Moving from Revit Server 2020 to Server 2021 - installation fails

[clawrence9]

I installed Revit Server 2020 to my server with no issues. Installed first time and worked. I then realized that I installed the wrong version - I needed 2021. 

I uninstalled 2020 completely. Registry, IIS8 and all folders were clean but maybe something is still remaining?

Have tried to install 2021 at least 20 times now with the same failure every time. Result = 1603 but:

• I have plenty of room on the drive.
• Installing as Admin and all "program files" is being written to and is wide open to the installer. I have verified this. Have taken ownership of all install & temp folders just to make sure.
• All prerequisites are installed and hardware is fully capable.
• Tried the MS FixIt tool
• No errors in Event Viewer logs
• Have shut off all firewalls, anti-virus/malware, group policy restrictions - basically opened the server 100%
• Have tried downloading new install files, extracted to different locations, installed using defaults, installed using custom locations. 
• Tried reinstalling 2020 and then 2018 - they fail with the same error.
• 2020 installed originally with Zero problems.

I have noticed that the Revit Auto Sync service installs but will not start. Install program installs the service, tries to start it, stops it and then tries a few more times. 

I have also noted the following error in the Install.log (attached)

ConfigureIIs7Exec: Error 0x80070032: Failed get sites section
ConfigureIIs7Exec: Error 0x80070032: Failed to search for Website

The system meets all requirements for the installation according to;

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/revit-products/troubleshooting/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2021/...

and

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/revit-products/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles...

Please help. I've spent more than 30 hours now trying to figure out what is going on. 

Thank you in advance.

Server Specs:

Windows Serve 2016 Essentials

Intel Xeon e-2124 @3.3ghz

16GB Ram

2TB disk space free

.NET Framework Version 4.8 (with hotfixes current to 1/5/2021)

[natasha.l]

Hello @clawrence9, 

Thank you for posting & providing all this great information. 

I have reviewed the steps you have taken & the log indicating "REVITSERVER failed with code 16032021".

The error 1603 is a generic error generated by the Microsoft Windows Installer (MSI) when a problem occurred during the installation of your Autodesk product, unfortunately it doesn't provide the root cause. 

I recommend reviewing the addition steps provided in this article making sure all Autodesk component were installed properly with the required Windows permissions. 

Please "Accept Solution" if a reply or replies have helped resolve the issue or answered your question, to help others in the community.

[clawrence9]

This did not work. I went through the link you sent and then the subsequent links on that page. 

I did a full uninstall of all Autodesk products, cleaned the registry, rebooted, cleaned the TEMP directory, downloaded a new copy of the installer, turned of all UAC & malware/virus software and then reinstalled.

Failed with the exact same error. 

I mentioned before that possibly something with the AutoSync service is not properly installing. I've attached the install log as well as the Revit Server install logs. 

[m_latz]

And have you prepared your IIS as explained here:

Help: Install Server System Prerequisites for Windows Server 2016 (autodesk.com)

regards

Markus

[clawrence9]

Yes.

Did you notice in my original post that Server 2020 installed with no problem? IIS was and is configured per the requirements. This problem only occurred after uninstalling 2020. It was all done the same day last week. 

[m_latz]

Yes I did notice.

But the difference between the RevitServer.msi from 2020 and RevitServer.msi from 2021 is, that there are msi custom actions like "ConfigureIIs7Exec" that were missing in 2020 and are added in 2021.

There are different Revit 2021 installation sources available. What you can try is to use the RevitServer installation from "Revit_2021_G1_Win_64bit_dlm", because this installation is similiar to the 2020 RevitServer installation.

But I do not know what is changed from "Revit_2021_G1_Win_64bit_dlm" to "Revit_2021_r1_G1_Win_64bit_dlm" for Revit Server.

regards

Markus

[clawrence9]

Thanks for that info. I hadn't seen any different 2021 installers. I've been using the r1 version. Let me try the other and I'll post results.

thanks, again!

[clawrence9]

Same result with the other 2021 Installer. (it was branded as a "preview release" by the way)

In my install log I keep getting the exact same error every single time I try an install. These 3 lines are always there;

WriteIIS7ConfigChanges: Error 0x80070032: Failed get AppPools section
WriteIIS7ConfigChanges: Error 0x80070032: Failed to configure IIS appPool.
WriteIIS7ConfigChanges: Error 0x80070032: WriteIIS7ConfigChanges Failed.

I notice that every time the Revit Server Application is not getting installed and just seems that there is something involved here. I've searched for some kind of authentication/permission issue but have come up empty.  Just to cover bases, I've temporarily added the Admin account to literally every security group. 

Still no luck.

[m_latz]

Let me try to install on my server ...

I keep you up to date.

regards

Markus

[m_latz]

Sorry for the delay.

I installed Revit 2021 Server on an existing "virtual" MS Server 2016 Standard without any problem.

Before I installed I added/configure some feature/settings in Windows Server 2016 as described in the Rvit online help, see my attached screenshots:

After I compared your install log file with my file and some msi custom actions did not run as expected:

Can you try to check the settings.

regards

Markus

[clawrence9 · Accepted solution]

Well - nothing ever worked. I've tried everything that's been suggested and that I've found on the web. 

Final solution: reinstall Windows Server 2016.