The Visual Studio .NET Setup Administrator Mode Readme file (824853)

MORE INFORMATION

1. Introduction

Microsoft Visual Studio .NET offers an administrator mode setup, which facilitates deployment to field clients. The administrator initially runs setup to select which features will be deployed. An .INI file is created based on this selection, and is then deployed by running setup in unattend mode, pointing to the generated .INI file. When run in unattend mode, setup runs silently installing the designated options. If there are any errors, setup exits silently with failure. This allows deployment through Microsoft Systems Management Server.

For information on deploying Visual Studio .NET using SMS, see http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;Q327792.

Active Directory deployment scenarios for the .NET Framework 1.1 and Visual J# .NET Redistributable Package 1.1.

In Active Directory deployment scenarios, the .NET Framework 1.1 and Visual J# .NET Redistributable Package 1.1 are deployed per-machine via the Assign to Machine option of the Group Policy Software Installation snap-in.

Important: For detailed instructions on Active Directory deployment of .NET Framework 1.1 and the Visual J# .NET Redistributable Package 1.1, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=11806.

Redistributing the .NET Framework 1.1 and Visual J# .NET Redistributable Package 1.1.

Applications and controls written for the .NET Framework or the Visual J# .NET Redistributable Package require the .NET Framework or the Visual J# .NET Redistributable Package to be installed on the computer where the application or control runs. The .NET Framework is available as a stand-alone executable file, dotnetfx.exe. The Visual J# .NET Redistributable Package is also a standalone executable file, vjredist.exe. Additionally, for non-English applications, the .NET Framework language pack, langpack.exe, and the Visual J# .NET Redistributable language pack, vjredist-LP.exe, should be deployed. For more information on obtaining these executables and how to use them to deploy applications, see Redistributing the .NET Framework.

2. Running Administrator Mode Setup

Before running this phase of administrator setup, you must first run Visual Studio .NET Prerequisites Setup on your machine. Some of the components installed by the update are required for Visual Studio .NET setup to function.

Note: You must run the setup.exe found in the \setup subdirectory in order to create an .ini file. The setup.exe file found at the root of the CD or DVD does not support administrator setup.

To create the deployment .INI file

Insert the Visual Studio .NET 2003 CD 1 or DVD and ignore the autorun message.
Choose the Start menu and then choose Run.

Type the following:

n:\setup\Setup.exe /createunattend <path to .INI file>

For example:

D:\setup\setup.exe /createunattend c:\vs7_deployment.ini

To run setup with the generated file on a client

Verify that Visual Studio .NET 2003 is available on the network (see Creating a Network Image).
Choose the Start menu and then choose Run.

Type the following:
 
\\<computer>\<share>\...\setup\Setup.exe /unattendfile <path to .INI file>

For example:

\\products\VisualStudio\setup\setup.exe /unattendfile \\computer\share\vs7_deployment.ini

To run MSDN Library setup

Verify that the MSDN Library is available on the network (see Creating a Network Image).
From the Start menu, choose Run.
Type the following:
```
msiexec.exe /qb /a <path to msdn.msi>
```
For example:
```
msiexec.exe /qb /a \\products\VisualStudio\MSDN
```
For further details on MSDN setup options, please refer to the readme in the top-level MSDN folder.

3. Creating a Network Image

Visual Studio .NET 2003 setup may be run from a network share as an alternative to running setup from CDs or DVDs.

The following procedure illustrates how to prepare Visual Studio .NET 2003 for installation from a network share.

Example procedure for sharing installation files from CDs

Create a folder (for example, VS2003) on the server.
Create three subfolders, named PRE, VS, and MSDN within the top-level folder. For example:

VS2003\PRE
VS2003\VS
VS2003\MSDN
Copy the contents of the CD labeled Visual Studio .NET 2003 Prerequisites to the subfolder named PRE.

Copy the contents of all CDs labeled as Visual Studio .NET 2003 to the subfolder named VS folder. If prompted, overwrite existing files.

Copy the contents of all CDs labeled MSDN Library for Visual Studio .NET 2003 to the subfolder named MSDN. If prompted, overwrite existing files.
Open setup.ini in the VS subfolder using a text editor, such as Notepad.
In the [Baseline] section, change the line that starts with "DIR=" as follows:
```
[Baseline]
DIR=..\PRE
FileName=setup.exe
```
In the [Documentation] section, change the line that starts with "DIR=" to "DIR=..\MSDN". For example:
```
[Documentation]
DIR=..\MSDN
```
Save your changes and close the file.

Note Completing this step prevents disk-swapping requests during setup and informs setup of the correct paths to the Visual Studio .NET 2003 Prerequisites and the MSDN Library CDs.
In the VS subfolder, open the Setup folder.
Open setup.sdb using a text editor, such as Notepad, and add the following lines to the end of the file:
```
[Product Key]
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
```
Note
```
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
```
is the 25 digit product key, entered without dashes, found on the CD packaging.
Save your changes and close the file.
Note Completing this step enables pre-populating the product key for the user.
Share the VS2003 folder on the network and set the appropriate security settings. The path to Visual Studio .NET 2003 setup from the network looks as follows:
```
\\[servername]\VS2003\VS\setup.exe
```
.
Note When installing, setup fails if any path and file name combination exceeds 260 characters. The maximum length of a path in Visual Studio is 221 characters; accordingly, you should copy files to a path with less than 70 characters. If you create a network share for a network image, the UNC path to the root install location should contain fewer than 39 characters.

Note Setup may fail if the folder names in this path include embedded spaces, for example "\\[servername]\VS 2003\MSDN\" or "\\[servername]\VS2003\Visual Studio\".

Note Visual SourceSafe and Visio are not part of Visual Studio .NET 2003 setup. However, you may also copy the contents of the Visual SourceSafe and Visio CDs to separate folders on your server to facilitate setup of these products over a network as separate installations.

4. Installation Maintenance

Setup can be run again on a machine with an existing installation. This should be done by the administrator running in createunattend mode on a master machine that had the same install as the client machines. Changes to the feature state can then be deployed to clients.

Clients should not run setup from Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel (or any other means) on their own. This will cause a discontinuity in the feature state. All changes should come from setup being run with the unattend file switch.

5. Required Prerequisite Components

The following is a list of components required for Visual Studio .NET. Visual Studio .NET 2003 unattended setup will fail if any component is not installed.

Windows 2000 Service Pack 3
Microsoft FrontPage 2000 Web Extensions Client
Setup Runtime Files
Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1
Microsoft Data Access Components 2.7 Service Pack 1 (Windows 2000 only)
Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1
Microsoft Visual J# .NET Redistributable Package

6. Deploying Visual SourceSafe 6.0d and Visio

6.1. Visio

To deploy Visio silently, run with the following command -- "msiexec /qn D:\visio.msi"; where "D:\" is the path to the CD drive or network location.

6.2. Visual SourceSafe 6.0d

Details of VSS deployment can be found in the following KB article -- Q195828.

7. Known Installation Issues

7.1. Data file cannot be created

When running setup in createunattend mode with a file that already exists, you will see an error "The data file <filename> cannot be created. Setup cannot continue." Either delete the existing file, or provide a unique file name.

7.2. Visibility of user-specific data

When you create an unattended install file, some user-specific data might appear in the file. Specifically, the name of the user who created the file and their organization name appear as two line items:

gfn_pid core user name=Your Name
gfn_pid core organization=Your Company

You can change the values of these variables before using the INI file, but do not delete the lines completely

8. Deployment of Visual Studio .NET Service Releases

For information on downloading and deploying Visual Studio .NET Service Releases, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=10605.