Install .Net Framework 4.6.1 using Ansible

I’m trying to install .Net Framework 4.6.1 using Ansible but until now I have no luck.

I’ve tried those methods:

1. Running a win_package to install it, but it just hangs till infinity
   
   Default

   - name: Install Microsoft NET Framework win_package: path: "http://path/to/dotNetFramework4.6.1.exe" product_id: '{BD6F5371-DAC1-30F0-9DDE-CAC6791E28C3}' register: dotnetfx_exe

   1 2 3 4 5 6

   - name: Install Microsoft NET Framework win_package: path: "http://path/to/dotNetFramework4.6.1.exe" product_id: '{BD6F5371-DAC1-30F0-9DDE-CAC6791E28C3}' register: dotnetfx_exe

2. Run a PowerShell script to install it (first doesn’t work and second throws stack-overflow exception):
   
   Default

   Install-WindowsFeature Net-Framework-Core -source C:\temp\dotNetFramework4.6.1.exe

   1 2	Install-WindowsFeature Net-Framework-Core -source C:\temp\dotNetFramework4.6.1.exe

   
   Or
   
   Default

   Start-Process -FilePath C:\temp\dotNetFramework4.6.1.exe -ArgumentList "/q /norestart" -Wait -Verb RunAs

   1 2	Start-Process -FilePath C:\temp\dotNetFramework4.6.1.exe -ArgumentList "/q /norestart" -Wait -Verb RunAs

3. I’ve tried to use win_feature to install it, but it just do nothing.
   
   Default

   - name: Install NET-Framework-Core win_feature: name: NET-Framework-Core state: present source: C:\temp\dotNetFramework4.6.1.exe include_sub_features: no include_management_tools: yes register: result

   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

   - name: Install NET-Framework-Core win_feature: name: NET-Framework-Core state: present source: C:\temp\dotNetFramework4.6.1.exe include_sub_features: no include_management_tools: yes register: result

4. Tried to run a batch script to install it, but no luck:
   
   Default

   start /wait c:\temp\dotNetFramework4.6.1.exe /q /norestart /log %TEMP%\dotNetFx4.6.1.log

   1 2	start /wait c:\temp\dotNetFramework4.6.1.exe /q /norestart /log %TEMP%\dotNetFx4.6.1.log

Has anyone succeeded installing .Net Framework 4.6.1 using Ansible?

Could anyone share their task/role that installs it?

We were calling Chocolatey via Ansible to install .NET 4.6.1, but ran into some complications with that. Instead I rewrote our playbook to do a “native” install. I imagine you ran into the same issues I did with trying to run the offline installer. This led me to your post and this thread. Here is what I had to do to get it working.

Extract the contents of the offline installer:

This command can uninstall .NET if it is already installed. I just ran it on a fresh vagrant VM instead of trying to get around that.

Zip up the contents of that folder, upload it to an internal host or network share, and then download/unzip/run it with your playbook.

The arguments in the install command are important otherwise the installer will fail. You might be able to remove “/log C:\tmp\dotnet\dotnet461\log.txt”, but I’ll leave it to you to test that out 😀

Also this is not idempotent. The installer will execute every time. You can get around that by putting these tasks in a separate .yml file and doing a conditional include based on a registry check to see if it is installed.

Like this: