Windows Service itself... in this case it seems that the Windows Service takes rather long to stop and thus only the runCommands get executed without the copy/sync and a new try for the whole run is initiated...