PSADT Extension: PSADTWIM

The Toolkit Extensions
1

As alot of applications tend to grow in size both amount of data and amount of files, there is a need for a solution which contains all these files during distribution of the package.

I have created a simple extension which lets you put the installationfiles into a WIM (Windows Imagefile). Please let me know what you think.

EDIT: I just realised i wrote this in the wrong place. Can a mod move it please?

3 Likes
2

Interesting concept. Glad to see I’m not the only one thinking about things like this. I’ve been masticating a similar idea but couldn’t decide on the best route:

  1. Use Zip with little to no compression - Makes it easier for less seasoned techs manage the package.
  2. Use WIMs - I believe there’s a slight performance benefit to using a WIM over ZIP but I could be persuaded otherwise.

Thanks for sharing!

3

The main reason for going with WIMs are that you dont have to have double the space to use them. Just mount it and get access to all the files then unmount and everything is as it was before.

1 Like
4

That’s another valid point I think is often overlooked.

5

Well mounting/unmounting and compressing/decompressing are two different things. For simple tasks, it is not really worth the trouble to create a wim and then write code for using it, in my opinion.

7

I realised i posted this with my other account :slight_smile:

Well as i stated in the original post, this is only an issue where you distribute the package to alot of clients using a system (MEMCM) which makes one request to the distribution point per file. A package with 40 000 files will be slower to transfer than a package with 5-10 files.

In the organisation where i work, we package alot of applications using PSADT, some weeks its 5-10 applications. And if there are issues i am usually the guy who have to solve them. With that in mind its easier to have every tech package the applications in the same manner even if it adds a little complexity.

8

This module looks pretty interesting. I’m going to have to give it a try next week. Thanks.

I was reading this post today, Use a WIM to Deploy Large Apps via ConfigMgr App Model. It had a try/ catch/ finally that creates a scheduled task that will unmount the wim on next restart if it doesn’t unmount properly for some reason. Seems like a good idea. Have you seen that happen often or even ever?

9

There is always room for improvement :slight_smile:

I had some issues with “leftovers” but it was caused by faulty install scripts and sorted by adding the dismount in the catch of deploy-application.ps1.
I think but have not verified that the mounted WIM’s are not remounted at boot which makes a reboot a “fix all” problem when it comes to this issue.

The only problem I have faced is that Zero Config MSI-installs doesn’t work as expected. The WIM is mounted after running the logic which decides if it is a Zero config MSI or not. Because of this the MSI is never installed.
Quick solution is to run Execute-MSI even though it should be run as a Zero Config MSI.

Please let me know if you have any problems.

10

@Robert-LTH Great work. I also came across the same article about using WIMs for application deployments recently too. I think it’s a great concept integrating into PSADT. I hope to give it a go with some large apps like SAS and MATLAB and see how it goes.

Cheers!
Mac