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Arshbeer_Singh
Level 5

Enable Roles and Features

Hi
I am stuck in a bit of a problem. I made a basic msi installation and now I found out that I need to enable roles and features before running it and the issue is I cant find anyway to do it. IIS needs to be installed as well which can be installed as a part of feature i guess. Now the solution I found was switch to an Advanced UI project. Is there a way to extendmy current basic MSI project to and Advanced Ui project, or any other way to enable roles and features?
Any help is really appreciated. Thanks!:(
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Arshbeer_Singh
Level 5

Please Help!!! It turns out that we are reluctant to use Advanced UI project. Is there a way now to enable roles and features in Basic MSI project????? a custom action or anythin? Any sort of help is greatly appreciated
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DLee65
Level 13

Look up how to use DISM from the command line. This should allow you to enable many roles and features. Note that there is a limitation for using DISM, it will not work on Server 2008 or Vista, only WIndows 7 / Server 2008 R2 and newer.
Here is an article that gives an overview of the command line: http://www.msigeek.com/343/introduction-to-dism-deployment-image-servicing-and-management

I am not certain how to do this myself without sitting down to write the actual code but that is where I would start my search. Then I can create a custom dll or exe that will execute the DISM commands, check that the feature is properly installed, and then add that to the prerequisites to install.

I do not think that for enabling features and roles really requires using the Suite / Advanced UI. The reason for using the Suite / Advanced UI is if you have multiple MSI packages to chain together, for example I am distributing SQL Server Express 2012 along with our application. At its core it is a MSI install in an EXE wrapper and we wanted to make installing the 'main' server tools optional. The Suite / Advanced UI allows this flexibility and the ability to overcome issues with SQL Server Express locking the install.
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DLee65
Level 13

I just used Powershell to display a list of DISM commands available to me on Windows Server 2008R2.

Open Powershell. I opened as administrator just in case
DISM /online /Get-Features /Format:Table

This will display a list of features available to you. It will list things like DHCPServer, FailoverCluster-FullServer, NetFx3, etc.

For this to work you will also need to verify that the system has a valid Internet connection. I think that a simple ping to google.com or something like that would work. The reason for this is that the required files may not be local and therefore will require access to the Internet to install.

you can use DISM /online /Enable-Feature /FeatureName:NetFx3 for example to enable .NET Framework 3.5 sp1 on Windows Server 2008 R2.
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Arshbeer_Singh
Level 5

Thanks Dan Lee! It was a great help indeed! I am working on your n tips and hopefully will be able to do it now!:)
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Arshbeer_Singh
Level 5

Hey.. I was wondering that if we want to avoid this command line utility can we add a prerequisite which is made of Suite Project ? The issue was what package would i choose for it. Any suggestions?
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