Trent wrote:

Welcome to Windows Installer. There are two basic options for any
moderately-sized product suite (such as DB2):

1. Delta image (only ship what is changed). Requires the full size of the
delta on your Windows drive as Windows Installer saves a backup copy there
just in case you want to repair your installation.

2. Full install image. Does not use up any extra space in locations you
cannot choose (i.e., you should keep a copy of the image somewhere in case
you want to repair, but it doesn't need to be on the same drive as Windows
itself, nor even the same machine!). Slightly bigger download.

As for it getting bigger and bigger: this is a natural consequence of adding
more and more functionality into DB2 without charging for it.

fixes. The problem is that the fixes are multi-lingual, multi-product file
replacements packages, rather than language and product specific patches. I
keep hoping that IBM will rethink their policy of assuming that everybody
has high-speed internet access, it may be true in U.S., but it isn't over
here.

"Darin McBride" <dmcbride (AT) naboo (DOT) to.org.no.spam.for.me> wrote

But surely you don't change every single byte in each fixpak? Also, aren't
you still bundling all of the languages into a single fixpak?

Can't you generate a patch rather than a full install image? Products such
as InstallShield Developer make this really easy to do for MSI installs such
as used by DB2 V8.

"Blair Adamache" <badamache (AT) 2muchspam (DOT) yahoo.com> wrote

We use Installshield for Windows, and did produce delta fixpaks for FP1
and FP2. However, there were many problems which were solved by moving
to complete refresh images:

1. DB2 is functionally rich, and has lots of files in its install image.
The Windows Installer technology does not scale well, and we had many
problems building delta images which were getting progressively worse
with each fixpak.

2. Using a delta consumes a lot of disk space on the machine where the
delta is applied: tt requires space equivalent to the size of the Fixpak
(FP2 is 420 MB) on the Operating System Drive for each fixpack
application, and that space is not freed until the product is
uninstalled. So if FPn and FPn+1 are applied as delta images, and if
each fixpak 500MB, 1 GB will be used on the O/S drive. The reason is
that the Installer has chosen to copy the patch file into a system
directory because it wants the ability to repair and recover in the
event of a problem during installation - with no regard the disk space
consumed. If you have multiple DB2 products installed, the fixpak is
copied to the OS drive multiple times. This means that for customers
who have two DB2 products installed, applying FP2 will require 840 MB on
the O/S drive, even though the fixpack is the exact same for both
products. During the fixpack installation process Windows Installer
copies the patch within the temporary directory, meaning that you must
have another two times the size of the fixpak available in your temp
directory to install a Microsoft Patch.

This behaviour was driving us crazy, so we went with full refresh images.

Mark Yudkin wrote:

I wonder how Microsoft solved that one? The Office XP fixpacks are delta
images; they demand the original CD and do not leave massive images behind.
But yes, the default behaviour is the one you mention.

"Blair Adamache" <badamache (AT) 2muchspam (DOT) yahoo.com> wrote

Blair,

"Also, aren't you still bundling all of the languages into a single fixpak?"

Yes, I believe we do this in v8.

vvm (AT) zsavs (DOT) ru wrote:

If you were to stop doing this, wouldn't that provide substantial
alleviation to the fixpak image size problem customers using conventional
56k modems are facing? Most of us know what language(s) we're using.

"Blair Adamache" <badamache (AT) 2muchspam (DOT) yahoo.com> wrote

True, but it would come at the cost of something else. We also allow
mulitple languages to be installed on Windows now, so splitting
languages may require us to write multiple fixpak CD support into the
software installer.

BTW, all fixpaks can be orered on CD.

Mark Yudkin wrote:

Over here, it can be quite a struggle to get thee CD, especially if you
don't have a Passport Advantage account. I try to copy the CD from
colleague.

BTW, we had a discussion about multi-lingual support not working. I received
a private mail from a colleague of yours in the lab; I replied by indicating
our failing configuration, and never heard (and it still fails).

"Blair Adamache" <badamache (AT) 2muchspam (DOT) yahoo.com> wrote