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Thursday, August 25, 2011

Reinstallation of the Client access server role fails with MSI error 1630 -2920

Sometimes i try to contribute on technical forums for people who have some questions regarding certain software products in which i have some level of expertise. A few days back somebody asked a question regarding authentication in OWA (Exchange 2010). As the question was pretty forward, i decided to test the solution on my test environment, before writing it down as an answer.

The implementation and test ran according to plan, meaning that the solution in mind proved to be a valid solution. As i had proven my plan i reverted back to the previous configuration. After logging back into OWA, i received the following error message: "Owa encountered an error. If the problem consists, please contact your administrator".
The Authentication did not seem to be a problem, as the error occurs after the user is authenticated an reverted to the mailbox.

As the problem originated after adjusting the authentication mechanism, i decided to try several authentication mechanisms to see if they would provide me back with a working configuration. None of them did.

Restoring was not an option, as in this lab only the databases are backed up. Therefore i decided to reset the owa virtual directory (remove and recreate). The reset procedure completed successfully (used powershell), but it did not resolve the issue. Even after rebooting the server, the problem did persist.

In an final attempt to resolve the issue i decided to reinstall the Client Access server role. I know a harsh solution but i am running out of options here.

The un-install went well, but after reinstalling the client access server role the installation fails at 23% when copying installation files. This led me to believe there was an issue with the installation files. Re-downloaded the installation files and started the install from there. Still no go, again at 23% the install reverts back with a failure. Ok now, i am in a world of hurt. The client access server role has been removed, so there is no way for anybody to access his mailbox.

The install logs only show the following:
[08/25/2011 08:24:37.0634] [1] Installing MSI package 'E:\Software\Microsoft\Exchange Server 2010\exchangeserver.msi'.

[08/25/2011 08:24:37.0637] [1] Configuring an existing product. Product code: {4934D1EA-BE46-48B1-8847-F1AF20E892C1}. Property values: DISABLEERRORREPORTING=1 PRODUCTLANGUAGELCID=1033 DEFAULTLANGUAGENAME=ENU DEFAULTLANGUAGELCID=1033 INSTALLCOMMENT="Installed language for this product: English (United States)" REBOOT=ReallySuppress ADDLOCAL=ClientAccess

[08/25/2011 08:25:04.0269] [1] [WARNING] Unexpected Error

Searching the Internet did not provide any clue into solving this issue. As the problem seems to occur when copying installation files, i suspected a version mismatch. This led me to UN-install the Exchange roll-up packs one by one.

1. Uninstalled Exchange 2010 RUP4, no luck.

2. Uninstalled Exchange 2010 RUP3v3 (remember?), and BANG, we have a winner.

After uninstalling Rollup 3 version 3, i was able to install the client access server role (looks like RUP3 is cursed).

At the end all is well, as i resolved the issue but it toke me quit some time to resolve the issue. Writing this down i hope someone with similar issues stumbles on my blog, in which he shortens his burden.


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