AnyConnect 2.4 SBL Silent Uninstall + No Reboot

[John Getzke]

Hello,

Does anyone happen to know if there is a good way to silently uninstall the Start Before Login component for AnyConnect 2.4?  If I use my standard uninstall command the uninstall wizard will prompt me to reboot my machine which breaks my installation script for AnyConnect 3.1.

Here is the VBScript command I normally use in this situation (Where IDNumber is the appID for SBL2.4:

intRC = WshShell.Run("msiexec.exe /x " & IDNumber & " /qb", 1, TRUE)

The above line works great for SBL 3.1.  Actually, I believe SBL 3.1 gets uninstalled for me when I uninstall the 3.1 client.  Either way I havent had issues on the new software.

I also checked the Admin Guide for 2.4 but did not find any help on silent uninstalls:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/security/vpn_client/anyconnect/anyconnect24/administration/guide/anyconnectadmin24.html

Any ideas?

[Jennifer Halim]

Unfortunately for any uninstall, a reboot is required, otherwise, it might not completely remove the component, and will cause issue when you actually upgrade to version 3.1.

[John Getzke]

It doesnt seem to me that a reboot is necessary when upgrading from 2.4 to 3.1.  I can run through the desired steps by hand with no issues and without rebooting.  Whatever needs to be cleaned up from 2.4 can most likely wait until a user naturally restarts the machine.

What is the recommended technique for upgrading an old SBL component from an installation script standpoint?

[John Getzke]

I happened to stumble upon an answer that seems to be working for me.

Here is my new uninstall command:

intRC = WshShell.Run("msiexec.exe /x " & IDNumber & " /qb /norestart", 1, TRUE)

Using this new argument (/norestart) I am now able to quickly swap back and forth between 2.4 and 3.1 AnyConnect clients.  No rebooting required, atleast it is not forced during my installation script.  This makes my evaluation and performance testing/comparison much easier.

If anyone can forsee a problem using this technique then please let me know.  Otherwise I will proceed with what I have discovered.