Ufdjrw

I'm attempting to create an offline Visual Studio 2017 installation with network share and Ansible.

I'm having a hard time figuring out what exactly is going on since the installation loops(?) without much logging, the logs are often vague and more than often tells me that the bootstrapper is downloading files from Microsoft.

I'm wondering if there are easier ways to do this with Ansible.

I've used the following guides from Microsoft to try to make sense of things:

• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/install/create-a-network-installation-of-visual-studio?view=vs-2017


• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/install/automated-installation-with-response-file?view=vs-2017

Possibly problematic issue: https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/visualstudio-docs/issues/1531

The setup:

I've created a network share that is available as so:
\ShareVisualStudio2017

The share has (currently) no restriction while testing, so that means "everyone" can read its content.

The share is populated by the following layout command

vs_enterprise.exe --layout \<server>ShareDevelopmentVisualStudio2017 --lang en-US --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.ManagedDesktop --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.NativeDesktop --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.Universal --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.NetWeb Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.Node --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.NetCrossPlat --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.NetCoreTools --includeRecommended

Updated the Response.json (in the share) to

 "installChannelUri": "\<server>\Share\Development\VisualStudio2017\ChannelManifest.json",
 "channelUri": "\<server>\Share\Development\VisualStudio2017\ChannelManifest.json",
 "installCatalogUri": "\<server>\Share\Development\VisualStudio2017\Catalog.json",
 "channelId": "VisualStudio.15.Release",
 "productId": "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Product.Enterprise",
 "add": [
 "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.ManagedDesktop;includeRecommended",
 "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.NativeDesktop;includeRecommended",
 "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.NetCoreTools;includeRecommended",
 "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.NetCrossPlat;includeRecommended",
 "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.NetWeb;includeRecommended",
 "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.Node;includeRecommended",
 "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.Universal;includeRecommended"
 ],
 "addProductLang": [
 "en-US"
 ]

The share is combined with the role:

- name: Install Visual Studio 2017 
 win_package: 
 path: '\<server>shareDevelopmentVisualStudio2017vs_enterprise.exe'
 state: present
 product_id: Microsoft.VisualStudio.Product.Enterprise
 channel_id: VisualStudio.15.Release
 user_name: <DOMAIN><USERNAME> 
 user_password: <PASSWORD>
 arguments: 
# - --quiet
 - --wait
 - --norestart
# - --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.ManagedDesktop 
# - --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.NativeDesktop 
# - --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.Universal 
# - --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.NetWeb Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.Node 
# - --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.NetCrossPlat 
# - --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.NetCoreTools 
# - --includeRecommended

I'm running the playbook with the command with the verbose setting

ansible-playbook -i hosts utvClients.yaml -vvvv

Output

TASK [VisualStudio2017 : Install Visual Studio 2017] ******************************************************************************************************************************************************
task path: /mnt/d/dev/Ansible/roles/VisualStudio2017/tasks/main.yaml:2
Using module file /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/ansible/modules/windows/win_package.ps1
<192.168.56.101> ESTABLISH WINRM CONNECTION FOR USER: Ansible on PORT 5986 TO 192.168.56.101
checking if winrm_host 192.168.56.101 is an IPv6 address
EXEC (via pipeline wrapper)

The bootstrapper log on the host in the path C:users\AppDataLocalTempdd_bootstrapper_.log says this:

Beginning of the log. Start Time: 3/6/2019 9:43:56 AM
VisualStudio Bootstrapper:3/6/2019 9:43:57 AM: Commandline arguments = --wait,--norestart,--path cache="\<server>shareDevelopmentVisualStudio2017",--env,_SFX_CAB_EXE_PACKAGE:C:UsersAnsibletyzrpvdy.v4j _SFX_CAB_EXE_ORIGINALWORKINGDIR:C:UsersAnsible
VisualStudio Bootstrapper:3/6/2019 9:43:57 AM: Parent process name = tyzrpvdy
VisualStudio Bootstrapper:3/6/2019 9:43:57 AM: Parent process product version = 15.9.28307.423
VisualStudio Bootstrapper:3/6/2019 9:43:57 AM: CampaignId = 
VisualStudio Bootstrapper:3/6/2019 9:43:57 AM: ResponseId not available in 'vs_setup_bootstrapper.config'. Trying to parse filename.
VisualStudio Bootstrapper:3/6/2019 9:43:57 AM: loading config settings: -update --update --layout -offline --offline --locale --layout --originalworkingdir --installLayoutPath --env
VisualStudio Bootstrapper:3/6/2019 9:43:57 AM: DownloadURL = https://aka.ms/vs/15/release/installer
VisualStudio Bootstrapper:3/6/2019 9:43:57 AM: InstallLocation = C:Program Files (x86)Microsoft Visual StudioInstaller
VisualStudio Bootstrapper:3/6/2019 9:43:57 AM: OfflineFilePath = 
VisualStudio Bootstrapper:3/6/2019 9:43:57 AM: LayoutLocation = 
VisualStudio Bootstrapper:3/6/2019 9:43:57 AM: ExecutableArguments = /finalizeInstall install --in "C:ProgramDataMicrosoftVisualStudioPackages_bootstrappervs_setup_bootstrapper_201903060943571796.json" --norestart "--path cache="\<server>shareDevelopmentVisualStudio2017"" --locale en-US --activityId "d3c1a7c6-22ba-42af-9ce9-7ede1608e7be"
VisualStudio Bootstrapper:3/6/2019 9:43:57 AM: OSVersion = Microsoft Windows NT 10.0.17763.0
VisualStudio Bootstrapper:3/6/2019 9:43:57 AM: Starting to detect the existing VS and .Net...
VisualStudio Bootstrapper:3/6/2019 9:43:57 AM: Finished detecting the existing VS and .Net

First off: DownloadUrl is still set to aka.ms?
Am I not overriding it properly? Are there more things to consider?