Multipe Website Installations of same Product on Server

[kfkyle95]

I have been trying to figure out if the following scenario is possible with the InstallAware/MSI technologies. Essentially, what our customer's want to be able to do is install multiple instances of our web application on their web servers, differentiated by port number. This would allow them the option of hosting a Testing and Production environment on the same machine.

i.e.
Web Site 1 (:8081)
/AppVDir

Web Site 2 (:8082)
/AppVDir

By default, the inherent Product Code checks with MSI prevent this scenario. In additon, we utilze MSP patches for the product which are typically applied to the Testing environment first for verification and then to Production.

Is it possible to handle this scenario with MSI/MSP and InstallAware?

[giaviv]

Dear kfkyle95,

How do you intend to install the websites? Is it possible to install all of them with one installer?

[kfkyle95]

We distribute a single MSI for our releases followed by MSP Patches over time to distribute Hot Fix updates to our customers.

[giaviv]

Okay so your single MSI can install however many websites you wish.

[kfkyle95]

Correct, that is our goal.

[giaviv]

What I meant to say was that your InstallAware setup (that eventually outputs an MSI) can do that.

[kfkyle95]

Can you point me to a white paper or support link with information on how to configure this scenario? So far I have not been able to find this information.

[giaviv]

InstallAware 10 ships with a sample project called "IIS Web Sites and Folders".

Click InstallAware -> New Project -> Quick Start -> Samples -> IIS Web Sites and Folders

[kfkyle95]

I've already worked with this sample project to install a single instance of our application to a website and the works fine.

However, if I rerun the installation, it recognizes that the product is installed and prompts for modifcation or removal, as you would expect. Therefore, I am unable to install multiple copies of the same web application on the same machine.

I am going to attempt to do this by adding a control to collect some text from the user to append to the product name and specify the Port of the website as they install. I think this might work since I was able to do this (change product name) with a recompile and get two instances installed. If I am off track, please let me know. Thanks.

[giaviv]

I am not sure you're designing this correctly - your installer can install one, two or more websites when you run it.
However, it can't install a new website when your run the installer and your websites have already been installed.

What you can do is use the Transform Instance command. This will allow a side-by-side installation of your websites.

[kfkyle95]

Ok. I found a reference to the "Multiple Instances" sample under the Transfer Instance section which looks like it may contain the information I need to complete this solution. Thanks for the direction on this topic!

[giaviv]

Sure, good luck!!

[kfkyle95]

I was able to get the Multiple Instance sample working to install multiple copies. The problem, however, is that there does not appear to be a way to patch the other instances, at least not in the sample. When I build an IA patch and run it, it will recognize that an instance is installed, but does not give you a choice of which instance to patch.

I need to know if this is even possible and if so, where to look to complete this proof of concept.

[giaviv]

Unfortunately, that will not be possible.

Please consider authoring different installers for your websites - the design you are referring to is not really a typical Windows Installer approach to setups..

[kfkyle95]

Aviv,

Thanks for the prompt feedback. You might want to mention this limitation with the Multiple Instances sample. While the sample works nicely, it is definitely not useful for those who will need to patch the other instances. Fortunately, this is not a requirement for what I am putting together but was definitely a desirable deployment scenario. Thanks again.

Keith