[WiX-users] huge product msi deployment via Active Directory
Hi, I need to prepare msi installer, so that it could be installed via Active Directory on multiple computers in silent mode. Total size of files, i must redistribute is about 100Gb, so it would be significant optimization, not to pack into cab (or at least pack without compression) ant not to embed them into msi. Also i read that max size of msi is 2Gb, so i can not embed all files into single msi. I do now know AD well, please advice me: - can this msi (silently installed via AD) contain links to external files, not embedded into cab and msi itself? in other words can I deliver files in same folder with msi without merging them into cab or msi? - can this msi contain links to files in cab, not embedded into msi itself? can i somehow tell in wix project, that compression level for cab files must be store (without any compression) in other words can i deliver files in cab without compression and not embedded into msi? And else one question, about features upgrades: - can i prepare upgrades for separate features, not for entire product? So these these upgrades could be installed in any order. For example i have features A,B,C. 1. User installs only features A and B. 2. After these I emit upgrade A1 of feature A. and upgrade B1 of feature B. and upgrade C1 of feature C. 3. User installs A1 and B1. 4. After these I emit upgrade A2 of feature A. and upgrade B2 of feature B. and upgrade C2 of feature C. 5. User installs A2 and B2. 6. Now user installs feature C from his msi. 7 Can he install C1 and C2 now? - is it possible, if use one product msi? or i need to make each feature as separate msi file? -- Thank you! -- The ultimate all-in-one performance toolkit: Intel(R) Parallel Studio XE: Pinpoint memory and threading errors before they happen. Find and fix more than 250 security defects in the development cycle. Locate bottlenecks in serial and parallel code that limit performance. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devfeb ___ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
Re: [WiX-users] huge product msi deployment via Active Directory
1. Yes, you can specify files in your MSI to not be compressed. You can also specify none of your files in your MSI to be compressed Package/@Compressed=no (the default, I believe). 2. Yes, Media/@EmbedCab=no (the default, I believe) creates non-embedded cabinets. 3. Yes, it is possible to make one MSI. In fact, for AD deployment, everything will work better if you create a single MSI. On Thu, Feb 17, 2011 at 4:58 AM, Sergey sh0...@gmail.com wrote: Hi, I need to prepare msi installer, so that it could be installed via Active Directory on multiple computers in silent mode. Total size of files, i must redistribute is about 100Gb, so it would be significant optimization, not to pack into cab (or at least pack without compression) ant not to embed them into msi. Also i read that max size of msi is 2Gb, so i can not embed all files into single msi. I do now know AD well, please advice me: - can this msi (silently installed via AD) contain links to external files, not embedded into cab and msi itself? in other words can I deliver files in same folder with msi without merging them into cab or msi? - can this msi contain links to files in cab, not embedded into msi itself? can i somehow tell in wix project, that compression level for cab files must be store (without any compression) in other words can i deliver files in cab without compression and not embedded into msi? And else one question, about features upgrades: - can i prepare upgrades for separate features, not for entire product? So these these upgrades could be installed in any order. For example i have features A,B,C. 1. User installs only features A and B. 2. After these I emit upgrade A1 of feature A. and upgrade B1 of feature B. and upgrade C1 of feature C. 3. User installs A1 and B1. 4. After these I emit upgrade A2 of feature A. and upgrade B2 of feature B. and upgrade C2 of feature C. 5. User installs A2 and B2. 6. Now user installs feature C from his msi. 7 Can he install C1 and C2 now? - is it possible, if use one product msi? or i need to make each feature as separate msi file? -- Thank you! -- The ultimate all-in-one performance toolkit: Intel(R) Parallel Studio XE: Pinpoint memory and threading errors before they happen. Find and fix more than 250 security defects in the development cycle. Locate bottlenecks in serial and parallel code that limit performance. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devfeb ___ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users -- virtually, Rob Mensching - http://RobMensching.com LLC -- The ultimate all-in-one performance toolkit: Intel(R) Parallel Studio XE: Pinpoint memory and threading errors before they happen. Find and fix more than 250 security defects in the development cycle. Locate bottlenecks in serial and parallel code that limit performance. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devfeb ___ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
Re: [WiX-users] huge product msi deployment via Active Directory
Did you consider administrative installation (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa367541%28v=vs.85%29.aspx) ? Unfortunately I'm not well informed about this technique but it might be interesting for the described scenario. Regards Tobias 2011/2/17 Rob Mensching r...@robmensching.com: 1. Yes, you can specify files in your MSI to not be compressed. You can also specify none of your files in your MSI to be compressed Package/@Compressed=no (the default, I believe). 2. Yes, Media/@EmbedCab=no (the default, I believe) creates non-embedded cabinets. 3. Yes, it is possible to make one MSI. In fact, for AD deployment, everything will work better if you create a single MSI. On Thu, Feb 17, 2011 at 4:58 AM, Sergey sh0...@gmail.com wrote: Hi, I need to prepare msi installer, so that it could be installed via Active Directory on multiple computers in silent mode. Total size of files, i must redistribute is about 100Gb, so it would be significant optimization, not to pack into cab (or at least pack without compression) ant not to embed them into msi. Also i read that max size of msi is 2Gb, so i can not embed all files into single msi. I do now know AD well, please advice me: - can this msi (silently installed via AD) contain links to external files, not embedded into cab and msi itself? in other words can I deliver files in same folder with msi without merging them into cab or msi? - can this msi contain links to files in cab, not embedded into msi itself? can i somehow tell in wix project, that compression level for cab files must be store (without any compression) in other words can i deliver files in cab without compression and not embedded into msi? And else one question, about features upgrades: - can i prepare upgrades for separate features, not for entire product? So these these upgrades could be installed in any order. For example i have features A,B,C. 1. User installs only features A and B. 2. After these I emit upgrade A1 of feature A. and upgrade B1 of feature B. and upgrade C1 of feature C. 3. User installs A1 and B1. 4. After these I emit upgrade A2 of feature A. and upgrade B2 of feature B. and upgrade C2 of feature C. 5. User installs A2 and B2. 6. Now user installs feature C from his msi. 7 Can he install C1 and C2 now? - is it possible, if use one product msi? or i need to make each feature as separate msi file? -- Thank you! -- The ultimate all-in-one performance toolkit: Intel(R) Parallel Studio XE: Pinpoint memory and threading errors before they happen. Find and fix more than 250 security defects in the development cycle. Locate bottlenecks in serial and parallel code that limit performance. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devfeb ___ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users -- virtually, Rob Mensching - http://RobMensching.com LLC -- The ultimate all-in-one performance toolkit: Intel(R) Parallel Studio XE: Pinpoint memory and threading errors before they happen. Find and fix more than 250 security defects in the development cycle. Locate bottlenecks in serial and parallel code that limit performance. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devfeb ___ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users -- The ultimate all-in-one performance toolkit: Intel(R) Parallel Studio XE: Pinpoint memory and threading errors before they happen. Find and fix more than 250 security defects in the development cycle. Locate bottlenecks in serial and parallel code that limit performance. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devfeb ___ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
Re: [WiX-users] huge product msi deployment via Active Directory
Also i read that max size of msi is 2Gb, so i can not embed all files into single msi. The Cabinet format has a max limit of 2 GB. That doesn't mean you can't use multiple Media elements to compress your files into multiple cabs embed them into your MSI if you wish. I wouldn't recommend embedding anything over a few hundred MB though as the time it takes for Windows installer to extract the cab before it starts doing anything is horrendous. Active Directory has really nothing to do with your deployment scenario. You'd do well to put it to one side work on getting your installation working in silent mode itself as that's all AD does when pushing packages using Group Policy. - can this msi (silently installed via AD) contain links to external files, not embedded into cab and msi itself? in other words can I deliver files in same folder with msi without merging them into cab or msi? This has been covered elsewhere on the list many times but essentially you use the Layout attribute of the Media Element to achieve this. - can this msi contain links to files in cab, not embedded into msi itself? can i somehow tell in wix project, that compression level for cab files must be store (without any compression) in other words can i deliver files in cab without compression and not embedded into msi? Set EmbedCab=no CompressionLevel=none. A quick look at http://wix.sourceforge.net/manual-wix3/wix_xsd_media.htm would've answered this. You need to elaborate more on what you're trying to do with Features. You can make updates to Features in separate MSI's but in your example, when the user goes to install Feature C he gets C2 not C or C1 as at that point his system is using the MSI which contains A2, B2 C2. You can't downgrade parts of an installation while keeping other parts current. Windows Installer is a transactional system, that means it's all or nothing (hence it's all but impossible to get a half-installed state, it either installs or rolls back). Palbinder Sandher Software Deployment Engineer T: +44 (0) 141 945 8500 F: +44 (0) 141 945 8501 http://www.iesve.com **Design, Simulate + Innovate with the Virtual Environment** Integrated Environmental Solutions Limited. Registered in Scotland No. SC151456 Registered Office - Helix Building, West Of Scotland Science Park, Glasgow G20 0SP Email Disclaimer -Original Message- From: Sergey [mailto:sh0...@gmail.com] Sent: 17 February 2011 12:59 To: General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset. Subject: [WiX-users] huge product msi deployment via Active Directory Hi, I need to prepare msi installer, so that it could be installed via Active Directory on multiple computers in silent mode. Total size of files, i must redistribute is about 100Gb, so it would be significant optimization, not to pack into cab (or at least pack without compression) ant not to embed them into msi. Also i read that max size of msi is 2Gb, so i can not embed all files into single msi. I do now know AD well, please advice me: - can this msi (silently installed via AD) contain links to external files, not embedded into cab and msi itself? in other words can I deliver files in same folder with msi without merging them into cab or msi? - can this msi contain links to files in cab, not embedded into msi itself? can i somehow tell in wix project, that compression level for cab files must be store (without any compression) in other words can i deliver files in cab without compression and not embedded into msi? And else one question, about features upgrades: - can i prepare upgrades for separate features, not for entire product? So these these upgrades could be installed in any order. For example i have features A,B,C. 1. User installs only features A and B. 2. After these I emit upgrade A1 of feature A. and upgrade B1 of feature B. and upgrade C1 of feature C. 3. User installs A1 and B1. 4. After these I emit upgrade A2 of feature A. and upgrade B2 of feature B. and upgrade C2 of feature C. 5. User installs A2 and B2. 6. Now user installs feature C from his msi. 7 Can he install C1 and C2 now? - is it possible, if use one product msi? or i need to make each feature as separate msi file? -- Thank you! -- The ultimate all-in-one performance toolkit: Intel(R) Parallel Studio XE: Pinpoint memory and threading errors before they happen. Find and fix more than 250 security defects in the development cycle. Locate bottlenecks in serial and parallel code that limit performance. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devfeb ___ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users -- The ultimate all-in-one performance toolkit: Intel(R) Parallel Studio XE: Pinpoint memory and threading errors before they happen. Find
