Installer Step-up Utility for MS Systems Management Server

Published July 1999

Abstract

The Installer Step-up Utility (ISU) for Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) is a command-line tool that migrates (converts) setup packages from the Systems Management Server Installer format to the Microsoft Windows Installer format. The resulting setup package is a Windows Installer setup package with an .msi file extension. This new setup package can be run on any computer that has the Windows Installer service.

Windows Installer is an operating system service that installs, repairs, and removes applications. Windows Installer is built into the Microsoft Windows 2000 operating system, but it can also be installed on computers with the following operating systems: Microsoft Windows 95, Microsoft Windows 98, and Microsoft Windows NT® 4.0.

This white paper describes ISU and discusses the benefits of moving forward to Windows Installer. It also answers common questions about ISU.

On This Page

Introduction
From Systems Management Server Installer to Windows Installer
Common Questions and Answers
For More Information

Introduction

Systems Management Server Installer was introduced as a Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) component after customers asked for better tools to build and distribute software packages to enterprise clients. SMS Installer has since proven to be very popular among systems administrators for the simplicity and flexibility with which it packages software. As a result, many customers have established libraries of hundreds, even thousands of SMS Installer packages that are available to administrators for enterprise distribution.

More recently, Microsoft developed Windows Installer after customers gave further feedback about current installation technologies. Customers wanted an installation technology that provided a reliable installation process, maintained the integrity of the products being installed, and integrated itself with the host operating system. Windows Installer is a new operating system service designed to provide these benefits. It also provides additional value when used with the IntelliMirror™ management technologies of Windows 2000.

To take advantage of the Windows Installer, SMS customers are looking for ways to preserve their investment in SMS Installer-generated setup packages when they switch to the Windows Installer technology. To help meet this customer need, Microsoft is introducing the Installer Step-up Utility (ISU). ISU is a tool that systems administrators can use to migrate setup packages built using SMS Installer to the newer Windows Installer format.

This white paper presents an overview of the Installer Step-up Utility and responds to the following questions:

• What is ISU and what does it do?

• Why migrate setup packages rather than scripts?

• What types of SMS Installer setup packages can be migrated?

• What level of user intervention is required for migration?

• What will migrated packages look like when they run?

• Can migrated packages be used with Systems Management Server?

• Can migrated packages be used with IntelliMirror?

• Can migrated packages be modified with other authoring tools?

From Systems Management Server Installer to Windows Installer

Systems Management Server Installer

SMS Installer is a software packaging tool for systems administrators. It is designed to make it easy to create software packages for enterprise-wide distribution using Microsoft Systems Management Server. SMS Installer provides the following three mechanisms for creating software packages.

Repackage Installation Wizard

The Repackage Installation Wizard is the simplest method for creating software packages. It operates by taking a "snapshot" of a reference computer's file system, registry, and desktop. After the first snapshot is taken, you can install a product and modify the computer as desired. Then the Repackage Installation Wizard takes another snapshot of the computer and compiles the difference into a script. The script is then compiled into a setup executable package. Packages created using the Repackage Installation Wizard can be installed on any target computer that is functionally equivalent to the reference computer.

The Installation Expert

The Installation Expert provides a graphical interface for building or editing an installation script. You can drag and drop files, registry keys, and shortcuts into a package definition and select other options for the package from a simple user interface. When you are finished describing the package content and characteristics, you compile the script into a setup executable package. Packages created using the Installation Expert are very similar to those created using the Repackage Installation Wizard because they both represent a "described state" to be applied to target computers.

The Script Editor

Using the Script Editor you can create an ad hoc setup program using the SMS Installer scripting language. An ad hoc script can contain run time flow control, such as conditional statements and while-loops. It can also call custom DLLs (Dynamic Link Library). Such scripts can be quite complex and can provide a very high degree of flexibility.

Scripts generated using the Script Editor are also compiled into setup executable packages. However, the resulting setup package is not state oriented but is, rather, sequential with a high degree of run-time flow control possible. This difference is significant when you are considering migration to Windows Installer.

You can choose to use a combination of SMS Installer mechanisms to create a setup package. For example, you can start your installation script by using the Repackage Installation Wizard and then customize the script by using the Script Editor.

Regardless of the mechanism you use, the end result is compiled into a setup executable package—the actual software package. This package includes the setup logic, all the files, registry keys and other data, as well as the engine for performing the setup operation on a computer.

Windows Installer

Windows Installer is an operating system service. Windows Installer is built into the Windows 2000 operating system, but it can also be installed on computers with the Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows NT 4.0 operating systems.

Microsoft developed the Windows Installer service in response to customer feedback regarding existing installation technologies. Customers wanted an installer that better addressed the needs of corporate deployment, and one that was more consistent and robust than the various types of available installation technologies. Specifically, customers pointed out that the existing installers failed to do the following:

• Adequately manage shared resources

• Consistently enforce the same installation rules

• Provide easy customization

• Help people decide which pieces of an application they need

• Diagnose and repair configuration problems at application run-time

Windows Installer addresses all of these issues. The Windows Installer is an installation service that consists of the following parts:

• An installation service that resides on the operating system

• A standard format for defining the state of an installed application

• A management API for applications and tools

In the past, every application provided its own setup executable file or script. Therefore, each application had to ensure that the proper installation rules (such as file versioning rules) were followed. Furthermore, no central reference for installation rules existed because setup was not considered to be a proper part of the development process; few if any best practice guidelines were available for developers writing the setup routines.

Applications quite often did the wrong things at setup time. For example, many applications installed an older version of a given file over a newer version of that same file. In addition, legacy installers rarely maintained shared Dynamic Link Library (DLL) reference counts. As a result, installation and removal of a given application often broke existing applications on the computer.

With the Windows Installer service, Microsoft has invested significant effort to ensure that the operating service implements all the proper setup rules. To follow those rules and avoid the problems outlined above, applications merely need to describe themselves in the standard format. This format is known as the Windows Installer format. The Windows Installer service will then perform the installation duties on behalf of the applications.

The Windows Installer management API, among other things, enables an application to programmatically request the path to its various components. This frees applications from a hard-coded dependency on static file paths, which often change from computer to computer or sometimes point to missing files.

Applications that are developed to use the Windows Installer service gain the advantages of roaming user support, on demand install, and runtime resource resiliency.

Windows Installer provides additional features and functionality when used with Windows 2000 and IntelliMirror. IntelliMirror comprises a set of features in Windows 2000 that provide enterprise change and configuration management. Windows Installer is a key part of IntelliMirror. IntelliMirror provides the benefits outlined in Table 1, Benefits of IntelliMirror in Windows 2000:

Table 1 Benefits of IntelliMirror in Windows 2000

Migrating From Systems Management Server Installer to Windows Installer

Note that the SMS Installer and Windows Installer differ significantly: one is an authoring tool, and the other is an operating system service. ISU preserves customer investment, migrating SMS Installer packages to the Windows Installer format. Therefore, customers can take advantage of Windows Installer benefits without abandoning their research and development in SMS Installer packages.

As SMS Installer customers look forward to benefiting from the advantages of Windows Installer, they immediately face the libraries of SMS Installer packages that have been created over time, containing hundreds, sometimes thousands, of setup executable files. Because these software packages each contain their own setup engine and script, they cannot use the Windows Installer service or IntelliMirror management technologies of Windows 2000.

ISU is designed to provide a way to migrate these SMS Installer packages to the Windows Installer format. It allows administrators to convert their previous investment rather than abandon it.

Systems Management Server Installer Feature Support

The Installer Step-up Utility (ISU) for Microsoft Systems Management Server will migrate SMS Installer-generated executable files that were built using any combination of the following mechanisms:

• The Repackage Installation Wizard

• The Installation Expert

• The Script Editor

However, there are some differences in what SMS Installer and Windows Installer support. For example, Windows Installer does not support setup programs for 16-bit computers or for installations based on floppy disks. Also, because the Windows Installer service provides its own support for removing applications, SMS Installer features for customizing uninstall logs are not migrated.

Table 2 summarizes the features of SMS Installer that are not supported in Windows Installer. Because these features are not supported by Windows Installer, they are not migrated by ISU. If your SMS Installer setup program includes any of these features, ISU will generate a warning message for you, although the migrated setup package will likely run without errors.

Table 2

Windows Installer Feature Support

SMS Installer-generated setup programs that ISU migrates to the Windows Installer format can be used like any other Windows Installer setup package. However, there are a few special considerations. Table 3 lists several broad Windows Installer features and notes whether these features can be used with an ISU-migrated setup package. For more information about Windows Installer features, consult your Windows Installer documentation (see the For More Information section).

Table 3

Common Questions and Answers

The remainder of this white paper responds to frequently asked questions about the Installer Step-up Utility (ISU).

What is ISU and what does it do?

ISU is a command-line tool that migrates SMS Installer-generated packages to the Windows Installer format. ISU can be used in batch mode to simultaneously migrate many SMS Installer-generated setup packages in a directory tree. ISU logs status messages (such as error or warning messages) to the command line. These status messages can be directed to a log file.

For example, if you have a directory tree with 1,000 SMS Installer-generated setup packages, you can migrate every package file in the directory tree at one time, leaving the original package file and creating a matching Windows Installer setup package (.msi) for each of the 1,000 SMS Installer-generated setup packages.

Why migrate software packages rather than scripts?

ISU converts packages because, in most cases, the original reference computer and configuration that was used to build the package is no longer available. It would be prohibitively expensive to require the original reference computer and configuration to be re-established in order to migrate each setup package.

ISU operates by identifying SMS Installer-generated setup packages (executable files), reconstructing the original script, and extracting the data files. ISU then converts the script information to the Windows Installer format. Finally, ISU repackages the data files and migrated script information into a Windows Installer-based setup package with an .msi file extension.

However, rather than starting with the compiled SMS Installer package, ISU can also start with the original SMS Installer script file as well and convert this script file to a Windows Installer setup package.

What types of setup packages can be migrated?

ISU can migrate any setup package that was built using SMS Installer, including packages built using ad hoc scripting. However, these setup packages cannot be used on 16-bit computers, and they cannot be distributed using floppy disks.

What level of user intervention is required for migration?

ISU is designed to operate as a batch processing tool and does not require user intervention.

What will migrated packages look like when they run?

From the user's perspective, setup packages that are migrated using ISU will look essentially the same as the original SMS Installer-generated setup package.

Can migrated packages be used with Systems Management Server?

Yes. You can distribute the migrated .msi file using the normal SMS 2.0 software distribution process. However, Windows Installer must first be installed on the target computers. Also, .msi files cannot be installed on 16-bit computers.

Can migrated packages be used with IntelliMirror?

Yes. ISU migrated setup packages can be used with IntelliMirror just as any other Windows Installer package can. The only significant difference is that the package is installed in one piece, rather than as separate features and components that are installed on demand. To fully benefit from the Windows Installer on demand features, an application must be developed to make use of the Windows Installer management API.

Can migrated packages be modified with other authoring tools?

Yes. ISU migrated packages can be modified using any authoring tool that fully supports the Windows Installer format.

For More Information

For the latest information about Windows NT Server, see the World Wide Web site at https://www.microsoft.com/windows or the Windows NT Server Forum on the Microsoft Network (GO WORD: MSNTS).

Management and Overview Papers

The following table lists a series of papers that introduce Microsoft Windows management services and Change and Configuration Management. These papers are intended for managers and technical decision makers who need to understand the business requirements for and the benefits of management features, in addition to Microsoft's management architecture, tools, and solutions. It is recommended that you read these in the order listed in Table 4.

Table 4

Technical Papers

The following table lists additional technical papers that are or will be available for administrators and Information Technology (IT) managers who are interested in understanding the details of Windows management services features and technologies.

Table 5