In reply to a previous comment I assumed that Windows 2008 was “close enough” to Vista and that Mapguide 6.5 would install no problem.  I was wrong.  When attempting the install I was prompted with an “MDAC Not Detected” warning.  MDAC you may remember is the old tyme “Microsoft Data Access Component” and 2.8 was one of the last releases.  MDAC has since been superseded and is apparently not included with Windows 2008.  Nor can it be installed.   I didn’t even bother contact Autodesk – I knew their response was likely going to start off with a good laugh, followed by something to the effect of “yeah that’s really old, you should probably just find an equally old Windows server.”  This of course is not an option =)   The good news though is that we can hack the Mapguide Server 6.5 installer and once installed Mapguide Server seems to run just fine.  Big thanks to Microsoft for all the effort they put into maintaining backwards compatibility.  Note this process may well work for Windows Vista and will probably work for Windows 7 – but I have not tested that.  Also – I should add this is going to be completely unsupported by Autodesk and will definitely be completely unsupported by me.  Please do the appropriate amount of testing before you put this into production.  That said, I’ve not noticed any problems with Mapguide 6.5 running on Windows 2008.

Getting Started

So to get started.  You’ll need a piece of free software from Microsoft called Orca.  You’ll also need your Mapguide 6.5 Server install which can be downloaded from Autodesk.    Once Orca is installed start the Mapguide 6.5 server setup.  The required MSI file that we need to edit is stored inside a single self extracting exe.  You can extract these files by launching the installer on your Windows 2008 server and starting task manager once the “MDAC Not Detected” error is displayed.   Make sure the “Show processes from all users” is checked and find “ServerInstall.exe”  Right click on this process and choose “Open File Location”.  Take a copy of these files and place them somewhere, preferably on your Windows 2008 server’s local drive.

**Update– thanks to Krzysztof Skwarek for pointing out that Orca is a bit of a pain in the ass to get ahold of.  I have the Windows SDK installed already so I didn’t notice this pain point.   Given that the platform SDK is freely available, I’ve uploaded the here for your convenience. (If this is a problem Microsoft, please don’t get litigious…just send me an e-mail to let me know. I’ll gladly take it down and make the good people download the 250MB platform SDK =])

Hacking the Installer and Installing

Next, fire up Orca.   Choose File / Open and browse to your copy of the installation files.  Select ServerInstall.msi.  In the left hand window scroll down and find “InstallUISequence”  Select that.  In the right hand pane find and select “MDACNotDetected” .   Right click on this row and pick “Drop Row”.  You will be prompted that this will permanently remove 1 rows.  Click Ok and save the msi.

Your installation is now hacked and will get past that error message when you run ServerInstall.exe.  Make sure your run this from a local drive.  When I tried to run the install from a network share, Windows “protected” me and it wouldn’t work.

At this point you can run through the installation process.

So where were we, yes installing.  When you get to the “Select Components” screen make sure that “ISAPI MapAgent” is selected.  By default is not installed.  Don’t be alarmed on the next screen when the installer tells you it will not create the virtual directory.  Like with Vista, the installer is not capable of dealing with IIS7.  That’s no problem as configuring Mapguide 6.5 on IIS7+ is pretty simple and we’ll go over that in a minute.  You may need to reboot once the installation is complete but after that the “Autodesk Mapguide® Server 6.5” service should be up and running.   Start / Run / services.msc will bring up the services.

IIS 7 Configuration

You’ll need IIS 7 installed with support for ISAPIs.  If you do not have this installed, Google can probably help you out.  Next start the IIS manager (start / run / inetmgr) .  First let’s create a new application pool.  Expand the server and choose “Application Pools”.   Right click and choose “Add Application Pool”.   Name the app pool (Mapguide6.5 might be a good name).  Set the pipeline mode to classic.   If you’re on a 64 bit version of Windows you must set the app pool to 32bit mode as Mapguide 6.5 is a 32bit app.  Right click on the newly created application pool and choose “Advanced Settings”.  Set “Enable 32-Bit Applications” to true.  This setting will only be available on 64 bit systems.  If you don’t see it – you probably don’t need to worry about it.

Now expand Sites and choose the web site you want to create the application (formerly called virtual directory) in.  Right click the site and choose “Add Application”.  Name the application Mapguide6.5.  For the physical path browse to C:\Program Files\Autodesk\MapGuideServer6.5\MapAgents (or Program Files (x86) on x64 systems).  Select our newly created application pool.

Finally we need to enable the ISAPI agent.  One last round of dirty trickery and we’ll have Mapguide 6 running.  In windows explorer browse to C:\Program Files\Autodesk\MapGuideServer6.5\MapAgents\ and make a copy of MapAgent_isapi.isa.  Name it MapAgent_isapi.dll.   In the inetmgr tree select the virtual directory and double click Handler Mappings.   Next we’re going to “Add Module Mapping”.  Set the request path to be MapAgent_Isapi.isa.  For module choose “IsapiModule”.   For executable browse to the newly copied MapAgent_Isapi.dll.  Set the name to Mapguide 6.5.  Click on the Request Restrictions button and choose the Access tab.  Click the Execute radio button.

**Update – thanks to Krzysztof Skwarek for pointing out that you can choose “Script” here instead of “Execute”.

You will be prompted to “allow this ISAPI” extension.  Click Yes.

The Test

At this point you should be done!  You can fire up a browser and test the isapi using the following url (assuming you used my default virtual directory name):

http://localhost/mapguide6.5/mapagent_isapi.isa?item=test

If you get the following results you should be good to go!

I considered posting the modified installer but I’m not sure if that would have been poking “the sleeping dragon”.  As much as I would like to help – I don’t need any nasty letters from the Autodesk legal team =).  If this is something you need done but you’re not comfortable editing installers or delving into the guts of IIS7,  feel free to contact me via ChasmX.   We’d love to help you out!

About Darrin Maidlow

Dad. Nerd. Ninja.
I'm a software developer. It's my passion. I work for a company named ChasmX and I specialize in helping businesses solve problems and save money using custom software. I have a significant amount of experience with AutoCAD, Mapguide, GIS, databases, spatial, n-tier architecture, nHibernate - all that kinda fun stuff.

In the handful of hours I'm not glued to my keyboard I also play a little guitar, I'm sometimes in a band call the midget militia. Married, with five dogs, and a one year old daughter. Number two is due in a matter of weeks!

Being stuck in a chair as a software developer for over a decade and a half was horrible for my physical self. In the past five years I've lost almost 100lbs and gained a whole new lease on life. I've become an avid practioner of P90X/2 and Insanity. I also do a bit of running and mountain biking. I used to be a competitive alpine ski racer as a teenager and I'm still an avid skiier.