Troubleshooting Office Communications Server Web Components Server Update

Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 will reach end of support on January 9, 2018. To stay supported, you will need to upgrade. For more information, see Resources to help you upgrade your Office 2007 servers and clients.

When installing the update for Web Components that is described in Knowledge Base article 967830, “Description of the update package for Communications Server 2007 R2, Web Components: April 2009”, the following error can occur and block the installation of the update: "An error occurred and the installer was interrupted before Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Web Components server could be installed." Troubleshooting can be challenging as this error provides no hint of how to resolve the problem.

Authors: Thomas Binder and Rui Maximo

Publication date: July 2010

Product version: Office Communications Server 2007 R2

When installing updates for Office Communications Server 2007 R2, the update included in Knowledge Base article 967830 might fail and display the following error message: "An error occurred and the installer was interrupted before Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Web Components Server could be installed" as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Web Components Server update

Update Failure Message

This message does not give a lot of information, but experienced troubleshooters will not hesitate to search for more meaningful details on the problem, and one of the first places to look for more information is the Application Event Log. Indeed, in the Event Viewer the following error and information events are logged (oldest on top):

Log Name:      Application
Source:        MsiInstaller
Date:          6/22/2010 8:44:26 AM
Event ID:      1024
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          Contoso\administrator
Computer:      FrontEnd01.contoso.com
Description:
Product: Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Web Components Server - Update 'Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Web Components Server (KB967830)' could not be installed. 
Error code 1603. Windows Installer can create logs to help troubleshoot issues with installing software packages. 
Use the following link for instructions on turning on logging support: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=23127
----
Log Name:      Application
Source:        MsiInstaller
Date:          6/22/2010 8:44:26 AM
Event ID:      1036
Task Category: None
Level:         Information
Keywords:      Classic
User:          Contoso\administrator
Computer:      FrontEnd01.contoso.com
Description:
Windows Installer installed an update. Product Name: Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Web Components Server. 
Product Version: 3.5.6907.9. Product Language: 1033. Update Name: Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Web Components Server (KB967830). 
Installation success or error status: 1603.
----
Log Name:      Application
Source:        MsiInstaller
Date:          6/22/2010 8:44:26 AM
Event ID:      11729
Task Category: None
Level:         Information
Keywords:      Classic
User:          Contoso\administrator
Computer:      FrontEnd01.contoso.com
Description:
Product: Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Web Components Server -- Configuration failed.
----
Log Name:      Application
Source:        MsiInstaller
Date:          6/22/2010 8:44:26 AM
Event ID:      1035
Task Category: None
Level:         Information
Keywords:      Classic
User:          Contoso\administrator
Computer:      FrontEnd01.contoso.com
Description:
Windows Installer reconfigured the product. Product Name: Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Web Components Server. 
Product Version: 3.5.6907.9. Product Language: 1033. 
Reconfiguration success or error status: 1603.

Unfortunately, these event logs are not very informative. How can we obtain more meaningful clues to the issue? By trying to install the update from the command line, it is possible to generate a more comprehensive log file. Use the following command from a command prompt window to attempt to install the update:

Cmd> msiexec /update WebComponets.msp /Lv logfile.txt

The output will be logged to the file specified in the command-line arguments, logfile.txt. Search the log file for any errors (by searching for the keyword “error”). Here is an excerpt with pertinent information about the error:

[...]
MSI (c) (D8:60) [00:31:56:315]: Connected to service for CA interface.
Action ended 0:31:56: CA_GetIISWebSiteProperties. Return value 3.
MSI (c) (D8:C4) [00:31:56:644]: Doing action: Dialog_SetupFatalError
Action start 0:31:56: Dialog_SetupFatalError.
MSI (c) (D8:C4) [00:31:56:644]: Transforming table CustomAction.
[...]
MSI (c) (D8:24) [00:31:56:659]: Note: 1: 2731 2: 0 
Action ended 0:46:43: Dialog_SetupFatalError. Return value 1.
Action ended 0:46:43: INSTALL. Return value 3.
MSI (c) (D8:C4) [00:46:43:346]: Destroying RemoteAPI object.
MSI (c) (D8:60) [00:46:43:346]: Custom Action Manager thread ending.
=== Logging stopped: 6/24/2010  0:46:43 ===
MSI (c) (D8:C4) [00:46:43:346]: Product: Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Web Components Server - Update 'Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Web Components Server (KB967830)' could not be installed. 
Error code 1603. Additional information is available in the log file C:\Users\administrator.CONTOSO\log.txt.

MSI (c) (D8:C4) [00:46:43:346]: Windows Installer installed an update. Product Name: Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Web Components Server. 
Product Version: 3.5.6907.9. Product Language: 1033. Update Name: Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Web Components Server (KB967830). Installation success or error status: 1603.

MSI (c) (D8:C4) [00:46:43:346]: Note: 1: 1729 
MSI (c) (D8:C4) [00:46:43:346]: Product: Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Web Components Server -- Configuration failed.

MSI (c) (D8:C4) [00:46:43:346]: Windows Installer reconfigured the product. Product Name: Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Web Components Server. 
Product Version: 3.5.6907.9. Product Language: 1033. Reconfiguration success or error status: 1603.
[...]

The log file contains a lot of information, but again we did not uncover the root cause to the problem. Desperate for a solution, we read the KB article again and notice the following paragraph:

“The web component server update will fail if you remove the default website HTTP binding. Therefore, you must bind a port for HTTP protocol before you install the hotfix package on all of Web Components Servers.”

To check whether the default website HTTP binding is in place or not, open the Internet Information Services (IIS) settings and take a look:

  1. Open the administrative tools.

  2. Open Internet Information Service (IIS) Manager.

  3. In the Connections pane, expand Sites.

  4. Select Default Website.

  5. In the Actions pane, click Bindings to view the ports (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Check to see if the default HTTP binding is in place

Site Bindings Window

In the Site Bindings window, only port 443 is listed. This indicates that port 80 was removed and this is exactly the reason why the update failed to install.

To resolve this problem:

  1. Click the Add button.

  2. On the Type drop-down list, select http, and then click OK.

It is not necessary to restart the server or IIS, and you should be able to install the update successfully.

Summary

To apply the update in Knowledge Base article 967830, the default website HTTP binding must be configured. It really does pay to carefully read KB articles. I hope by describing the error and documenting all error messages, it becomes easier for others to find the solution when troubleshooting this problem.

Thanks to Hannes Krall, Robert Bizaj and Herbert Grausgruber from Telekom Austria AG for helping troubleshoot this issue.

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