[WiX-users] How much of a web application deployment process should be packaged in a WiX MSI?

[Kai C. L. <kai...@gm...>]

Hi all,

I'm reviewing the design of one of my clients' web application.  One thing
in their system that stood out was a very long document that explains every
manual step of setting up their web app on a clean server.  They currently
have an MSI for the web app built using a VS deployment project, plus a lot
of other batch scripts for installing SQL databases, creating shared
folders, configuring file/folder permissions, etc.  I'm thinking if things
can become cleaner and more centralized by building one MSI that handles
everything.  Then later, they can build uninstallable MSPs to service their
applications instead of sending their customers some zip archives with
updated scripts and DLLs.  Since WiX exposes a lot of the power in MSI, I'm
thinking that WiX might allow such an all-in-one installer to be built.

However, the more I think about it, the more I wonder if that's the right
approach.  Is it really good practices for a WiX-authored MSI to do the
following?

   - Install and configure SQL databases: I see that there's support in WiX
   to run SQL scripts.  However, I don't fully understand how to handle the
   "uninstall" scenario - I have to produce a set of complementary scripts to
   undo the original SQL scripts, right?
   Similarly, if I am to create an MSP for adding a row in a database table,
   I need to make sure the MSP will remove this record on uninstall, even
   though it might no longer be there.
   - Share folders and configure file/folder permissions: are there native
   support in WiX to do so or do I have to write custom actions?
   - Configure IIS: is it easy to configure IIS through WiX MSI, such as
   setting up a site/virtual directory, configuring SSL and Windows
   authentication, etc?
   - Deploy SQL Server related material such as Reporting Services reports
   and report models.  It's easy to script them, but I know that it's evil to
   use script custom actions.

I'm new in WiX so my apology if the questions above sound stupid.  I just
want to see if there's something I can/should do to improve my client's
set-up story.  Thanks a lot for reading my message!

Kind regards,
Anthony