Tag: PHP

I have noticed a few questions on forums.iis.net related to being unable to install PHP Manager using the Web Platform Installer. The WPI logs are usually pretty good at showing why an install failed. In this instance, the following was listed:

ERROR : [01/24/2014 09:37:49:386] [VsdLaunchConditions ]: Custom Action failed with code: ‘1603’
INFO : [01/24/2014 09:37:49:386] [VsdLaunchConditions ]: Custom Action completed with return code: ‘1603’

This return code points to an issue with the MSI installer and I was unable to locate anything even remotely associated with what was causing the failure after multiple web searches. In the same forums thread, another user mentioned performing a manual install of PHP Manager on the same server and received a much more descriptive and helpful error. The install failed stating that .Net Framework v2.0 is required.

The .Net framework versions are not enabled by default on the newer server operating systems. To remedy this issue, use the Add Roles and Features option within Server Manager. Add the .NET Framework 3.5 Features (and any required dependencies). Once you have completed this install, you will be able to successfully install PHP Manager using WPI.

Terri is a Microsoft MVP (ASP .NET/IIS), an MCSA: Windows Server 2012, and a Support Specialist at OrcsWeb, a hosted server company providing managed hosting solutions

Updated since WebPICmd.exe is now included with WebPI rather than as a separate download.

I have come across several forum posts by individuals about doing offline installs for computers that do not have internet connectivity. This should apply to most servers within a corporate environment. A server should only have internet connectivity if there is a business reason for it. Since I have come across this multiple times, I figured I would write a blog about it.

There is a command line utility that is included with the Web Platform Installer. You can find it here. Once you have installed WebPI, the WebPICmd.exe (command line installer) will be located in c:Program FilesMicrosoftWeb Platform Installer.

I wanted to use this application to prep for a PHP54 and PHPManager offline install. The beauty of this application is that it determines dependencies and downloads those as well if they are not already installed. For best results, you would want to run this on a machine that closely matches the machine that you are going to be porting the offline cache data to so that you don’t run into issues where you did not download a dependency that the target server needs. You can use All as the Product specification which literally creates an offline cache of all packages in the WPI feed. If you are not sure what you need on the target server, this is the safest option to ensure that you have everything you need when you start, but can be time consuming.

To begin with, I decided to take a look at what was installed on the server I was running this test on. To gather this information, I ran the following command:

c:Program FilesMicrosoftWeb Platform InstallerWebPICmd.exe /List /ListOption:Installed

This returned a list of all applications that have been installed by WebPI.

I then wanted to see all available installation packages so I ran the following command:

>c:Program FilesMicrosoftWeb Platform Installerwpicmd.exe /List /ListOption:Available

This provided a list of applications that could be installed or cached locally for future install. This is a snippet of the output from this command.

The software that you obtain using the Web Platform Installer Command Line Tool
is licensed to you by its owner.  Microsoft grants you no rights for third party
software.
Successfully Loaded Feed : https://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9783679

Current language of installers is English

–Available Products
ID                   Title
—————————————-
AdvancedLogging      Advanced Logging
AppFabric            Windows Server AppFabric
ARRv2Update          Hotfix for Application Request Routing 2.1
AzureNodePowershell  Windows Azure SDK for Node.js – May 2012
AzureNodeSDK         Windows Azure SDK for Node.js – August 2012
AzurePHPSDK          Windows Azure SDK for PHP – August 2012
AzurePythonSDK       Windows Azure SDK for Python – June 2012
AzurePythonSDKCore   Windows Azure SDK for Python (Core) – June 2012
CustomLogging        IIS: Custom Logging
DACFX                Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Data-Tier Application Framework (
Latest)
DACFX_11_0           Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Data-Tier Application Framework 1
1.0 (April 2012)
DBManager            Database Manager 1.0
DbManagerUpdate      Database Manager 1.0 Hotfix
Django               Django 1.4 (Python)
DynamicIPRestrictionsRTW Dynamic IP Restrictions 1.0

Since I wanted to install PHP54 and PHPManager on my server, I scrolled through the list until I located those products to determine what the ProductID was.

PHP54                PHP 5.4.24
PHPManager           PHP Manager for IIS

I then ran the command to create an offline cache of these two applications and any dependent applications for install purposes.

>C:Program FilesMicrosoftWeb Platform InstallerWebPICMD.exe /Offline /Products:PHP54,PHPManager /Path:c:appsinstall

This created a local cache copy of all necessary data to install these packages with no internet connectivity. It also provides the exact command line to run to complete the install.

To use the new offline feed, please run the following from the command line:
WebPICmd.exe /Install /Products:<products you want> /XML:<Offline main feed>
Done !

Now for the fun part. I copied my offline-wpi directory to a USB drive and moved it over to a server that I had disabled the network card on. I created the same directory structure that I had on the original server (c:apps) and copied the offline-wpi folder to this location. That way I didn’t have to do any manual modification of the files that were created originally. The file location is listed in the xml file.

On the target machine, I opened a command prompt and entered the information from the Offline main feed output from the creation of the offline cache.

>c:Program FilesMicrosoftWeb Platform InstallerWebPICmd.exe /Install /Products:PHP54, PHPManager /XML:/c:/apps/install/feeds/latest/webproductlist.xml

After the install information is loaded, you are prompted to accept the license terms for each of the applications to be installed. Answer Y and the application is off to the races installing the requested applications. And last but not least, I had SUCCESS.

Verifying successful installation…
PHP Manager for IIS                                True
PHP 5.4.0                                          True
Install of Products: SUCCESS

Upon opening IIS Manager on the server, the PHP Manager plug-in icon was available for use and easy of administration of the installed PHP instance.

This is a very nifty tool that can provide nicely packaged applications for those protected servers that do not have internet access to download and install the applications natively.

I hope you find this information helpful.