As a part of my work, I also provide consultancy to fix the issues. In my recent engagement with a client, they were getting an error while installing SQL Server 2019. In this blog, I would share the steps to identify and fix error – The account running SQL Server Setup does not have administrator rights on the computer. To continue, use an account with administrator rights.
Let me first say that the error message above was appearing even if the logged-on account was an administrator on the server. In fact, my client also tried with Domain Admin account but still, they were getting error. Since it was a weird error, they contacted me to figure out what is going on.
Here is what we saw on the screen.
I checked SystemConfigurationCheck_Report.htm file which has the exact same error.
The rules which failed were:
- HasSecurityBackupAndDebugPrivilegesCheck
- ThreadHasAdminPrivilegeCheck
I have copied and pasted the description below.
| The account that is running SQL Server Setup does not have one or all of the following rights: the right to back up files and directories, the right to manage auditing and the security log and the right to debug programs. To continue, use an account with both of these rights. For more information, see https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms813696.aspx, https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms813959.aspx, and https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms813847.aspx. |
| The account running SQL Server Setup does not have administrator rights on the computer. To continue, use an account with administrator rights. |
And that doesn’t help because they were very sure that the account was a local admin and have all permissions. I asked them to share the setup log files as per Microsoft documentation.
View and Read SQL Server Setup Log Files
I searched for same failures which we saw in html and found below
Slp: Loading rule: ThreadHasAdminPrivilegeCheck
Slp: Creating rule target object: Microsoft.SqlServer.Configuration.SetupExtension.FacetAdminCheck
<>
Slp: Loading rule: HasSecurityBackupAndDebugPrivilegesCheck
Slp: Creating rule target object: Microsoft.SqlServer.Configuration.SetupExtension.FacetPrivilegeCheck
Then searched for FacetAdminCheck and FacetPrivilegeCheck and found these lines.
Slp: Initializing rule : Setup administrator
Slp: Rule is will be executed : True
Slp: Init rule target object: Microsoft.SqlServer.Configuration.SetupExtension.FacetAdminCheck
Slp: Unable to load DLL ‘sqlsccn.dll’: The specified module could not be found. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8007007E)
Slp: at Microsoft.SqlServer.Configuration.SetupExtension.FacetAdminCheck.SccCheckAdminPrivilege()
at Microsoft.SqlServer.Configuration.SetupExtension.FacetAdminCheck.Microsoft.SqlServer.Configuration.RulesEngineExtension.IRuleInitialize.Init(String ruleId)
at Microsoft.SqlServer.Configuration.RulesEngineExtension.RulesEngine.Execute(Boolean stopOnFailure)
Slp: Rule initialization failed – hence the rule result is assigned as Failed
Slp: Send result to channel : RulesEngineNotificationChannel
Slp: Initializing rule : Setup account privileges
Slp: Rule is will be executed : True
Slp: Init rule target object: Microsoft.SqlServer.Configuration.SetupExtension.FacetPrivilegeCheck
Slp: Unable to load DLL ‘sqlsccn.dll’: The specified module could not be found. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8007007E)
Slp: at Microsoft.SqlServer.Configuration.SetupExtension.FacetPrivilegeCheck.SccCheckPrivilege(String privilege)
at Microsoft.SqlServer.Configuration.SetupExtension.FacetPrivilegeCheck.Microsoft.SqlServer.Configuration.RulesEngineExtension.IRuleInitialize.Init(String ruleId)
at Microsoft.SqlServer.Configuration.RulesEngineExtension.RulesEngine.Execute(Boolean stopOnFailure)
(12) 2020-03-02 09:38:44 Slp: Rule initialization failed – hence the rule result is assigned as Failed
The shows that the real failure was “Unable to load DLL ‘sqlsccn.dll’: The specified module could not be found. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8007007E)”
Oh my god! I never knew that setup logs can help that much to pinpoint the issue.
WORKAROUND/SOLUTION
When I search for the file sqlsccn.dll, I found that it was available on my local media of SQL Server 2019 but not on the client’s media. In fact, when I compared the total files on my developer media with their media, there were many files missing. In short, this was an issue with missing files from the setup media.
I asked then to re-download the media and with the right media, SQL installation worked like a charm.
Have you ever found such information in setup logs?
Reference: Pinal Dave (https://blog.sqlauthority.com)