We have an InstallShield installation package that spawns an installation of MS SQL Server 2008 R2, depending on what components the user selects to install. This has worked fine, but now we need to support Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8, so we want to
distribute SP2 of SQL Server 2008 R2 Express Edition instead of the original SP1. The only difference made to the installation package is to replace the redistributable of SQL Server R2 Express Edition SP1 with SP2. If the SP1 version is used Windows 2012
and Windows 8 will popup a message saying that there is compatibility issues with that version of SQL Server.
When the installation package use SQL SP2 the SQL Server installation starts, extracts files etc and and begins the installation, but then freezes at the step ExecuteStandardTimingsWorkflow displayed in the installer UI.
There is no significant CPU usage and no increase in memory by any process like msiexec or similar and there is no error message displayed.
It is not possible to cancel the installation either (cancel button disabled). Reviewing the SQL Server log files shows the following lines in the Detail_ComponentUpdate log
2012-08-23 08:33:06 Slp: Sco: Attempting to open registry subkey SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0
2012-08-23 08:33:06 Slp: Sco: Waiting for service 'msiserver' to accept the stop request.
2012-08-23 08:33:06 Slp: Sco: Returning service status Running
2012-08-23 08:33:11 Slp: Sco: Returning service status Running
2012-08-23 08:33:16 Slp: Sco: Returning service status Running <- repeated indefintely until the installer is killed in task manager
When using SP1 the same log files says the following
2012-08-23 11:00:57 Slp: Sco: Attempting to open registry subkey SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0
2012-08-23 11:00:57 Slp: Sco: Waiting for service 'msiserver' to accept the stop request.
2012-08-23 11:00:57 Slp: Sco: Returning service status Stopped
The problems appears to be that the installer cannot shutdown the msiserver service and just loops indefinitely.
The following conditions apply to all tested machines which is Windows 8, Windows Server 2012 RC, Windows Server 2008 R2
Machine is clean, no existing versions of SQL Server exists prior to installation. All security updates etc. applied.
Logged in user is local administrator.
Installation is successful if the SP1 version of SQL Server 2012 is used instead of the SP2 version
The SP2 version can be installed successfully from the command prompt (run as administrator). In this case I use the following command
line (replaced password with ****):
SQLEXPR_x86_ENU.exe /ACTION=install /INSTANCENAME=PRODACAPO /IACCEPTSQLSERVERLICENSETERMS /HIDECONSOLE /QUIETSIMPLE /SECURITYMODE=SQL /SAPWD=**** /SQLSVCACCOUNT="NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM"
Display language is US English and SQL Server package is US English. Input/keyboard language is Swedish.
Windows Installer service cannot be shutdown from services as Stop and Restart options are disabled.
No summary.txt file is created when the installation freezes
Are there any changes in the behavior of the installation package from SP1 to SP2? Since SP1 works it seems that InstallShield cannot be blamed for this problem? However, installing from the command prompt works which means that the problem seem to lie in with
how the SQL installation is spawned from InstallShield. Currently this problem is preventing us from supporting Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8 properly.
If you need any log files or other info I can provide that promptly.
Related problems for other users:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11741803/fail-to-install-sql-server-2008-r2-as-a-feature-pre-requisite-in-a-wix-project
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-NZ/sqlsetupandupgrade/thread/ce69b4e1-939f-4a64-9b44-e6ffdad3b9c8
The SP2 redistributable I use can be downloaded from here (SQLEXPR_x86_ENU.exe):
http://www.microsoft.com/en-za/download/details.aspx?id=30438
Thanks
Fredrik
Frede