19 February 2011

IBM i Access 7.1 installation hangs indefinitively with a Windows Installer Coordinator window


If you’re trying to install IBM i Access 7.1 on a Windows Server 2008 R2 based Remote Desktop Session Host (RDS), formerly known as Terminal Server, you’ll most likely encounter this issue.
A window titled “Windows Installer Coordinator” will pop up behind the IBM i Access 7.1 Installer (hidden until you click on it in the task bar). This “Windows Installer Coordinator” will run indefinitively, without ever successfully installing the application.
Thanks to a helpful guy from IBM Software Support Austria, i now have a solution to this issue. It’s caused by a new feature in WS08R2 RDS.
It’s called Windows Installer RDS Compatibility. If this feature is enabled, IBM i Access 7.1 will not install successfully, and hang at the “Windows Installer Coordinator” window.
To successfully install IBM i Access 7.1 on a Windows Server 2008 R2 Remote Desktop Session host, set the following DWORD registry key to 0:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Terminal Services\TSAppSrv\TSMSI\Enable
It’s possible that not all keys exist – in my case, the TSAppSrv and TSMSI keys didn’t exist yet – you have to create them manually. After creating this key, you can rerun the installation – a reboot is not necessary.

16 comments:

  1. nice to know, thanks for sharing.

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  2. i hope they know about the problems

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  3. Ahh never really experienced any IBM software products! They sound abit tricky! Thanks for sharing!

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  4. I wonder why they make everything so complicated...why not make it so everything just works?

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  5. I could never figure out why Microsoft's OS's for servers gave you more headaches than the standard workstation builds. Good tip, I will definitely use this if I run into it!

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  6. This is information that's good to know just in case.

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  7. cool tip - cheers for the heads up

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  8. i personally have no need for this info right now, but i appreciate you taking the time to write it.

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  9. this sounds a little complicated...is the software itself worthy to install? what is new about it?

    http://skybluetrading.blogspot.com/

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  10. Now watch, I'll actually have to use this someday.

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  11. New follower here. Definitely a good blog with some great technical information!

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