compress or not to compress?

[mikemcg12]

When assembling a package, will the package build slower if I compress it? Is there any benefit to compressing the package?

 

[winterc]

Correct me anybody if I am wrong. Compressing your packages will improve deployment performance to your clients. If you build an update package it will update a parent package but not the compressed parent package, therefore, you must recompress the parent package to get the updates. I just deploy a full package and then deploy the update packages separately. I am just used to doing this as I don't update that often.

WIN\SQL 2K, WEB 5.0.2, ERP 8.9

 

[lalit90210]

You need to take compress option only in Full Package ignore while
making update package and as rightly said by winterc..later u need to
recompress only parent package..

Cheers ,
Lalit Ranka
Deloitte.
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[antoine_mpo]

Hi,

I always compress my packages (full and updates).
Indeed, the parent package is not recompressed after an update package, so from time to time, i recompress the full package (there is a procedure to do so, using the package build history), otherwise when you install a fat client, it uses the old compressed files.
Furthermore i was really happy to use compressed full package a few weeks ago :
I killed an update package during its build and it seems it corrupted my parent full package : i couldn't build any update package (i get errors in a tam file update in the parent package). Hopefully i had recompressed my full package a few days ago. So what i did was to get the spec files in the compressed archive to replace the non compressed files. It saved my life !
Even if your compressed files are not up-to-date, you can use them to replace a corrupted file in the parent package. After replacing the wrong files, you just need to relaunch the build of the client package (using the build history, selecting the client package and click on "resubmit"). As you didn't change the status of the package built, it won't completely rebuild the package, it will just update the parent package. (To check that, just try and take a look at the log files of the update package).

Hope this help.

 

[sashton]

I don't compress my Full packages. So far it hasn't been an issue at all and my full builds are completing in under 6 hours.

 

[Bob_Duben]

The compression portion of a full build is about 1/2 hour.
It is there mostly to spare bandwidth during a deployment.
Try updating 200 FAT clients on a Monday morning and see how your network moves like molasses.
So the main benefit of saving build time is probably second to the two other benefits.
a. less bandwidth saturation of your network.
b. without compression deploying a full package will have all subsequent update packages in it.
But then you would miss out on the fun of spending 1/2 the day sitting in someone else's chair installing a full package then a dozen updates on their new PC.

 

[mikemcg12]

As always everyone has been more than helpful. Now if I could only get my full package builds down to less than six hours like one person mentioned. My full package builds take like 18 hours. UGH!

 

[winterc]

I have found that package builds vary a lot from one site and version to another. I had full package builds on B7332 running for 2 hours. Since the upgrade to B9 on a newer faster deployment server my builds are 8 hours. I have gone through all recommendations and still cannot increase the speed.

 

[Bob_Duben]

Mikemcq12,
Tell us a little more about your deployment server and enterprise server hardware. It would also be good to know how long the Client protion of your build takes as opposed to the Server portion.
We could give you some times based on what we have seen.
My builds are about 12 to 15 hours for full builds. My client portion is about 5 hours. I also have 15 languages to deal with.

 

[mikemcg12]

The client portion only takes about 4 hours maybe 5. The server is about 13 - 14 hours. I'm not overly concerned with the build time yet. We are planning on upgrading in late jan. Well depending on how this afternoon's meeting goes. With oracle taking over peoplesoft we're wondering if its worth upgrading from XE to 8.10. Also hopefully moving to NT servers opposed to our current AS400. So I guess I should have a better idea this afternoon as to whether or not I want to take the time to try and speed up the package builds.