installationchocolatey

Install multiple MSI Installer in with a single chocolatey package


I want to install a program silently on multiple machines using choco. The program supports more or less a silent install. It consists of 23(!) individual setups which are installed consecutively. It is 20 packages from the customer and 3 standard dependencies from Microsoft.

My question is: what is the recommended way for such a scenario?

I really have no idea which way is the best - also keeping in mind that I have to maintain this software. Any suggestion is highly recommended.


Solution

  • If you don't need to control the order of installation, then 23 packages is the way to do it.

    If the order of installation is important, then I would have one package with 23 installers. I don't like this, so it would be a 'it won't work any other way'. Doing it the other ways will lead to issues somewhere along the line, as it's a complicated setup.

    The packageName can be anything you want, of course. If it's a line of business application, for example, and the other 22 packages are simply dependencies (maybe .NET and many other things) then I would use 'my-line-of-business-application' as the packageName. If this is internal, and you know what the packagName means, then it's less significant to what it's called. However, bear in mind that at some point you might want to type it, or somebody may want to say it to you over the phone. So having something HUGE, even though it's very descriptive, may be something to avoid.

    My other suggestion is to join the Chocolatey Community hub (ch0.co/community) and ask there, as there is a lot of information missing from your question that could help inform a better decision.