Juice reader trb48 has been heads down in the back lab figuring out better ways to use SVS. He came up with a pretty cool formula that'll streamline the deployment of your more complex apps -- starting with Visual Studio.

Snap on the rubber gloves and check it out.

Introduction

SVS is an amazing piece of technology and innovation. It solved a ton of problems in our IT department, but we did hit a few snags. It seems that we would run into programs that we wanted to virtualize, but we could not import the layer to a new machine. Why? The software in the layer stores license data in the registry. This data is specifically tied to the hardware of the machine that the layer was built on. There are some ways to get around this problem, but they seem more work than it is worth. I have an interesting approach to solving this problem that will give you the benefits of SVS with all software.

Overview

The answer is combining a "silent install" with SVS. First, we need to create what I call a "silent install package." This will install the software, with the appropriate settings, on the machine without any user interaction. Next, we need to create a script file that creates a SVS layer that will capture the "silent install package." The third and final step will combine these two innovations into one package.

For this example I have choosen to walk you through creating a silent install package in Visual Studio 2005. Why? This piece of software has been giving IT departments headaches for a long time. Without this process, you have to hack the layer for it to work.

What you will need:

• A server, on a network, that all your computers can access
• Visual Studio 2005 with enough licenses
• SVS installed on every machine
• Time and patience
• TUGZip or similar program installed

Creating the Silent Install Package

The first thing you need to do when you want to create a silent install package is go to Google.com. In the search bar I typed in Visual Studio 2005 silent install. Then I started to dig through the entries to find a tutorial that will help me achieve my goal. Lucky for you, I found the cream of the crop. Here they are:

• How to deploy Visual Studio 2005 by using Systems Management Server
  - This is Microsoft's official guide to installing Visual Studio silently
• Unattended Installation of Microsoft Visual Studio 2005
  - MSFN is a very valuable resource for creating silent install packages

I will quickly walk you through how to create a package for Visual Studio. If you run into any problems, or cannot understand what I am saying, please refer to the links above.

Setting up the files

1. On your server create a shared folder called "VisualStudio2005"
2. Inside "VisualStudio2005" create two folders:
   - VisualStudio2005/VisualStudio
   - VisualStudio2005/MSDN
   Note: I will continue to use these through this guide. Also, the folder names cannot have spaces in them.
3. Copy the contents of your CDs labeled Visual Studio 2005 to VisualStudio2005/VisualStudio
   
   Note: If prompted, overwrite existing files.
4. Next, copy the contents of your CDs labeled MSDN Library to VisualStudio2005/MSDN
   
   Note: If prompted, overwrite existing files.
5. Open the Setup.ini file that is now located in the VisualStudio2005/VisualStudio folder
6. Find the [Documentation] section and change "DIR=" to "DIR=..\MSDN"
7. Save the file and close
8. Navigate to VisualStudio2005/VisualStudio\Setup
9. Open Setup.sdb and add the following:
   [Product Key]
   XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
   Note: This is what automates the process. Now, during the install you will not be prompted to enter the product key. Do not use dashes, only numbers
10. Save the file and close
11. Share the VisualStudio2005 folder on the network. You can set all of the security settings on the server to your heart's desire.

This section was adapted from the following articles: How to deploy Visual Studio 2005 by using Systems Management Server and Unattended Installation of Microsoft Visual Studio 2005

Making it install silently:

1. Go to Start > Run
2. Enter in: "VisualStudio2005\VisualStudio\Setup\setup.exe /createunatted VisualStudio2005\VisualStudio\Setup\unattend.ini"
   
   
   Note: This is all one line of text
3. Follow the instructions in the Administrator mode setup. This will allow you to specify what components will be installed and what settings will be used during the installation. When you are done the "unattend.ini" file will contain the settings you specificied while doing the Administrator mode setup.
   
   
   Note: Through this process you can create, if you wanted to, custom settings for each Visual Studio user.
4. When you want to silently install Visual Studio, all you have to do is:
   
   1. Go to Start > Run
   2. Enter in: "\\Servername\VisualStudio2005\VisualStudio\Setup\setup.exe /unattedfile VisualStudio2005\VisualStudio\Setup\unattend.ini"

Notes: Make sure you have the following installed on your computer before you attempt to silently install Visual Studio 2005:

• Windows XP SP2
• Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 with all updates
• Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 with all updates

Creating a script to install Visual Studio 2005:

If you want to create a bat or cmd file that installs Visual Studio you:

1. Right click on the desktop
2. Go to New > Text Document
3. Rename the file to "installvs2005.cmd"
4. Hit enter
5. Right click on "installvs2005.cmd" and go to edit
   
   1. First enter this in to map your network shared folder:
      net use x: \\servername\VisualStudio2005
      Note: This maps the shared folder to the x: drive. It does not matter what drive you use, just as long as it is not being used on the computer you are running this cmd file from.
      Note: Depending on your shared folder's security settings, you may have to provide a username and password to access this folder. Here are some instructions on how to do that: How to use the Net Use command
   2. Next, enter in the script to install Visual Studio 2005:
      X:\VisualStudio\Setup\setup.exe /unattedfile VisualStudio2005\VisualStudio\Setup\unattend.ini"
      Note: Instead of using the \\servername, we are using the X: drive that we just mapped
   3. Visual Studio will now begin to install.
   4. After it is done installing we should disconnect the X: drive by typing:
      net use x: /delete
   5. After the drive is disconnected, we should exit the cmd file (just for good measure)
      exit

Here's the scripting we used in "installvs2005.cmd" file:

net use x: \\servername\VisualStudio2005
x:\VisualStudio\Setup\setup.exe /unattedfile
VisualStudio2005\VisualStudio\Setup\unattend.ini"
net use x: /delete
exit

Turning the Script into an Executable File

Having a cmd file is fine and dandy, but it is not as useful as having an executable. There is a great guide to on how to turn a cmd file into an executable, found here.

The steps:

• Create a folder, and put installvs2005.cmd inside it
• Download the following files (and save them into the folder you just created)
  
  • 7zS.sfx
  • config.txt
• Right click on installvs2005.cmd and compress it to be a 7z file:
  
  
  

  Click to view.

  Note: You may need to download and install TUGZip or other program to do this.
• Now, the inside of your folder should look like this:
  
  
  
• Open a command prompt, navigate to the folder you created, and type in the following:
  
  copy /b 7zs.sfx + config.txt + installvs2005.7z installvs2005.exe
• installvs2005.exe has been created, it will be useful to us later on in this process.

The following section was adapted from the following forum post: Creating a 7zip switchless installer

Installing the Package into a Layer:

Our goal, at this point, is to install Visual Studio into a layer. Why? We want to be able to activate, deactivate, and reset the program. Plus, we are looking ahead to all of the really cool features that will be included in future versions of SVS and we want to use them.

If we want to keep things simple, all we have to do is open the "Altiris Software Virtualization Solution Admin" and go to File > Create New Layer. Then click on "Install application." We can name the layer something like: Visual Studio 2005. Then we can select the cmd file that we created earlier. Visual Studio will then be installed into the Layer.

If you are like me you don't want to have to do anything on the computer. I want everything to be completely automated. In this next part of the guide I will tell you how to get Visual Studio to install in a layer automatically. If you have any questions in this section of the guide please refer to "Altiris Software Virtualization Solution Reference." Pages 55 and 56 will be the most helpful.

SVSCMD

Altiris has packaged an application that allows us to everything that the Altiris Software Virtualization Solution Admin can do. It is located in "C:\Program Files\Altiris\Software Virtualization Agent\SVSCMD.exe." We will use SVSCMD to create the Visual Studio layer.

The Script

Here is the script that we can use to create the layer:

SVSCMD.exe "Visual Studio 2005" CAPTURE -P "PathtoCMDFile\file.exe"

Here is what is going on:

• SVSCMD.exe: this is the command prompt based program that we will use to create the layer
• "Visual Studio 2005": this is the name of the layer we are creating
• CAPTURE: this is the parameter that tells SVSCMD that we are going to install a program into a new layer
• -P " PathtoCMDFile\file.exe": The -P is a flag associated to the CAPTURE parameter. It tells SVSCMD where to find the program that we are trying to capture into a layer. We cannot use a bat or cmd file, we can only use exe or msi.

Creating the Layer

Now, we have all the elements that we need to create a cmd file that will install Visual Studio into a layer. It will look something like this:

c:
cd program files
cd altiris
cd Software Virtualization Agent
SVSCMD.exe "Visual Studio 2005" CAPTURE -P "PathtoCMDFile\installvs2005.exe"
exit

At this point you can copy this script into Deployment Console and schedule it to be installed. You can send the script to the user, and have them install it. And, you can create a executable using the cmd file above. Do whatever fits your needs.

Conclusion

This interesting workaround solves our problem with importing the Visual Studio layer onto new machines by avoiding importing layers. Instead, we set up a process that installs Visual Studio into a layer without any user interaction. This allows us to install the software on any computer, into a layer giving us all the benefits of virtualization.

This same process can be used on any application you run across. There are, however, a few drawbacks to this process. The main one is that you have to wait for the program to install, but if you have Deployment Console install this at night that is not that big of a deal.

Good luck, and feel free to contact me with any questions.