Batch solution deployment between farms

Last week, we have mounted a new two-servers farm for our development environment. Among the task I had to do was to copy and deploy about 50 solutions (wsps) from the old farm to the new one. To do this, I wrote a console application to help me extract all the solutions installed and create at the same time a command file with the necessary StsAdm commands to install them in the new farm.

Here is what the console applications has to do :

- Create a folder "SolutionsToDeploy" where the WSPs will be extracted and the command file created.
- Iterate through the solutions in the solutions store, extract the wsp file and generate the Stsadm command needed to install it.

Here is the code :

Imports System.Text

Imports System.IO

Imports System

Imports Microsoft.SharePoint

Imports Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration

Imports System.Xml

Imports System.Web

Module ExtractSolutions

    Sub Main(ByVal args() As String)

        Try

            Dim solutions As SPSolutionCollection = SPFarm.Local.Solutions

            Dim Path As String = "SolutionsToDeploy/"

            Dim AllowGac As Boolean = False

            Dim AllowCas As Boolean = False

            ' Create the folder if it does not exist

            If Not System.IO.Directory.Exists(Path) Then

                System.IO.Directory.CreateDirectory(Path)

            End If

            'Create a file stream where StsAdm command will be added

            Dim wrt As System.IO.TextWriter = New StreamWriter(Path + "DeploySolutions.cmd")

            For Each sol As SPSolution In solutions

                'See if the parameters -AllowGacDeployment and -AllowCasPolicies are needed

                AllowGac = IIf(sol.ContainsGlobalAssembly, True, False)

                AllowCas = IIf(sol.ContainsCasPolicy, True, False)

                Dim strline As String = String.Empty

                'Extract the solution into a file

                Dim wsp As SPPersistedFile = sol.SolutionFile

                wsp.SaveAs(Path + sol.Name)

                'For every solution we need two commands : AddSolution and DeploySolution

                strline = "Stsadm -o AddSolution -FileName " + sol.Name

                wrt.WriteLine(strline)

                If sol.DeploymentState = SPSolutionDeploymentState.GlobalAndWebApplicationDeployed Or sol.DeploymentState = SPSolutionDeploymentState.WebApplicationDeployed Then

                    For Each wapp As SPWebApplication In sol.DeployedWebApplications

                        strline = "Stsadm -o DeploySolution -name " + sol.Name + " -url " + wapp.GetResponseUri(SPUrlZone.Default).ToString() + IIf(AllowGac, " -AllowGacDeployment", "") + IIf(AllowCas, " -AllowCasPolicies", "") + " -Immediate"

                    Next

                Else

                    strline = "Stsadm -o DeploySolution -name " + sol.Name + IIf(AllowGac, " -AllowGacDeployment", "") + IIf(AllowCas, " -AllowCasPolicies", "") + " -Immediate"

                End If

                wrt.WriteLine(strline)

                ' Execute the timer job

                strline = "Stsadm -o ExecAdmSvcJobs"

                wrt.WriteLine(strline)

                wrt.WriteLine()

            Next

            'Write the command file to disk and close the stream

            wrt.Flush()

            wrt.Close()

            wrt = Nothing

        Catch ex As Exception            

            Console.WriteLine(ex.Message)

        End Try

    End Sub

End Module

I executed the console application, copied the new folder created (SolutionsToDeploy) to the new farm and ran the command file (DeploySolutions.cmd). With one shot, all my 50 solutions were added and deployed to the new farm.

Hope this helps.