WSUS 30 SP2 Install Failure - Error 0x80070643: Fatal error during installation

Problem:

I was trying to install WSUS 30 SP2, in preparation of SUP install for  my SCCM 2012 SP1 environment.  As you some of you admins especially SCCM folks aware of that SUP relies on WSUS for SCCM based patching. Install kept failing, whatever method I chose to install, either thru Server Manager Add roles / features or downloaded setup executable WSUS30-KB972455-SP2-x64.exe. Install gets kicked of and accepts all of your selections and throws above error which we don’t like much, as it doesn’t reveal needed info to solve the problem.

How to find the root cause of problem:

Now, the hunt began for more info, precisely the location of log files to find more details of failure. Install logs location may vary based on how you install WSUS

                C:\windows\logs\servermanager.log in case if you use “Add Roles” feature using server manger
                %TEMP% which usually resolves to C:\Users\userid\AppData\Local\Temp in case if you used downloaded executable to kick of install

In my case I used downloaded executable and found 3 related logs, each of which are passing information to other.

WSUSSetup.log: This log is kind oversees and passes same info as what GUI throws and very basic
2013-01-18 15:43:39 Error MWUSSetup InstallWsus: MWUS Installation Failed (Error 0x80070643: Fatal error during installation.)
2013-01-18 15:43:39 Error MWUSSetup CInstallDriver::PerformSetup: WSUS installation failed (Error 0x80070643: Fatal error during installation.)
2013-01-18 15:43:39 Error MWUSSetup CSetupDriver::LaunchSetup: Setup failed (Error 0x80070643: Fatal error during installation.)
2013-01-18 15:43:53 Error MWUSSetup DoInstall: Wsus setup failed (Error 0x80070643: Fatal error during installation.)

WSUSSetupmsi_130118_1541.log: This log possess little more details but couldn’t give all, rather pointed to below log for actual details on failure
Error 1722. There is a problem with this Windows Installer package. A program run as part of the setup did not finish as expected. Contact your support personnel or package vendor. Action ExConfigureDb…..C:\Users\UserID\AppData\Local\Temp\2\WSUSCa_130118_1541.log"

WSUSCa_130118_1541.log: This is the log which has given suffice and needed info to resolve the issue
Cannot create file 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10_50.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\DATA\SUSDB.mdf' because it already exists. Change the file path or the file name, and retry the operation.Msg 1802, Level 16, State 4, Server ServerName, Line 2
CREATE DATABASE failed. Some file names listed could not be created. Check related errors.

How to Resolve:

WSUSCa_****.log has indicated clearly that setup fails to create a file as a file with same name already exists in SQL DB Files folder. I guess file might have created during my earlier attempt of WSUS either standalone or part of SUP install or sorts and MDF/LDF files got created during. Post deleting the same file, which I did as I know it was less risky in my case and reran the install which went smoothly

· Delete any MDF or LDF files that denote SUS Databases from SQL DB files location (Don’t delete these files if they are used for any other purposes)

· Rerun the setup successfully

Also, this error code might not always results similar root cause, so you will need to act on the problem based on the error clues got from above mentioned log files

--- Thanks, Vasu Miriyala