Gen 8.6 .NET msi install "Cannot Connect to Internet Information Server" (-2147221164)

Products

• Gen
• Gen - Run Time Distributed
• Gen - Host Encyclopedia
• Gen - Workstation Toolset

Issue/Introduction

This article describes a problem with installing a Gen 8.6 generated msi file for .NET under Windows Server 2016. 

During the step "Starting IIS Metabase Transaction" this error is reported:

Cannot Connect to Internet Information Server. 
(-2147221164)

The Internet Information Server (IIS) is definitely running on the server.

Environment

Release: 8.6

Component: Gen Runtime .NET

 

Cause

The above error appears to be a WIX related problem due to not having IIS6 compatibility enabled in the IIS Management Tools.

Resolution

Using Server Manager under the Server role "Web Server (IIS)" > "Management Tools" enable "IIS6 Management Compatibility". The msi file will then install successfully.

Additional Information

This problem was found when testing early versions of Gen 8.6 which only supported .NET Framework 3.5 i.e. CLR v2.0.
With the later support of .NET Framework 4.0 (CLR v 4.0) this problem may not occur.

To debug msi install problems this type of syntax for msiexec can be used to get verbose and debug log in silent mode:
msiexec /i "<full_path_to_msi_file>" /q /l*vx "<full path to log file>"