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Are there any known issues/gotchas when installing all of NPM on a non system drive

I'm planning a migration/fresh install of NPM 12.1 or 12.2 with SAM 6.4 and NCM 7.6. I want to install everything on a non system logical drive (D:\) instead of the default (C:\).

I'm not too worried about the core software/platform getting put on \, but I'm wondering:

1. If there are any obvious issues with the IIS website/Orion UI or any of the other tools that come with NPM (SWIS support tools, permissions checker, database manager, etc.) or the add-on tools you can install (Engineers toolset, etc.)?

2. If there any components (or known directory paths) that, even if I tell the installer to put everything on \, will still install or utilize C:\? Things that come to mind as candidates are C:\Windows\Temp\ and C:\ProgramData\SolarWinds

3. If things still installed on C:\, with the likely exception of C:\Windows\Temp, has anyone gone through manually configuring these things for another location? If so, was it a pain to manage (like every upgrade/patch/restart wipes out the manual configs, you have to modify 100 xml files and make 50 registry changes etc). I'm not trying to be cynical , I'm just looking for level of administrative overhead/effort.

Edit: Short of the IIS website, I'm not concerned about the Microsoft software installed as requirements like .NET, or SQL client software, and MSMQ as I believe they will probably install on C:\, but 3rd party software like RabbitMQ or other components would be nice to know where they are put.

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Accepted answers

tigger2

Update: Found a link to this: Automating Orion Server Installs - Final Prep which has steps to move everything (and actually make junction points). Thanks KMSigma !

All comments

tigger2

Update: I installed a fresh NPM 12.1 [Orion Platform 2017.1.3 SP3] + SAM + NCM (whatever came latest with 12.1) specifying \ instead of C:\, and *not* changing the IIS install path.

A quick check is showing it appears it installs things in:

\Program Files (x86)\SolarWinds <- per my install instruction

C:\Program Files\[a few directories\things for dependencies like Microsoft SQL Server Compact Edition]

C:\Program Files (x86)\[a few directories\things for dependencies like Microsoft SQL Server Compact Edition]

C:\Program Files (x86)\SolarWinds <- appears to be for NCM stuff

C:\ProgramData\SolarWinds

C:\Windows\Temp [looks like file(s) and a SolarWinds directory]

C:\inetpub <- The installer asks to install IIS if it's not installed, so the default for IIS unless, I guess, I pre-install IIS in a different location first?

C:\inetpub\SolarWinds <- The installer asks for a location and I let it use the default, so it appears this may be "moveable" using the default installer\wizard.

So barring any other paths/locations and still ignoring MS related dependencies, is there a way to move these directories and have the move "survive" future patches/updates?

C:\Program Files (x86)\SolarWinds <- appears to be for NCM stuff

C:\ProgramData\SolarWinds <- not sure if this location is a MS dependency for apps, like C:\temp

Note: These are the only locations I can find that appear could "grow" in size appreciably on a default install:

- NCM will default a few folders to C:\[some dir], like the "Config-Archive" folder but these are changeable in the Solarwinds web UI.

- I believe the IIS default install with turns IIS logging on C:\inetpub\logs\... . Just manually turn it off for the SolarWinds website in the IIS manager after install. I'm guessing manually pre-installing IIS (before SolarWinds install) on a non-system drive would move the inetpub directory.

serena

You can create a junction and copy the files to the location specified for your junction.

tigger2

Update: Found a link to this: Automating Orion Server Installs - Final Prep which has steps to move everything (and actually make junction points). Thanks KMSigma !

KMSigma.SWI

No problem. I'm a huge nerd and all about optimizations wherever I can get them.