NanoServerPackage Provider

A PackageManagement (aka OneGet) provider to find and install Optional Windows Packages (Windows feature and role) for Nano Server. For general information about these packages, please refer to the guide on Deploy Nano Server.

Note

The public version 0.1.1.0 of NanoServerPackage Provider from the PowerShellGallery.com only supports Nano Server with Technical Preview 5 (TP5) version, i.e. 10.0.14300.1000, that is public in April 2016, and vice versa. It DOES NOT support Nano Server WS2016 GA version 10.0.14393.0. Please update your Nano Server to WS2016 GA release and install the latest version of the provider.

Installing the provider

You can find and install Nano Server packages from the online package repository by using the NanoServerPackage provider of the PackageManagement PowerShell module. To install this provider, use these cmdlets:

Install-PackageProvider NanoServerPackage
Import-PackageProvider NanoServerPackage

NOTE If you experience errors when running Install-PackageProvider, check that you have installed the latest cumulative update (KB3206632 or later), or use the following steps to install the latest version of the provider:

Save-Module -Path "$env:programfiles\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\" -Name NanoServerPackage -minimumVersion 1.0.1.0
Import-PackageProvider NanoServerPackage

To install the TP5 version of the provider 0.1.1.0 that works for TP5 OS version 10.0.14300.1000, use the following steps.

# Your Nano Server OS version is 10.0.14300.1000
Install-PackageProvider NanoServerPackage -requiredVersion 0.1.1.0
Import-PackageProvider NanoServerPackage

There are two sets of cmdlets provided in NanoServerPackage provider. The first set is specific to the provider:

Find-NanoServerPackage
Save-NanoServerPackage
Install-NanoServerPackage

The second set is generic PackageManagement cmdlets:

Find-Package
Save-Package
Install-Package
Get-Package

The provider needs to be loaded in PowerShell before you can use any of the cmdlets. You can load the provider by running Import-PackageProvider NanoServerPackage.

Searching for Windows Packages

Both Find-NanoServerPackage and Find-Package search and return a list of Windows Packages available in the online repository. You may want to provide -ProviderName NanoServerPackage to Find-Package so that OneGet will not use other providers. In addition, when using the generic OneGet cmdlet, you can also use a -DisplayCulture switch so the culture of the packages will be displayed.

Example 1

Find the latest version of any Windows Packages that match a given name. Wildcard is also accepted

Find-NanoServerPackage -Name Microsoft-NanoServer-Containers-Package
Find-NanoServerPackage -Name *Containers*

OR

Find-Package -ProviderName NanoServerPackage -Name Microsoft-NanoServerPackage-Containers-Package -DisplayCulture
Find-Package -ProviderName NanoServerPackage -Name *Containers* -DisplayCulture

Example 2

Find the latest version of all available Windows Packages. The available cultures for each package are also displayed

Find-NanoServerPackage

OR

Find-Package -ProviderName NanoServerPackage -DisplayCulture

Example 3

Find the latest version of all available Windows Packages with culture en-us

Find-NanoServerPackage -Culture en-us

OR

Find-Package -ProviderName NanoServerPackage -Culture en-us -DisplayCulture

Example 4

Find Windows Packages that have a certain version using -RequiredVersion

Find-NanoServerPackage -RequiredVersion 10.0.14393.0

OR

Find-Package -ProviderName NanoServerPackage -RequiredVersion 10.0.14393.0 -DisplayCulture

Example 5

Find Windows Packages within a certain version range using -MinimumVersion and -MaximumVersion. The latest version of a package that satisfies the version range will be returned. For example, if the minimum version specified is 5.0, and the package have version 1.0, 5.0, 6.0 and 7.0, then the 7.0 version of the package will be returned.

Find-NanoServerPackage -MinimumVersion 10.0

OR

Find-Package -ProviderName NanoServerPackage -MinimumVersion 10.0 -DisplayCulture

Example 6

Find all available versions of a Windows Package using -AllVersions switch. This switch can also be used with -MinimumVersion and -MaximumVersion but not with -RequiredVersion.

Find-NanoServerPackage *Containers* -AllVersions
Find-NanoServerPackage *Containers* -AllVersions -MinimumVersion 10.0

OR

Find-Package *Containers* -ProviderName NanoServerPackage -AllVersions -DisplayCulture
Find-Package *Containers* -ProviderName NanoServerPackage -AllVersions -DisplayCulture -MinimumVersion 10.0

Installing Windows Packages Online or Offline

NOTE If you install an optional Nano Server package from media or online repository, it won't have recent security fixes included. To avoid a version mismatch between the optional packages and base operating system, you should install the latest cumulative update immediately after installing any optional packages and before restarting the server.

You can install a Windows Package (including its dependency packages, if any) using either Install-NanoServerPackage or Install-Package. If you want to install the package to an offline NanoServer image, you can specify the path to the offline image with -ToVhd parameter. Otherwise, the cmdlets will install the package to the local machine.

Both cmdlets accept pipeline result from the search cmdlets. The culture of the package has to match the culture of the machine you are installing it to for the package to work properly. The cmdlets have auto-detection logic that will determine the suitable culture.

Example 1

Installing the latest version of the Containers package to the local machine

Install-NanoServerPackage -Name Microsoft-NanoServer-Containers-Package

OR

Install-Package -ProviderName NanoServerPackage -Name Microsoft-NanoServer-Containers-Package -DisplayCulture

Example 2

Install a package that depends on other packages. In this case, the dependency packages will be installed as well.

Find-NanoServerPackage *scvmm-compute* | install-package

Example 3

Install the latest version of the DCB package to an offline NanoServer image.

Install-NanoServerPackage -Name Microsoft-NanoServer-DCB-Package -ToVhd C:\OfflineVhd.vhd

OR

Install-Package -Name Microsoft-NanoServer-DCB-Package -ToVhd C:\OfflineVhd.vhd -ProviderName NanoServerPackage -DisplayCulture

Example 4

Install the Containers package by piping the result from the search cmdlets. Please do not specify -ProviderName on the Install-Package cmdlet if you use it this way.

Find-NanoServerPackage *Containers* | Install-NanoServerPackage

OR

Find-Package -ProviderName NanoServerPackage *Containers* | Install-Package -DisplayCulture

Dowloading Windows Packages

You can download a Windows Package (including its dependency packages, if any) without installing it by using Save-NanoServerPackage or Save-Package cmdlets. Both cmdlets accept pipeline result from the search cmdlets. These cmdlets will download both the base package and the language package. If you do not specify the -Culture parameter, the culture of the local machine will be used.

Example 1

Download and save the Containers package to a directory that matches the wildcard path using the culture of the local machine.

Save-NanoServerPackage Microsoft-NanoServer-Containers-Package -Path C:\

OR

Save-Package -ProviderName NanoServerPackage Microsoft-NanoServer-Containers-Package -Path C:\ -DisplayCulture

Example 2

Download and save version 10.0.14393.0 of the Containers package with de-de culture to the current directory.

Save-NanoServerPackage Microsoft-NanoServer-Containers-Package -Path .\ -Culture de-de -RequiredVersion 10.0.14393.0

OR

Save-Package -ProviderName NanoServerPackage Microsoft-NanoServer-Containers-Package -Path .\ -Culture de-de -RequiredVersion 10.0.14393.0 -DisplayCulture

Example 3

Download and save the it-it culture of the Shielded VM package to the current directory by piping the results from the search cmdlets. The dependency package will be downloaded as well.

Find-NanoServerPackage -Name *shielded* -Culture it-it | Save-NanoServerPackage -Path .\

OR

Find-Package -ProviderName NanoServerPackage *shielded* -Culture it-it | Save-Package -Path .\ -DisplayCulture

Inventory what Windows Packages are installed

You can search for installed packages on your local NanoServer machine or an offline NanoServer image using Get-Package.

Example 1

Search for all Windows Packages installed on the local machine.

Get-Package -ProviderName NanoServerPackage -DisplayCulture

Example 2

Search for all Windows Packages installed on an offline NanoServer image.

Get-Package -ProviderName NanoServerPackage -FromVhd C:\OfflineVhd.vhd -DisplayCulture

Version

1.0.1.0

Version History

1.0.1.0

Public release for NanoServerPackage Provider that works for Nano Server WS2016 GA version

0.1.1.0

Initial public release for Nano Package Provider that works for TP5 Nano Server

Dependencies

This module has no dependencies

Known Issues

1. This provider does not support PowerShell Direct session.
2. Using the NanoServerPackage provider 1.0.1.0 to search for packages fails in Windows Containers. As a workaround, you may use the NanoServerPackage provider on another machine to download the packages, then copy and DISM install them in the container.

Fixed issues in v1.0.1.0

1. In v0.1.1.0, you cannot install Microsoft-NanoServer-IIS-Package and Microsoft-NanoServer-SCVMM-Package online. There are two workarounds:

   i. Install another package that will require reboot such as Microsoft-NanoServer-Storage-Package first and without rebooting, install the required package.

   ii. Install these packages offline using -ToVhd

2. In v0.1.1.0, you might see an error as shown below while installing certain packages. This is mainly because this provider does not support discovering and installing dependencies. For these cases, refer to guide on Getting Started with Nano Server to identify the dependencies.

install-package : Add-WindowsPackage failed. Error code = 0x800f0922
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (System.String[]:String) [Install-Package], Exception
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : FailedToInstall,Install-PackageHelper,Microsoft.PowerShell.PackageManagement.Cmdlets.InstallPackage