Installing or upgrading vCenter Server fails with the error: Error 25017 - Set up has detected that there is a system reboot

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Unable to install or upgrade vCenter Server
• Installing or upgrading vCenter Server fails
• You see the error:
  
  Error 25017 - Set up has detected that there is a system reboot pending on this machine. Please install this product after reboot.
  
  
• Rebooting the system does not resolve this issue

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 4.0.x
VMware vCenter Server 4.1.x

Resolution

This issue may occur if any of these conditions are true:

• If the HKLM: SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager: PendingFileRenameOperations registry key is non-empty.
• If the HKLM: SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update\RebootRequired registry key exists.
• If the value of the HKLM: SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Updates\UpdateExeVolatile: Flags registry key is anything but 0.

To resolve this issue, you delete these registry keys and then retry the installation.