Installing SQL Server Express 2014 with Wix Burn

Question

I'm trying to run an unattended install of SQL Server Express 2014 in a burn package chain and I keep running into problems so I'm looking for advice.

1. Right now I'm installing it by running the self extracting SQLEXPR_x64_ENU.exe with switches but there are two problems with this method the first being that the extract window doesn't appear in front of my custom bootstrapper UI and second that I have no way to specify the default extraction directory. There is the /X:"C:/Temp" switch but if I use this then the main Setup.exe isn't run upon extract completion.

2. I tried to resolve this problem by extracting it and including all the required files as a payload group. This works but the compile time and install time are unacceptably slow due to all the small files it has to extract and verify.

3. I also tried simply referencing the Setup.exe in the extracted folder and left it uncompressed as to have the files in a sub-directory in the root of the installer directory but this to was giving me some startup problems.

4. I've contemplated installing it with scripts but I feel this is an ugly approach to the problem and I'm avoiding it like the plague but I realize it's possible.

I'd be interested to hear how others have handled this and any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

We have worked around this issue using our managed bootstrapper application as follows.

Sql Server 2014 Express SP1 resolved the issue they were having with /qs switch. We can use /qs with /x to specify the extract folder, and extraction proceeds with no user input.

However, as you noted, this just extracts the files, and doesn't start setup.exe. The good news is that the extracted files are still in the folder specified with the /x switch.

In our managed bootstrapper application, we handle the ExecutePackageComplete event. When the Sql Server package has completed (all it did was extract files), we use System.Diagnostics.Process.Start to run the Sql Server setup.exe.

When Setup completes we delete the extract folder.

This isn't what we thought we would do when we started, but at least it's working.

More Information:

As you also mentioned, the progress window for the extracting process opens behind the bootstrapper application window.

I'm not sure what in the bootstrapper is bringing the bootstrapper window back on top. Our UI has a progress bar, so perhaps a progress event is firing after the extracter has started.

We used a timer to give the bootstrapper time to process any events, then we enumerate Process.GetProcesses and look for ProcessName containing "extracting sql". When we find it we use SetWindowPos to bring it to the front.