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Microsoft Web Platform Installer

Scott Anderson — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 23:20:00 +0000

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:

Grab the Web Platform Installer.
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.
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.
Pray to the Microsoft gods that everything goes without a hitch.
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!

.NET 3.5 SP1 on a Windows 2008 VPS

Scott Anderson — Tue, 05 May 2009 16:42:39 +0000

Recently I’ve been debating moving my site over to a Windows VPS. If I make this move, I’m hoping to take advantage of the new features available in Windows Server 2008 as well as .NET 3.5 SP1 and IIS 7. After some preliminary research, I decided to give KickAssVPS.com a try. Within a few hours of my order, they had my VPS up and running, and so far I’ve been fairly pleased with the performance.

When I logged into my VPS, one of the things I wanted to install right away was SQL Server 2008. In order for SQL Server 2008 to install, you must first have installed the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1. I figured it was no big deal and decided to let SQL handle my install. Once the installer got going, it immediately halted and displayed an error message telling me it couldn’t be installed. After checking the log file, I found the following:

WapUI: [2] DepCheck indicates Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0SP1 (x64) (CBS) is not installed.

Obviously on Windows Server 2008 SP1, the .NET Framework 2.0SP1 is already installed by default. Just to prove it to myself, I downloaded and ran the installer. Sure enough, it failed before it even started, telling me that it could not be installed on Windows Vista. So I began to poke around the VPS. One of the things that jumped out at me was the fact that the Windows Update service was disabled. When I checked with my VPS provider’s documentation, they indicated that Windows updates must be disabled because they are slipstreamed into the OS build. Updating your VPS through Windows Update can (and probably will) break it. Yikes!

After a bit more searching, I found a solution to the problem. It turns out that the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 installer requires the Windows Update service to be running, but you can still set your server to “Never check for updates.” By temporarily enabling the Windows Update service, I was able to install .NET 3.5 SP1 without a hitch. I hope this helps anyone else using a VPS, because it sure gave me a little bit of a headache!

Welcome to my… place?

Scott Anderson — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 03:54:00 +0000

It seems almost surreal, but I’ve actually got this thing up and running! I’m sure I’ll be changing things around the next few days. I’m not even sure if I’m going to keep this theme, but stay tuned! My goal for this blog is to catalog my work and a little bit of my life. I hope it’s of some interest to you.

I’ve got some projects brewing in my head right now. Recently I’ve found the amazing open source project Subsonic that allows users to stream content from their own music libraries across the internet. It got me thinking. I wonder if I could write a similar project using Silverlight. Considering the fact that I have almost no experience with Silverlight or XAML, things could get interesting!

So, my dear reader, I hope you enjoy what’s to come. I’m sure I’ll be cooking up some crazy code in no time. Thanks for stopping by. Welcome to geek# (yes that’s geek SHARP )