Microsoft SoftGrid Sequencing Best Practices
Microsoft's SoftGrid Team Blog isn't the most active of blogs, but when they do release stuff its always useful.
Late last week, the SoftGrid team put together some interesting and useful best practices...
...on what you should know when sequencing applications. Of the ones they posted, a few are immediately useful:
• Configure the SoftGrid Sequencer computer with at least two primary partitions. Make sure that the first partition, drive C, has the operating system installed and that it is formatted as NTFS. The second partition, drive Q, will be used as the destination path for the application installation.
• Always install your application to your Q: drive if possible. The SoftGrid Sequencer contains functionality to handle exceptions for applications that will only install to drive C but if you can install to your Q: drive you will have a better chance for success.• Configure the application in the Install Phase, then test the application in the Install Phase. After you complete the installation of an application, you may have to perform several manual tasks that are not part of the application installation process. These steps may involve configuring a connection to a back-end database, copying updated files, or performing other tasks. Perform these tasks in the Install Phase and then run the application to make sure that it works.
• Run the application until the program is in a static state in the Install Phase. You may have to run the application many times. For example, run StarOffice or run Acrobat multiple times to complete all registration requests and to complete all dialog box requests. These applications perform different tasks when you start them the first time, when you start them the second time, and in some cases, each time that you start them later. When you start the application many times, you can make sure that only relevant application code will be installed into Feature Block 1 during the Execution Phase.
• If using Windows Vista to sequence your app, if the application will be streamed to a SoftGrid Client computer that has User Access Control (UAC) turned on then be sure that UAC is turned on for the sequencing machine prior to the sequencing process.
Get the whole list of best practices on their blog at:
http://blogs.technet.com/softgrid/archive/2007/07/12/sequencing-best-practices.aspx
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