Installing Visual COBOL in an Offline Environment

Visual COBOL is typically installed on a machine which is connected to the internet. This makes it easier for the installers to access and download any prerequisites, and that the Visual COBOL installer validates the required certificates.

However, in order to install in an offline environment, an administrator with internet access needs to prepare the installation by making sure all of the required installers, certificates, and licenses are available to the 'offline' machine.

Preparing the installation

1. Visual Studio - an administrator with internet access needs to prepare an offline installation of Visual Studio to make available to the offline machine. Refer to Visual Studio Subscriptions (formally known as MSDN) for instructions on this - a link to the creation of a Visual Studio 2019 offline installer is listed below.

   The following table includes the mandatory components required within an installer. (These are the component names added using the --add parameter.)

   Component name	Display name
   Microsoft.Net.Component.4.5.TargetingPack	.NET Framework 4.5 targeting pack
   Microsoft.Net.Component.4.5.2.TargetingPack	.NET Framework 4.5.2 targeting pack
   Microsoft.Net.Component.4.6.1.TargetingPack	.NET Framework 4.6.1 targeting pack
   Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Debugger.JustInTime	Just-In-Time Debugger
   Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.GraphDocument	DGML editor
   Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.NuGet	NuGet package manager
   Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Windows10SDK.17763	Windows 10 SDK (10.0.17763.0)
   Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.DockerTools	Container development tools
   Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VisualStudioData	Data sources and service references (Server Explorer)

   The following table includes the optional components, depending on how you plan to use your COBOL development product:

   Component name	Display name
   Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Web	.NET Web development
   Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.ManagedDesktop.Core	.NET Desktop Development (e.g. WPF)
   Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.Azure	Azure development
   Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Wcf.Tooling	Windows Communication Foundation (WCF)
   Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.SQL.SSDT	SQL Server Development (e.g. SQL CLR)
   Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.NetCoreTools	.NET Core development

   Note: It is recommended that all of these components are included in the installation layout.
2. Digital certificates - a number of certificates need to be made available for manual installation in the offline environment:
   • DigiCert certificates: if you have access to an already-installed version of Visual COBOL on the network, open the Certificate Manager on that machine, locate the following two certificates in the Trusted Root Certification Authorities folder, and export them somewhere accessible. If you do not have access to a working version of Visual COBOL, you can download these certificates from the Digicert website (https://www.digicert.com/digicert-root-certificates.htm).

     DigiCert Assured ID Root CA       Valid until: 10/Nov/2031 
     Serial #: 0C:E7:E0:E5:17:D8:46:FE:8F:E5:60:FC:1B:F0:30:39 
     Thumbprint: 0563B8630D62D75ABBC8AB1E4BDFB5A899B24D43 
     Demo Sites for Root:  Active Certificate   expired   revoked 
      
     DigiCert SHA2 Assured ID Code Signing CA           Issuer: DigiCert Assured ID Root 
     CA 
     Valid until: 22/Oct/2028 
     Serial #: 04:09:18:1B:5F:D5:BB:66:75:53:43:B5:6F:95:50:08 
     Thumbprint: 92C1588E85AF2201CE7915E8538B492F605B80C6 

   • Microsoft certificates: The required certificates are placed in the certificates sub-folder of the Visual Studio layout folder you created in the previous step. For more information on these, click here.
3. Micro Focus licenses: if you are using license files to license each product, make these available; otherwise each offline installation will have to authorize the product manually, with the help of a computer that is online; see Authorizing your product manually in the Micro Focus License Administration Help.

Running the installation on the offline client machine:

1. Run the offline installation of Visual Studio.
2. Install the certificates in the Certificate manager - the DigiCert root certificate needs to be installed in the Trusted Root Certification Authorities folder, and the DigiCert Code Signing certificate needs to be installed in the Intermediate Certification Authorities folder.
3. Run the Visual COBOL installation, appending the skipmstools=1 parameter.
4. License the product using the License Administration tool.