WiX installing SQLServerSpatial.dll and SQL Server 2008 R2?

Question

We're trying to update our WiX installer to install SQL Server 2008 R2. Regular 2008 seemed to install fine on most machines, but the R2 install seems to fail to install SQLSysClrTypes - so we hit an error with a missing dll called SQLServerSpatial.dll.

Is there a way to get the SQL installer to correctly install this? I have found some discussions of this issue online but no solutions, except for manually installing SQLSysClrTypes.msi after SQL Server.

We want the install to be silent and need the minimum of user interaction.

We're using WiX 3.5 & VS2010.

Edit

Further reading and thinking leads me to understand that SQL 2008 SP1 didn't install SQLServerSpatial.dll either, and it is changes to our code which have made this a requirement now. So my question has become simplier:

Can I configure the SqlServer install to include/install SqlServerSpatial?

or

Can I use WiX to install SQLSysClrTypes.msi (I would need the package.xml and product.xml)? Has anyone done this?

Answer 1

While I am unsure about the changes to SQL Server and why SqlServerSpatial.dll is missing, I can answer with regards to installing prerequisites using a bootstrapper.

Can I use WiX to install SQLSysClrTypes.msi (I would need the package.xml and product.xml)? Has anyone done this?

It sounds like you are using the visual studio bootstrapper. You can use the bootstrapper manifest generator tool to create the bootstrapper manifest (package.xml and product.xml) so that you can create a bootstrapper like you would for other prereqs (for example, the .NET framework).

Of course, if you are open to upgrading to WiX 3.6 (still in beta but pretty stable), you may use the new bootstrapper functionality called Burn to create package bundles in order to chain your packages together.