Acrobat XI Pro Install via CCP Packager for Enterprise unuseable - tips for the unitiated

Question

Well, after at least six weeks of trying to script and package Acrobat XI via the CCP packager for enterprise (Windows 7 X64) I have learnt many home truths which I thought I would share with the unitiated. This process, from the point of view of an IT admin who has to mass deploy this application to 680 PC's as part of an updated SOE has been the most painful scripting process I have ever found of any package (we successfully deploy Office, and Autodesk apps!). Not only that, but our entire State technical colleges have all purchased the same version. This will be affecting IT staff across a huge area, perhaps worldwide. Below are some some facts relating to this that I will share so others do not have to trawl the minefiled of dead-ends and confusion that is Adobe forums/official documentation. Apologies for not finding direct links to all of the below just yet but I've run out of time as we now have MANUALLY install Acrobat XI on all of these machines. When I get time I will post some of the links:
Facts:
Acrobat XI and Lightroom are NOT "CC" packages. Therefore they rely on a spearate serial numbers to install standalone without another major Adobe product (eg Photoshop) to be installed and then run first. Otherwise they will run in trial mode. If your organistaion is wanting to install these products I highly recommend seeing if Adobe can provide you with these.
Without the use of serial number for Acrobat XI this almost renders the Customisation Wizard effectively useless, none of the silent install switch will work with "Offline Exception"
Yes, one Adobe employee notes that you must install a major package before Acrobat but as the aoplogies for not fixing this were posted last August, we are still in the quandry of not having any useable fix except for the ridiculous "Exceptions" file and Exceptions installer.
If you run the Build and/or execeptions msi's it installs Acrobat twice, gold Adobe, gold.
http://forums.adobe.com/message/6039529#6039529 - look at this for a working script for Photoshop etc, it's great.Thanks to http://forums.adobe.com/people/PetriRiihikallio for posting this. However, alas, it cannot silently install Acrobat correctly (thus far).
It appears that the msi builder for CCP for enterprise is fatally flawed. I have never had as much problem with installing msi's -  ever. For example, I have had to re-package the msi multiples times and many times simply running the msi will fail.
The idea that all major installs have to install the 32 bit version AND the 64 bit version is riduclous, enough said.
http://blogs.adobe.com/acrolaw/2013/02/acrobat-xi-deployment-guide-for-large-firms/ this guide may be useful for people who have been given a separate serial number.
http://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/known-issues-acrobat-xi-reader.html another useful link
I think for the time being I have now wasted enough time trying to tear my hair out with this. I will be waiting for Adobe to announce Acrobat and Lightroom CC. this will enable the correct deployment of a single app without having the bloat my SOE with unnecessary applications that most staff rarely use. Ahhh, I love a good manual install via VNC/RDP, don't you?

Answer 1

Hi Waltpenner and others, yes it can be very confusing and writing script after script got me even more confused.
Now, the story continues, after 6+ hours on the phone with Adobe Support...
When you install Adobe Acrobat XI it asks you to install the C++ Redistributable package and this is where the msi will STOP INSTALLING. even though the MSI says "complete"
Now you think to yourself, OK, I'll write a script to install this msi package no problems, solved.
Nope, the msi for Acrobat Pro XI will Still Halt even if you write this into the script along with halt no err or something similar in your code.
So what do you do?
When you create your msi in Cloud Packager, even though this feels completely against your better judgement tick the box under conflicting Process entitled "Ignore Conflicts and Continue installations" This will (finally) allow you to run the msi. Please see the wonderful deployment script above, which you may still need to edit to your needs (I did) - which I post once it's working perfectly.
You could then install the C++ redist from Microsoft at a later date ----> On that note however (thanks Microsoft for this gem) the Visual C++ redist is an msi for download, but it's actually a zip file calling an exe inside it. I suggest using the App Deploy Repackager  to help you change registry entries if you need to install this, but choose your favourite tool (and no I'm not talking about that work colleague you don't like
Note: You will need to install this for certain features of Acro Pro XI to function, most of which relates to sever functions of Acrobat. I will post the exact reasons when I find them. Under pressure to get this deployed, I have not deployed this pckage as yet. Also, I'm unsure how Visual C++ will affect other major apps across my enterprise just yet.
Things to still consider
Acrobat still installs twice in the program directory (1.7GB nd 1.8GB respectively)
As all of the other CC packages are quite easy to install, Adobe needs to provide better service to it's enterprise customers by creating a proper version of Acrobat and Lightroom which is Acrobat CC and Lightroom CC, not version numbers tacked onto their new Cloud Service.
As for the above point I would still recommend creating the smallest msi packages you can, as large msi's that install a number of Apps (eg all of the web/image editing apps) take forever and quite often exhibit install errors
The amount of time I've spent on this is ridiculous, and we've had to package everything from Office to Autocad.
The amount of bandwidth I've chewed up is excessive, with package re-creation (download) of all the products probably about 100GB - however the ability to edit these packages with updates with the CCP is a good step forward.
Using the CCP through a proxy is horrendous, and complicated with the amount of exception through the servers you have to prvide (even then it rarely works).
The MSI packager still needs quite alot of work. As Petri states why he had to write a script like this when Adobe could have done the same thing is beyond him.
Adobe needs to trawl it's forum posts and take out the many false leads and dead ends provided by it's experts.
When I Think of anything else, or wite more scipts I'll let you all know.
Cheers,