Installation process

[evgenyb]

Some issues to discuss:

As part of installation and post-install customisation process we need to get the following information from the user:

• installation destination folder
• application port
• administrator username / password (or just username if running in intranet with AD)

Installation folder will be covered by the installer (either Wix or others). Now, when it comes to port, host, DbPath, LogsPath and administrator credentials there are at least 2 possible ways to handle it:

1. Web-based management - when application starts for the first time it asks user for all necessary information.
2. Desktop-based management - we provide management application, where user can customize all settings.

There are pros and cons with both solutions, so I just want us to write our thoughts here.

Web-based management Pros:

• no desktop application
• no need to remotely login to the server
• less deployment units to maintain/update/patch
• easy access with web browser from any PC within same network

Cons:

• additional start-up logic in web application
• if settings are stored in windows service .config file, changing .config file from service itself sounds like a smell for me...
• can't get access to management functionality if hosting service is down

Desktop-based management Pros:

• separation of responsibilities -> api and web do their job and so does management application
• event if hosting service is down, admin still can run management app

Cons:

• admin has to remotely login to the server to get access to Management app
• additional development unit
• additional deployment unit

Examples:

TeamCity - web based Octopus - desktop based

[tnicolaysen]

I think all of these params could be decided during the installation. If you need to change it, we could make it available through the "modify" option in "Add/Remove programs. I'm not sure how many people are using this, but we could explain this in the manual. I think this is easy to support in Wix.

The more "advanced" option could be just to edit the App.config and restart the service.

I personally don't think these params are necessary to change that often.