Adding a component to an existing XPE system.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Darkwaters
  • Start date Start date
D

Darkwaters

I have some XPE systems out in the field and I need to
add IIS to one of them.
The DUA is installed and running on the existing system.

What is the best way to add an additional component to an
existing XPE system?

Is possible to provide an update or do I need to recreate
a new runtime image and replace the existing one?
 
You need to re-create your image and redeploy.

DUA is for QFE's and not for OS components.

HTH... Doug
 
Why is DUA limited to QFE's?
You can manipulate the file system and the registry, so where is the
limitation?

Mario
 
DUA is not aware of what it is copying. It could be any file, not only QFE
one.

However, I think IIS would be hard to add with DUA. Not only that IIS
dependencies is a big problem to check at run time but also the IIS itself
is not a small component.

Although someone may try to install IIS directly at run time. Then, using
one file IIS installer, it will be easy to pull this with DUA. Of course,
assuming all IIS dependencies are in place at run time.

KM
 
Ah, I figured someone might comment on my statement.

Yes, DUA was created for updating deployed images in the field.
Historically it was created for QFE's. I'm not sure it was advertised for
adding components to an already deployed image. I thought I read a MS
statement that said that somewhere?

It is my feeling too that if one could figure out all the dependancies that
a component needs , which in some cases like IIS could be a lot of work,
then one could use DUA to add it. If you had the list of files and registry
keys especially what FBA does then it seems possible ;-)

.... Doug
 
Ah, I figured someone might comment on my statement.

Yes, DUA was created for updating deployed images in the field.
Historically it was created for QFE's. I'm not sure it was advertised
for adding components to an already deployed image. I thought I read
a MS statement that said that somewhere?

It is my feeling too that if one could figure out all the dependancies
that a component needs , which in some cases like IIS could be a lot
of work, then one could use DUA to add it. If you had the list of
files and registry keys especially what FBA does then it seems
possible ;-)
Click to expand...

Possible - sure. Once you figure out all the files and registry keys
added by IIS, then you write a DUA script to copy them into place on the
live runtime and call for a reboot.

Problems - there are a lot of files involved in IIS (I don't have an
exact count, but I wouldn't be surprised to find it was over 100 files),
and a lot more registry keys. Plus all the dependencies IIS has -
you'll need to ID those and get those files and registry keys as well.
Oh yeah, there are also FBA commands and DLL/OCX registrations that need
to take place - you'll need to locate all of those and have DUA put in a
RunOnce item to do a regsvr32 for all of them. And to top it off,
there's the metabase IIS uses to store all it's settings, which needs to
be configured online, so there are more RunOnce commands to finalize all
of that (actually, when I QFE'd IIS one time, I had to put them in
RunOnceEx to make sure IIS was actually running before trying to do the
metabase operations).

Add to all of this the joys of writing DUA scripts (I've heard people
complain over writing DUA scripts for single file QFE's), and you've got
yourself a psychotic break waiting to happen.

You'll save yourself a lot of time, agony, and hairline by just
recreating the image and redploying it.

There is a slightly bright side here, though - we realize the pain this
kind of situation causes, and are working to solve this issue.
 
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