To install Office over the network, first create a network installation server share by performing an administrative setup of Office, using the setup /a command, from the Office Installation CD-ROM.
Note Installations over the network should always be done from an administrative share, never from the CD-ROM. Installation over the network with the CD-ROM as a source directory is neither advised nor supported.
For more information about creating the administrative installation point, see Chapter 4, "Installing Microsoft Office," in the Microsoft Office 97 Resource Kit.
SMS compresses the Office files before copying the package to distribution servers. While SMS is preparing the files for distribution, it requires about three times the disk space of the office folder. For example, the files for Office 97 Professional fill approximately 325 MB, so you need an additional 1,000 MB (1GB) of free disk space to perform the compression.
The SMS drive on the computer on which you create the package must have disk space available as shown in the following table:
| Allow this much space for Typical installation | Allow this much space for fully customized installation |
uncompressed MSOffice files created by administrative setup | 273 MB | 640 MB |
two copies of compressed source files | 271 MB | 829.2 MB |
temporary file used during compression and decompression | 273 MB | 640 MB |
Total | 817 MB | 2109.2 MB |
In either case, the MSAPPS folder requires another 50.2 MB, which compresses to 28.8 MB. You will need this folder if you will be sharing MSAPPS components over the network.
In addition, each distribution server must have 273 MB of disk space available for the distribution copy of the package for a Typical installation, or up to 640 MB for a fully customized copy.
Use the administrative setup command to build a source directory.
To prepare the administrative installation point
Choose the location for the administrative installation point.
Make sure that there is sufficient disk space on the server for the source files.
Make sure that all folders are empty.
If a previous version of Office exists, move any custom templates you want to save, then delete all of the Office files.
You need read, write, delete, and create permissions to use these folders while doing the administrative installation.
Lock all folders to prevent network user access during the administrative installation.
Disable virus-detection software to prevent erroneous virus-detection triggers while Setup is running.
Make sure the client on which you will be running SETUP.EXE is using Windows 95, or Windows NT 3.51 or later.
Use the following command to start setup:
setup /a
This command copies the source files into a directory and creates an .STF file (OFF97PRO.STF for Office Professional Edition or OFF97STD.STF for Office Standard Edition) for use in network installations.
Important Do not use the .STF file located on the installation disks for a network or customized installation.
When you create an administrative installation point, you define where the shared MSAPPS folder will be placed on the network; this location is written into the .STF file. When Office is installed to run shared components from this MSAPPS folder, the MSAPPS location defined in the .STF file is written into the user's Registry.
SMS will distribute the Office installation package to the distribution server that is defined for a particular client, but it will not change the shared MSAPPS location defined in the .STF file. This means that even though a particular package may be sent to multiple distribution servers, all users of that package will share the same MSAPPS network location definition.
If you want different groups of users to share different MSAPPS folders, you first need to place copies of the MSAPPS folder on the servers you want to use for this purpose. You can do this by importing the MSAPPS.PDF file from the Microsoft Office 97 Resource Kit and running it as a Share Job on Server job. Edit the .STF file after it has been distributed to each server, as described in the Microsoft Office 97 Resource Kit, to make sure that the .STF file points to the server that the share is currently on.
Once you have the MSAPPS folder on different servers, you can give users access to the appropriate MSAPPS location in one of two ways: using drive-letter mapping and creating one SMS package, or using UNC paths and creating multiple packages.
Note During administrative setup, two MSAPPS folders are created. One, located within the MSOffice folder, is used when all Office components are installed on the client computers. The other, on the same level as the MSOffice folder, is maintained on the distribution server and is used when you install Office to use shared MSApps components.
By mapping the same drive letter on every user system to the appropriate MSAPPS server, you need only one SMS package for all users.
To use drive-letter mapping to define multiple MSAPPS locations
During administrative setup (setup /a) of Office, specify the location of MSAPPS to be a certain drive letter—for example, drive H.
Import the MSAPPS97.PDF, selecting the Sharing section of the PDF and pointing to the MSAPPS administrative share.
On each client, map the drive letter you specified in Step 1 to the server containing the MSAPPS folder appropriate for that client. You can use a logon script to assign the drive-letter mapping.
Create a single SMS package for Office using the administrative installation point you created.
For information about creating this package, see the next section, "Creating the Office Package."
Distribute this package to all clients.
When Office is installed using the package, Office Setup will define the drive letter you specified to be the location of the MSAPPS folder, and that drive letter will be mapped to the server appropriate for each client.
If you want to use drive-letter mapping, but cannot define a single drive letter for all clients and all MSAPPS servers, create one SMS package and edit the .STF file for each MSAPPS location. The procedures for doing so are described in the following section, "UNC Paths."
If you are using UNC paths to specify the location of the MSAPPS folder, create one SMS package and edit the .STF file for each MSAPPS location. This method is also used if you are using drive letters but cannot define a single drive letter for all clients and all MSAPPS servers.
Perform one administrative installation and make multiple copies of the .STF file, one for each MSAPPS location. The location of the MSAPPS folder is defined in the .STF file when you do the administrative installation. By using the Network Installation Wizard, you can modify the MSAPPS definition in each .STF file to point to a different network location.
To use multiple .STF files to define multiple MSAPPS locations
Run administrative setup (setup /a) for Office.
Copy the MSAPPS folder, and all subfolders, to multiple servers.
Make copies of the .STF file (found in the MSOffice folder) — one copy for each MSAPPS location.
Run the Network Installation Wizard on each .STF file.
In the dialog box in which you define the location of the MSAPPS folder, specify for each .STF file a different MSAPPS location.
Copy one of these .STF files to the MSOffice folder.
Create an SMS package for Office using the MSOffice folder.
For more information, see the next section, "Creating the Office Package."
Create a job to send this package to the distribution servers.
Either copy the appropriate .STF file to each distribution server after distribution is completed, or edit the .STF file on the distribution server.