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sudeep
Level 3

Web Installer Size in IA 2008

Hi There,

While creating web installer with size limit of > 2 GB we are getting following issues:

-- The installer is takes considerable amount of time to build with integrated conent(approx 20-25min per build).
-- The Win executable generated from installer is taking more time to launch when clicked (7-8 min on Win Vista)
-- The installation process time has also increased for each build.
-- The installation hangs for web installer with build size > 2 GB.
-- The installer is also breaking when we are including too many Zips inside the installer.

Is there any restriction on the size of the build that a IA 2008 based web installer can handle??

Prompt reply would be appreciated!!

Thanks
Sudeep
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(5) Replies
pv7721
Level 20

Well, it definitely looks like you're toying with installer's limits, knowing that AFAIK, the web installer is nothing but a big intelligent .zip archive:

The original ZIP format had a 4GB limit on various things (uncompressed size of a file, compressed size of a file and total size of the archive), as well as a limit of 65535 entries in a zip archive. In version 4.5 of the specification (which is not the same as v4.5 of any particular tool), PKWARE introduced the "ZIP64" format extensions to get around these limitations. Zip64 support is emerging. For example, the File Explorer in Windows XP does not support ZIP64, but the Explorer in Windows Vista does. Likewise - some libraries, such as IO::Compress::Zip in Perl, have new support for ZIP64, while others, such as Java's built-in java.util.zip, still lack it.


The above quote comes from the Wikipedia entry for the .zip file formaT... While it is true that you might be only at the half of the theoretical size limit, maybe you're getting close to the number of entries?

A thing to try first: Try not to build a web installer but a CD-ROM one: do you experience the same issues?

I don't know about Vista, but maybe some scanning for signature (or God else knows what) takes more time (so it's Vista only, it doesn't happen on XP for instance?)

So getting back at the beginning, at the fact that the installer itself is a big .zip file, putting zips inside of it it is obviously not a good idea (you gain nothing in terms of compression).

For the other issues, hanging and breaking I'm afraid you'll need to be a little more explicit: when does it hang and how does it break?

Maybe it'll be interesting to post the project in order to see if there's anything peculiar or that can be optimized...
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sudeep
Level 3

Hi,
Appreciate your quick response.

We have tried following options of placing the content of 2 GB:

i) Single zip/multiple zips then integrating these within the installer
ii) Integrating the build in unzipped form.
iii) Install Speed Folder
iv) CD/DVD ROM option

But unfortunately we are unable to get success in our task. The installation process still hangs at the starting at install stage. We have also checked for the number of entries and that are about 11000 files which is also within the limit.

Can you suggest any place where web installer size limit is defined? Or have you ever encountered build sizes of 2GB or more for web installers? What's the best approach for building installers when the build size is heavy and it needs to be integrated within the installer.

Note: We can't upload the project as the build is quite heavy.

Regards
Sudeep
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pv7721
Level 20

Personally I have no experience with such a size for installers, but if you search through these forums I think there were a couple of users which also experienced issues with such sizes.

Again, I'm asking you, where exactly does it hang? Does it install anything (at least the jre, if any?) When you played with different options did it always hang at the exact same spot or at different places?

What you can also try is to download the IA 2009 SP 2 evaluation and see if it changes anything (if I'm remember correctly in some newer version they've made some optimizations by putting only in the final once possible duplicates).
The above makes me think about one more question: in the Build/Distribution have you checked the Optimize Installer Size by Platform? If not, please do and try again!

I didn't ask for the whole build folder, just the .iap_xml file (that shouldn't be too big? If it is it can be zipped).
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sudeep
Level 3

Hi,
Thanks for your follow up on this issue.

The installer is hanging at the same spot with all the options mentioned in my previous post. And it hangs at the start itself, without installing the jre.

We also downloaded and tried this with IA 2009 SP2 evaluation version as suggested by you but of no help.

Anyhow, for the time being we have convinced our Client to reduce the volume of data to be integrated with the build.

Note: Its not possible for us to share the .iap_xml file coz of code-sharing binding on us. Hope you understand.

Hoping to see any workaround in future for the same.

Thanks
Sudeep
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pv7721
Level 20

In this case the only option you have is to contact Flexera Software support and either they find this to be a bug or maybe they can provide consulting on this issue.
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