How to Troubleshoot When Symantec Mail Security for Exchange (SMSMSE) Installer Rolls Back Without an Error When Services Cannot be Installed

Products

• Mail Security for Microsoft Exchange

Issue/Introduction

 

Resolution

The SMSMSE installer is run.  During the installation process the installer rolls back and SMSMSE is not installed.  The SMSMSE MSI log %TEMP%\smsmse_verbose_install.log contains the following sequence leading to an error in the function fnInstallNAVEService

NOTE: See the following article for obtaining a detailed SMSMSE MSI installation log: How to Obtain Detailed Logging While Installing Symantec Mail Security for Microsoft Exchange (SMSMSE).

 

: Installing SMSMSE service, please wait ...
MSI (s) (B4!48) [14:06:08:846]: Closing MSIHANDLE (3722) of type 790531 for thread 6728
MSI (s) (B4!48) [14:06:08:846]: Creating MSIHANDLE (3723) of type 790531 for thread 6728
-- SAVFMSEInst.dll MSI_Logging -- fnInstallNAVEService
MSI (s) (B4!48) [14:06:08:846]: Closing MSIHANDLE (3723) of type 790531 for thread 6728
MSI (s) (B4!48) [14:06:08:846]: Creating MSIHANDLE (3724) of type 790531 for thread 6728
-- SAVFMSEInst.dll MSI_Logging -- fnInstallNAVEService, ParseCustomActionData CustomActionData=C:\Program Files (x86)\Symantec\;
MSI (s) (B4!48) [14:06:08:846]: Closing MSIHANDLE (3724) of type 790531 for thread 6728
MSI (s) (B4!48) [14:06:08:846]: Creating MSIHANDLE (3725) of type 790531 for thread 6728
-- SAVFMSEInst.dll MSI_Logging -- fnInstallNAVEService, szNaveExePath="C:\Program Files (x86)\Symantec\
MSI (s) (B4!48) [14:06:08:846]: Closing MSIHANDLE (3725) of type 790531 for thread 6728
MSI (s) (B4!48) [14:06:08:846]: Creating MSIHANDLE (3726) of type 790531 for thread 6728
-- SAVFMSEInst.dll MSI_Logging -- fnInstallNAVEService, szNaveExePath="C:\Program Files (x86)\Symantec\SMSMSE\6.5\Server\SAVFMSESrv.exe"
MSI (s) (B4!48) [14:06:08:862]: Closing MSIHANDLE (3726) of type 790531 forthread 6728
MSI (s) (B4!48) [14:06:08:908]: Creating MSIHANDLE (3727) of type 790531 forthread 6728
-- SAVFMSEInst.dll MSI_Logging -- InstallNAVEService Failed
MSI (s) (B4!48) [14:06:08:908]: Closing MSIHANDLE (3727) of type 790531 forthread 6728
MSI (s) (B4!48) [14:06:08:908]: Creating MSIHANDLE (3728) of type 790531 for thread 6728
-- SAVFMSEInst.dll MSI_Logging -- Install NAVE Service failed -
fnInstallNAVEService

The function fnInstallNAVEService creates the Symantec Mail Security for Exchange as a Windows service using the CreateService() Windows API call.  The installer does not report the Windows error code received from the CreateService() call. 

Attached to this article is a C# program that uses the CreateService() call to create a Windows service.  Using this program can may show a specific error code that can lead to a solution that allows the SMSMSE installer to continue. Run the program from a command prompt in the following way to create a Windows Service with the name SMSMSE:

.\serviceinstaller.exe install SMSMSE

If there is an error it shows up like this output:

Attempting to install service with name: smsmse
Could not install service: error = 1073 The specified service already exists

Using this information you can troubleshoot why the service cannot be created.