AWS.Tools Offline Installer

[jakauppila]

Unless I'm mis-reading the AWS.Tools announcement, is there no longer an offline installer package for the new Powershell modules ?

We deploy to an air-gapped environment with no nuget mirror for proxying the PowerShell gallery and have relied on the AWSToolsAndSDKForNet MSI for installing the modules on servers; is it possible to do this with AWS.Tools or AWSPowerShell.NetCore?

[matteo-prosperi]

Hello,
I can confirm that the MSI installer only contains the AWSPowerShell version of AWS Tools for PowerShell. This is a conscious choice as we suggest using Install-Module instead as the preferred way to install AWS Tools for PowerShell.
Could you clarify if downloading the module from https://www.powershellgallery.com/api/v2/package/AWSPowerShell.NetCore/, moving it to the air-gapped environment and install it, either with Install-Module or manually (nupkg files arezip files and can simply be expanded in the PowerShell module folder), is an option? Or do you need the module to be available within the air-gapped environment instead?

[AdilHindistan]

@matteo-prosperi That suggestion is fine, if you already have a Windows server up and running but is far from ideal if you are building one and want to include the AWS Tools in it (say for a custom AMI from an on-prem build source) . Builds envs are usually secured and isolated, which means no internet access.
I like the approach with AWS.Tools but that 'choice' is not making it easy for some cases. Having an MSI for it would help your consumers adopt it.

[matteo-prosperi]

Thanks for the feedback. We are currently looking into this.
It is unlikely though that we will make the new modules available in the MSI, more likely they will be made available in a zip file instead.

[jakauppila]

A zip file works for us; there is no hard requirement for an MSI, just that an offline install is achievable with relative ease.

[AdilHindistan]

Same here. Zip file with instructions on how to install it (do we update the system path manually, or should it be dropped to a specificlocation that PowerShell checks for modules) would be fine @matteo-prosperi

[matteo-prosperi]

Hi,
starting with version 4.0.3.0 we have published public links to the .zip files for the modules. They are the following:

• https://sdk-for-net.amazonwebservices.com/ps/releases/AWS.Tools.4.0.3.0.zip
• https://sdk-for-net.amazonwebservices.com/ps/releases/AWSPowerShell.NetCore.4.0.3.0.zip
• https://sdk-for-net.amazonwebservices.com/ps/releases/AWSPowerShell.4.0.3.0.zip

At every release, we will publish new .zip files. Older modules will continue to be available as well for download.

We have also created some public links that will always track the latest version

• https://sdk-for-net.amazonwebservices.com/ps/v4/latest/AWS.Tools.zip
• https://sdk-for-net.amazonwebservices.com/ps/v4/latest/AWSPowerShell.NetCore.zip
• https://sdk-for-net.amazonwebservices.com/ps/v4/latest/AWSPowerShell.zip

The folder structure in the .zip files is such that they can simply be extracted in a module folder. Multiple versions can also be installed side-by-side without any extra work.

You can have a look at your $Env:PSModulePath variable and unzip the modules in one of the module folders listed there.
For example, on my machine

PS> $Env:PSModulePath
C:\Users\username\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Modules;C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules;C:\WINDOWS\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules

So I would unzip into C:\Users\username\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Modules, if I want the modules for my user. Or into C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Module, if I want them available to all users.
If you use both Windows PowerShell and PowerShell Core, they will have different modules folder.

[jakauppila]

@matteo-prosperi That is perfect, thank you!