Most efficient way to create a layout for an offline installation of visual studio

Question

I have created a layout for an offline installation of visual studio 2019 (community edition).

This was done on machine1 which had internet access, using the command

vs_community.exe --layout c:\vslayout --lang en-US --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.Data --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.DataScience --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.ManagedDesktop --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.NetWeb --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.NativeDesktop --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.Office --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.Universal --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.VisualStudioExtension --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.SQL.SSDT --add Component.GitHub.VisualStudio

This worked and created the folder c:\vslayout on machine 1, approx 4.33 GB.

We then copied this to a network share.

We then wanted to use the to create an offline install on machine2.

So we copied the vslayout folder to machine2 i.e. to c:\vslayout.

Then to do an offline install on machine 2, from a cmd prompt as admin we used the following command:

c:\vslayout\vs_community.exe --noweb --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.SQL.SSDT

This start Visual Studio Installer, says its getting the installer ready (green tick for downloaded, installed)

Then "Getting things ready"

It then displays a list of workloads ( with several already checked). I untick to only leave "Data Storage and Processing". It says "Total space required: 2.39 GB"

There is an option to Install while downloading OR download all then install, but when i press install , it starts a download operation which wont work as there is no internet access.

Why is it trying to download resources when i am running the installer from the layout folder ? It should already have all the files it needs. The option to use --nocache when creating the layout does not work

Answer 1

Hello @Greg Booth,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A forum.

It should already have all the files it needs.

Yes. Sometimes, the installation will be blocked by certificates. Please try to open the vslayout folder on machine 2 and follow this document: Manually install certificates from a layout folder to manually install the certificates. After that install VS offline again, check if this works.

I think the vslayout folder has been generated correctly on your side, but if manually installing certificates doesn’t work, please try to use --verify and --fix parameters to verify and fix the vslayout(for example, vs_community.exe --layout c:\vslayout --lang en-US --add xxxx --add xxxx --verify --fix), copy and use the fixed layout folder to install VS again.

Besides, I notice that you ran c:\vslayout\vs_community.exe --noweb --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.SQL.SSDT command but leave "Data Storage and Processing" workload to be checked. Firstly, you need to use --noWeb instead of --noweb, secondly, if you just want to install "Data Storage and Processing" workload, try to use corresponding workload ID => --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.Data instead of --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.SQL.SSDT.

Sincerely,

Tianyu

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