Microsoft Web Platform Installer

A while back I wrote about my experiences installing SQL (and additionally .NET 3.5 SP1) on a Windows Server 2008 VPS.  For various reasons I decided not to keep the VPS server at the time (mostly because of the cost, and the fact that I didn’t really have a strong need for it).  Recently, however, I’ve really begun to ramp up my ASP.NET MVC development work, and it’s blatantly apparent that I need a Windows server full time.  After shopping around for a while, I decided to go back to KickAssVPS.com and see what their packages looked like.  Having ordered my shiny new VPS, the next step was to get the environment configured for hosting my MVC applications.

Earlier this year I attended MIX09, and one of the key takeaways was the Microsoft Web Platform Installer.  Microsoft has realized that for the “average Joe,” setting up a new Windows-based web server with all the necessary configurations and supporting frameworks can be rather cumbersome.  This is even more obvious when you begin to work with IIS7, given the fact that the administration system has changed drastically.  The idea behind this specialized installer is to perform all of the work for you.  Sounds neat, huh?  Well after screwing around with my VPS for hours, I can tell you that things aren’t exactly as easy as they seem.  To make a very long story quite a bit shorter, I’ve found through my troubles that things need to be installed in a very specific order:

1. Grab the Web Platform Installer.
2. Open the “Web Platform” tab and ensure that you only install components from the “Web Server” and “Frameworks and Runtimes” sections.  You might be tempted to add in SQL Server 2008 Express, but don’t.  Trust me when I tell you this.
3. Once everything is finished (which will take forever), now you can attempt to install the SQL Server 2008 Express SP1 package, but don’t bother with the Express Management Studio because it will fail no matter what.  If you must have this package, I recommend purchasing a license for Microsoft SQL Server Developer edition and installing only the client tools on the VPS.  No matter which way I tried, I could never get the Express Management Studio to install properly.
4. Pray to the Microsoft gods that everything goes without a hitch.
5. If you’re lucky, you have a working Windows-based web server.

Good luck to the brave souls that wish to venture into this territory.  I had nothing but issues with it and I wonder if I wouldn’t have been more successful if I’d have just done it manually from the start.  Perhaps these issues are just because of the VPS environment that I’m installing in, but I can’t be the only one out there that uses a virtual server for their web deployments!