[Testing] ioBroker on Windows

[Stabilostick]

There will be a new ioBroker setup for Windows.

The main purpose of the new setup is to make ioBroker as accessible as possible for all users.

Therefore, all setup functions are now integrated in a guided installer that works context-sensitive. The command line takes a back seat, but is still available. npm and iobroker commands can be executed as usual.

In order to make the setup experience as pleasant as possible, the installer integrates required software packages to prevent any problems with adding adapters later.

Since problems with Node.js and npm versions have frequently occurred in the past, ioBroker now has its own encapsulated and certified JavaScript runtime environment. If Node.js or npm is already installed on the machine, this is not a problem because they don`t influence each other.

A big change that comes along with the introduction of the new setup is the possibility to install and run several ioBroker server instances side by side on one computer. Each ioBroker instance runs in isolation using its own runtime environment and is configured individually. For security reasons, each instance uses a separate service account and has its own firewall rules. The service account that runs ioBroker has only rights to start as a service, modify-rights to its own ioBroker instance directory, and generally restricted access as an authenticated user.

Use cases for using multiple instances on a computer are the installation of various software development environments, the simultaneous provision of test and production environments, or the logical separation of individual ioBroker services from each other.

In detail, the ioBroker setup program installs and configures the following components:

Global software components, used by all ioBroker-instances	Version	OS	distribution point
Microsoft dotNet	4.7.2	32/64Bit	download
Git	2.21.0	32/64Bit	download
Bonjour	3.0.0.10	32/64Bit	build in
Bonjour SDK	3.0.0.10	32/64Bit	build in
OpenSSL	1.0.2q	32/64Bit	build in
Microsoft Visual Studio Build Tools 2017	dynamc	dynamic	download
ioBroker-instance specific software components	Version	OS
Python	2.7.15	32/64Bit	build in
Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable	9.0.30729.6161	32/64Bit	build in
Node.js	8.15.1	32/64Bit	build in
npm	6.9.0	neutral	build in
node-gyp	3.8.0	neutral	build in
ioBroker Core Server	1.4.2 stable	neutral	build in

Depending on the operating system, 32 or 64-bit versions of the software components are installed. To complete the setup, an internet connection is required. This setup program does not upload data.

Remarks

Since many thousands of files are copied to your computer and the download of Microsoft Visual Studio Build Tools 2017 has a size of up to 1.4GB, the actual installation takes some time depending on your system speed.

Requirements

• An internet connection is required to complete the setup. (The setup does not upload data.)
• The installation requires Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 or later.
• The Windows utility msiexec.exe must be at least version 5.0.
• Sufficient disk space (several GB).

To do

More functions for instance maintenance are going to be added. Uninstallation, upgrading the js controller, upgrading Node.js and npm, or integrating multihost operation are examples. A corresponding dynamic dialog is already integrated in the setup, but currently has no function.

For easy migration of existing ioBroker Windows installations, there will be an option to transfer the data to a new ioBroker instance. Again, the detection is already integrated, yet the implementation is to be done.

How ​​can I help?

Just download the setup (size about 80MB) and try it! Then give feedback here. Praise, criticism, suggestions. We are open for (almost) everything. The download link is at the end of this post.

For starting the web admin and the instance-specific command line, corresponding links are available in the start menu in the folder "ioBroker".

An existing ioBroker installation will not be touched. However, ports 8081, 9000, and 9001 are used by default for the first new instance, so there might be confilcts. In expert mode of the setup, the database ports and the port of the web port of the new instance can be adjusted to avoid these conflicts.

Since this is an alpha version of the installer, hopefully everything will go wrong, which can go wrong. Therefore, a detailed setup log will be written in the background during the installation. Please report problems here in this thread - indicating the operating system version and the corresponding error message from the setup log.

IoBroker installations created with the new setup should not be used productively. It can be assumed that before the general release of the setup program, there will be some development cycles and adjustments to follow your ideas and wishes.

How do I remove a test installation?

There are no uninstallers yet.

• Open the ioBroker(<instance>) command line from the Start menu.
• Run daemon\iobroker uninstall
• Close the command line again
• Delete the ioBroker folder of the corresponding instance with the Explorer (eg "C:\Program Files\iobroker<SmartHome>")
• Start the program regedit.exe as an administrator and delete the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ioBrokerGmbH\iobroker\instances\<instance name>.

Once again: How can I help?

• Download and try it! Install and test the adapter. Give feedback!!!
• Are there any adapters that require additional software packages to be installed manually in Windows for them to work? Write it in the comments!
• Translations for several languages ​​from the European area are still missing. If you can help here, you will find corresponding resources in the file 0a_languages.zip. Please do not translate keys and variables! The latter are easily recognizable as ${<variable>}, the former because they are in front of the "=".

List of implemented languages​​

If a language is missing, just report it here in the thread. It's not too much work to add a new one. Since Google & Co.-translate does not always give the best results, it would be great if you help with the languages ​​that have not yet been translated.

Setup language	language code	implemented in	contributor
German - Deutsch	de	0a	Stabilostick
English - English	en	0a	Stabilostick
Spanish - Español	es		You?
French - Français	fr		You?
Italian - Italiano	it		You?
Dutch - Nederlands	nl	0b	Dutchman
Polish - Polski	pl		You?
Portuguese - Português	pt	0c	littmar
Russian - Pусский	ru	0b	Bluefox
Turkish - Türkçe	tr		You?
Simplified Chinese - 简体中文	zh_CN	0b	Schumy Hao

Many thanks to all who contributed!

History & Download

File	Comments
iobroker-1.4.2.0b-windows-installer.exe	New: Optionally, change Windows Update policy to "Manual update procedure with notification" to prevent computer restarts due to automatic update installation (works after reboot). Added installer language support for nl, ru and zh_CN. Automatic clean up of aborted installations. Quit setup if a 3rd-party virus scanner is found. Quit setup if the Windows version is older than Windows 7 or Server 2008 R2. The admin license dialog at the first start is no longer displayed since the license setup was already approved in the setup. The admin language is set to the language chosen in the installer. Changed: Revised detection of an existing Visual Studio 2017 installation. Logging extended by software versions. Language file 0b_languages.zip as basis for your translations. Several spelling mistakes corrected.
iobroker-1.4.2.0a-windows-installer.exe	initial release, apha version
0b_languages.zip	Language files for anyone who wants to help with the translation

Known Issues
Version 1.4.2.0a

• It is recommended to switch off third-party virus before the setup program is executed. There are known problems with Kaspersky Internet Security and Bitdefender
• If third-party firewalls are used the user must configure to allow ioBroker network access.
• Discovery of already installed Microsoft Visual Studio Build Tools 2017 may fail. Will be fixed in the upcoming version.
• If an installation is aborted, remnants of the installation process may remain and possibly influence the next installation. Will be fixed in one of the upcoming versions.

---

This setup program is built with the cross plattform installer "InstallBuilder Enterprise". BitRock supports this project with free open source licenses.

[Stabilostick]

Version 0b of the Windows Installer is now online.

New

• Optionally, change Windows Update policy to "Manual update procedure with notification" to prevent computer restarts due to automatic update installation (works after reboot).
• Added installer language support for nl, ru and zh_CN.
• Automatic clean up of aborted installations.
• Quit setup if a 3rd-party virus scanner is found.
• Quit setup if the Windows version is older than Windows 7 or Server 2008 R2.
• The admin license dialog at the first start is no longer displayed since the license setup was already approved in the setup.
• The admin language is set to the language chosen in the installer.

Changed

• Revised detection of an existing Visual Studio 2017 installation.
• Logging extended by software versions.
• Language file 0b_languages.zip as basis for your translations.
• Several spelling mistakes corrected.

Uninstalling an old ioBroker installation is not necessary to test the latest version. Parallel installation is possible. Please pay attention not to use the same ports.

[SchumyHao 0]

To uninstall instance, stop it by daemon\iobroker stop first

[ap2017]

Thank you for your efforts, please update the official Windows Installation page http://www.iobroker.net/docu/?page_id=8390&lang=de