SIM failed to install symantec_asdkservercombine_7_5_sp1

Products

IT Management Suite

Issue/Introduction

Customer is upgrading to ITMS 7.5 SP1 from ITMS 7.1 SP2 MP1. After selecting the desired products within SIM, the upgrade process fails while trying to configure "symantec_asdkservercombine_7_5_sp1_x64.msi" .

Initially KB TECH218323 was used, but it didn't help. When the customer tried to install the MSI manually,
msiexec /i <path to symantec_asdkservercombine_7_5_sp1_x64.msi> skipaim=1 /qb

he got the following popup window saying:
"There is a problem with this Windows Installer package. A program required for this install to complete could not be run. Contact your support personnel or package vendor"

We enabled MsiLogs in SIM (under Settings, tick 'Enable Windows Installer Logging'. The msi log output location is c:\programdata\Symantec\SMP\Logs\Install Logs) we noticed the following entries:

MSI (s) (24:E0) [14:07:22:316]: Executing op: CustomActionSchedule(Action=COM_UnRegAsm,ActionType=3106,Source=d:\Altiris\Altiris ASDK\COM Assemblies\,Target="C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v2.0.50727\RegAsm.exe" /u Altiris.ASDK.DeploymentSolution.COM.dll /tlb,)
MSI (s) (24:E0) [14:07:22:316]: Note: 1: 1721 2: COM_UnRegAsm 3: d:\Altiris\Altiris ASDK\COM Assemblies\ 4: "C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v2.0.50727\RegAsm.exe" /u Altiris.ASDK.DeploymentSolution.COM.dll /tlb
MSI (s) (24:E0) [14:07:22:316]: Note: 1: 2205 2: 3: Error
MSI (s) (24:E0) [14:07:22:316]: Note: 1: 2228 2: 3: Error 4: SELECT `Message` FROM `Error` WHERE `Error` = 1721
MSI (s) (24:E0) [14:07:22:316]: Note: 1: 2205 2: 3: Error
MSI (s) (24:E0) [14:07:22:316]: Note: 1: 2228 2: 3: Error 4: SELECT `Message` FROM `Error` WHERE `Error` = 1709
MSI (s) (24:E0) [14:07:22:316]: Product: Symantec ASDK Deployment Solution COM -- Error 1721. There is a problem with this Windows Installer package. A program required for this install to complete could not be run. Contact your support personnel or package vendor. Action: COM_UnRegAsm, location: d:\Altiris\Altiris ASDK\COM Assemblies\, command: "C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v2.0.50727\RegAsm.exe" /u Altiris.ASDK.DeploymentSolution.COM.dll /tlb

Action ended 14:07:22: InstallFinalize. Return value 3.
MSI (s) (24:E0) [14:07:22:316]: User policy value 'DisableRollback' is 0
MSI (s) (24:E0) [14:07:22:316]: Machine policy value 'DisableRollback' is 0
MSI (s) (24:E0) [14:07:22:316]: Executing op: Header(Signature=1397708873,Version=500,Timestamp=1165652204,LangId=1033,Platform=589824,ScriptType=2,ScriptMajorVersion=21,ScriptMinorVersion=4,ScriptAttributes=1)
MSI (s) (24:E0) [14:07:22:316]: Executing op: DialogInfo(Type=0,Argument=1033)
MSI (s) (24:E0) [14:07:22:316]: Executing op: DialogInfo(Type=1,Argument=Symantec ASDK Deployment Solution COM)
MSI (s) (24:E0) [14:07:22:316]: Executing op: RollbackInfo(,RollbackAction=Rollback,RollbackDescription=Rolling back action:,RollbackTemplate=[1],CleanupAction=RollbackCleanup,CleanupDescription=Removing backup files,CleanupTemplate=File: [1])
MSI (s) (24:E0) [14:07:22:316]: Executing op: ActionStart(Name=COM_UnRegAsm,,)
MSI (s) (24:E0) [14:07:22:316]: Executing op: ProductInfo(ProductKey={56740EF1-ABFA-4A1D-B47E-06B6B94B60D9},ProductName=Symantec ASDK Deployment Solution COM,PackageName=symantec_asdk_ds_com_7_1_sp2_x64.msi,Language=1033,Version=117506270,Assignment=1,ObsoleteArg=0,ProductIcon=AltirisIcon,,PackageCode={C0591050-EA2E-48C5-98C3-A3DDBB547DC7},,,InstanceType=0,LUASetting=0,RemoteURTInstalls=0,ProductDeploymentFlags=3)

Cause

In this instance, the issue was caused by missing files. We looked for the "Altiris.ASDK.DeploymentSolution.COM.dll" under d:\Altiris\Altiris ASDK\COM Assemblies\ and the whole Altiris ASDK directory didn't exist. From what we could understand the MSI is trying to remove some references but those were not present, causing to fail.

Resolution

In this particular case we had to do the following to resolve the problem:

1. We had to reinstall some of those missing components. The following MSIs were ran manually and the Altiris ASDK directory was recreated:
symantec_asdk_ns_server_7_1_sp2_x64.msi
symantec_asdk_ds_server_7_1_sp2_x64.msi
symantec_asdk_ds_com_7_1_sp2_x64.msi
symantec_asdk_ns_com_7_1_sp2_x64.msi
symantec_asdkcomcombine_7_5_sp1_x64.msi

After that we were able to run symantec_asdkservercombine_7_5_sp1_x64.msi just fine.
2. We launched SIM and we were able to upgrade from 7.1 SP1 MP1 to 7.5 SP1.

Note: You may want to check that ASDK directory was placed in the right drive letter. We had to add the correct drive letter for the regkey "InstallDir" for the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Altiris\ASDK, since it was pointing to C rather than D.