Distributing Releases to a Virtual Machine that InstallShield Provisions at Build Time or on Demand

Edition:The ability to distribute releases to virtual machines is available in the Premier edition of InstallShield.

Project:This information applies to the following project types:

Basic MSI
InstallScript
InstallScript MSI
Suite/Advanced UI

You can configure releases in your projects so that after each successful build of your installation, InstallShield automatically reverts a virtual machine (VM) to a designated snapshot (if one is specified), powers on the VM, and copies your installation to the VM to make it available for testing. You can also alternately perform these testing preparation steps on demand at any time. The testing preparation capability makes it possible to reduce testing time and eliminate manual steps.

The VM can be on a Microsoft Hyper-V Server, a VMware ESX or ESXi Server, or a VMware Workstation.

Requirements for Distributing to VMs

In order to deploy to one of the supported VMs, InstallShield needs to communicate with the virtualization technology that you are using. If you are using VMware virtualization technology (VMware ESX or ESXi Server or VMware Workstation), the VMware VIX API needs to be installed on the same machine as InstallShield. You can do this by either installing VMware Workstation on that machine or by downloading and installing the VMware VIX API from http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/vix-api.

If you are using VMware Workstation, it is recommended that you install VMware Workstation on the same machine as InstallShield so that InstallShield uses the version of the VIX API that was designed for that specific version of VMware Workstation. Although it is likely that newer versions of the VIX API will also work, it seems that the best approach is for InstallShield to use the version of the VIX API that was bundled with your version of VMware Workstation.

Configuring VM-Related Settings

To configure the VM-related settings for a release to enable distribution to the VM at build time or on demand:

1. In the View List under Media, click Releases.
2. In the Releases explorer, select the release that you want to configure.
3. Click the Events tab.
4. Expand the Virtual Machine area.
5. Use the Configuration setting to select the name of the group of VM configuration settings that you want to use when distributing the selected release to a VM:
To create a new VM configuration, click the ellipsis button (...) in this setting.
To edit an existing VM configuration, select it in this setting and then click the ellipsis button (...).

In both cases, the Edit Virtual Machine Configurations dialog box opens, enabling you to configure machine-wide VM details. For information on using this dialog box, see Edit Virtual Machine Configurations Dialog Box.

Note that when you specify VM configuration settings in the Edit Virtual Machine Configurations dialog box, InstallShield writes the data that you specify to a file called VMConfigurations.xml. This VMConfigurations.xml file is a machine-wide file that you can configure once and then use it in other InstallShield projects, as well as share it with other team members. You can also use this file on your build machine. To learn more, see Sharing Virtual Machine Settings for Distribution of Releases.

6. Configure the remaining settings in the Virtual Machine area as needed.

If you configure VM details in these remaining settings, you are overriding some of the machine-wide values that were entered on the Edit Virtual Machine Configurations dialog box.

For details about all of the settings in the Virtual Machine area, see Events Tab for a Release.

Tip:If you want InstallShield to distribute the release to the specified VM after each successful build, select Yes for the Distribute After Build setting.

To perform the staging steps for a built release on demand, right-click the release and then click Distribute to VM.