VMware Horizon Community
begae60
Contributor
Contributor

Size limit of .dat file?

Dear VM-Community,

I'm trying since days to Thinapp Office 2010 following the steps from this guide:

http://blogs.vmware.com/thinapp/2010/08/step-by-step-instructions-on-how-to-thinapp-office-2010.html

Well, I created a .msi file for installation with a seperat .dat file as data container. The .dat file is over 3 GB huge. The installation is successful under Windows XP, under Windows 7 (x86), the installation crashes with the following error message:

Error: 1310. Error attempting to create the destination file: C:\Program Files (x86)\office_2010std (VMware ThinApp)\office_2010std.dat System error code: 131

I thinapped Office 2010 with ThinApp version 5/6, under XP / Win 7, but the result was everytime the same. I'm suspecting that the .dat file is way to big for the installation. Could this be true? If yes, what can I do? Compression is already turned on.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Best wishes,

Stephan Berger

Reply
0 Kudos
21 Replies
admin
Immortal
Immortal

Yeah, we seem to be hitting another .msi limit there. It works when you use "MSIStreaming=0" (include .exe/.dat in msi), since we basically extract the files ourselves. However, with MSIStreaming=1 we depend on the Windows Installer code to install files, and that doesn't seem to work when the .dat file is over 2GB.

Reply
0 Kudos
begae60
Contributor
Contributor

Thank you very much for that fast answer. I will test it on Monday and give you a feedback.

Best regards,

Stephan Berger

Reply
0 Kudos
coolriku
Contributor
Contributor

I have made office 2010 portable yesterday.

i have only exel word en powerpoint and my .dat file is 1.6 GB .

I did this on a clean windows xp SP3 install.

I did the prescan en install the office normaly en than I did the postscan.

it works fine.

sorry for the bad english, I'm Dutch

Reply
0 Kudos
begae60
Contributor
Contributor

Hello,

I tried it with MSIStreaming=0, but this time I've got the following error message:

Windows Installer

The system cannot open the device or file specified.

I attached an image from the folder, where the .msi file is placed, so you can have a look at the file size.

What's wrong this time? I captured and packed the whole project twice from scratch.

Thanks in advance.

Best wishes,

Stephan Berger

Reply
0 Kudos
coolriku
Contributor
Contributor

It was made for USB devices.

I do not use a MSI installer.

and this was my first project with Thinapp.

I do not know what that error is.

and sorry for bad english.

regards, Camiel

Reply
0 Kudos
Theta12
Contributor
Contributor

Sorry for reviving a dead post.  Did you find a resolution to this issue?  I have just thinned Office 2010 and I'm having the same issue.  I have to have Project and Visio installed and even after deleting the fonts, drive_c, etc, files that the quide tells you to do, my dat file is still over 3 GB as well.  Streaming works fine, but the MSI file fails to install with the same error message of not being able to create destination file.  I've searched this forum as well as support forums and was surprised to find that either no one else has had this issue or I'm still doing something wrong that everyone else has figured out on their own.

Reply
0 Kudos
kmgp
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Hi,


Could you please let me know the value of MSIStreaming parameter in your package.ini?


GURU

Views expressed in here are my own.
Reply
0 Kudos
Theta12
Contributor
Contributor

It is set to 1 as this package will be streamed for the most part, but it will have to be installed on laptops as well.

Reply
0 Kudos
kmgp
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Hi,


This is a known issue in thinapp472 release. The upcoming release is addressing it.


GURU

Views expressed in here are my own.
Reply
0 Kudos
Theta12
Contributor
Contributor

Any idea on when the next release is coming out?  We are trying to deploy this company wide and I'd hate to move forward with this version if the next one is coming out soon.

Reply
0 Kudos
kmgp
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Hi,

We are close the next version. Please speak to support on the exact dates.

GURU

Views expressed in here are my own.
Reply
0 Kudos
kmgp
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Hi,


But I am afraid if this issue is going to make it to the next release. Do you need a workaround for now let me know.


GURU

Views expressed in here are my own.
Reply
0 Kudos
Theta12
Contributor
Contributor

If there is another option that doesn't involve changing the streaming to 0, then yes, I'm all for it.

Reply
0 Kudos
kmgp
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Hi,


Could you please see if copying the entire bin folder (inclusive of the .DAT,.exes and .msi) onto the runtime machine and then installing it would solve the problem?

OR

You could copy the .DAT file onto the installation directory of the thinapp on the runtime machine, remove the reference of .DAT file from the MSI (Using Orca) and then installing the MSI normally.


GURU

Views expressed in here are my own.
Reply
0 Kudos
Theta12
Contributor
Contributor

Sorry for the delay as I was out of the office yesterday.  As with most projects, this all may be a moot point now.  They are now wanting me to split this out into three different thinapps (office, visio, project) with the possibility of all three running on one machine at the same time.  If I break them all out, it should drop me below the 2 GB size limit for the msi thereby negating all of this.  Isn't I.T. fun sometimes?

Reply
0 Kudos
kmgp
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Hi,


Do you hit this scenario again do consider the workaround and let me know the outcome.


Thanks

GURU

Views expressed in here are my own.
Reply
0 Kudos
elgwhoppo
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

I'm currently experiencing this currently with an Office 2010 package that has a 2.7GB dat file, using Thinapp Packager 4.7.3.

When I copy the DAT file locally when this error pops up and hit retry, the application installs and registers just fine. Any ideas on how to get this fixed besides reducing the DAT file below 2GB?

VCDX-Desktop
Reply
0 Kudos
elgwhoppo
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

We've opened a ticket with VMware support, I will post back up with the answer. I've already tried using the following parameter in the Package.ini which definitely gets the package under 2GB. Peter Bjork recommeded this here Optimize the package size without deleting project content.. | VMware ThinApp Blog - VMware Blogs.

[FileList]

ExcludePattern=*.bak,*.msi,*.mst,*.cab,*.msp

However, the problem is if I do this the Office Protection service breaks and Office will not activate. Works just fine as long as I include all the files captured originally. Even with the above compression parameter set, I still get at 2.7GB dat file.

VCDX-Desktop
Reply
0 Kudos
elgwhoppo
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

And the official word from VMware is: With version 4.7.3 there is no support for DAT files larger than 2GB for streaming MSI thinapp packages.

Hopefully we'll see it in Thinapp 5.

VCDX-Desktop
Reply
0 Kudos