As a part of my AlwaysOn related consultancy, one of my clients was having challenges to install SQL Server 2016 in a clustered environment. In this blog, we would learn about the cause of Slow SQL Server 2016 Installation in Cluster.
When I started SQL Server Setup, it got hung on this screen.
In the Detail.txt we saw the below info:
(01) 2018-03-30 09:25:34 Slp: Running Action: RunRemoteDiscoveryAction
(08) 2018-03-30 09:25:34 Slp: Discovered update on path C:\SQL2016\SQLServer2016SP1 \PCUSOURCE; Update: Microsoft SQL Server 2016 with SP1, Type: PCU, KB: 3182545, Baseline: 13.0.1601, Version: 13.1.4001
(01) 2018-03-30 09:25:34 Slp: Running discovery on remote machine: NODE2
(01) 2018-03-30 09:25:34 Slp: Running discovery on local machine
(08) 2018-03-30 09:25:34 Slp: Using service ID ‘3da21691-e39d-4da6-8a4b-b43877bcb1b7’ to search product updates.
(10) 2018-03-30 09:25:34 Slp: Searching updates on server: ‘3da21691-e39d-4da6-8a4b-b43877bcb1b7’
Based on above snip of the log, we can see that the action which setup was running is — Running Action: RunRemoteDiscoveryAction
What came to my mind is what does it take for setup to connect to Node2. This is where it trying to perform RemoteDiscoveryAction. Based on my previous experiences fixing such things, I could think of
- Remote registry service in a stopped state
- Remote Registry connectivity is disabled
- Admin$ shares are disabled.
SOLUTION/WORKAROUND
In this case, we saw that the Admin$ shares were disabled. It can be easily tested by typing the below command in CMD prompt or use any file explorer window.
C:\>\\NODE1\c$
As soon as we hit the enter key, we got the message.
Here are the steps to get Admin$ share back (Reference)
- Open a registry editor, start > Run > Regedit.exe.
- Navigate to: HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters
- In the right pane, locate and double-click AutoShareServer.
- Change the value from 0 to 1.
- Close the registry editor and restart the “Server” service for the change to take effect.
After allowing Admin$ share access, SQL setup did not have any further challenges and completed successfully. This action needs to be done all the nodes participating in the cluster. A reboot of the node is also required. Maybe on the latest operating systems (like Windows 2016), a reboot may not be required.
If above steps solve your installation issue, please let me know via comments.
Reference: Pinal Dave (https://blog.sqlauthority.com)
First appeared on SQL SERVER – Slow SQL Server 2016 Installation in Cluster: RunRemoteDiscoveryAction