Category: StoreFront

Citrix StoreFront - Upgrade v3.0.0.45 to v3.5.0.23 fails and the Application Event Log shows an Event ID 0, Source: Citrix Extensible Meta-Installer, stating:

Timestamp: 22.03.2016 11:28:18
Category:Error, WinError
Message:Installation of '..\CitrixStoreFront-x64.msi' failed with error code 1603. Fatal error during installation

With an failed upgrade log files can be found in C:\Windows\Temp\StoreFront\, e.g.:

• Citrix-DeliveryServicesRoleManager-2016-03-22 11-27-00.log
• CitrixMsi-CitrixStoreFront-x64-2016-03-22-11-27-21.log

But checking CitrixMsi-CitrixStoreFront-x64-2016-03-22-11-27-21.log revealed nothing useful, except this:

MSI (s) (04:10) [11:28:07:090]: Note: 1: 1708
MSI (s) (04:10) [11:28:07:090]: Product: Citrix StoreFront -- Installation failed.
MSI (s) (04:10) [11:28:07:091]: Windows Installer installed the product. Product Name: Citrix StoreFront. Product Version: 3.5.0.23. Product Language: 1033. Manufacturer: Citrix Systems, Inc.. Installation success or error status: 1603.

In Citrix-DeliveryServicesRoleManager-2016-03-22 11-27-00.log I did find something more useful:

[22.03.2016 11:53:02][5224][Information]   ExitCode = "1603"
[22.03.2016 11:53:02][5224][Information]   ExitCode.Reason = "Installation of DeliveryServicesRole failed."

As the following suggestions did not work for me neither:

• delete c:\inetpub\wwwroot\Citrix\Storename\App_Data\CtxsWebProxyIconCache\ folder (backup prior to deleting!)
• delete c:\ProgramData\Citrix\Storefront Install\3.0.0.44 folder
• run StoreFront setup executable again

I had to look further, as pointed out here:

Installer can have issues in converting/migrating the custom configuration you might have put in. Although it may be pointing to Authentication however its possible that issues are in STORE\Web.config file.

So I checked my own web.config file, placed in C:\inetpub\wwwroot\Citrix\StoreWeb, but didn't find any refernces to any bogus, e.g. generatePublisherEvidence, which might have been put there working with an earlier version of StoreFront:

Per Citrix Support: This was a setting that was in place for web interface, some customers may have had this implemented and once updated may have copied their web.config files over as well. This setting was not tested with Storefront and is the reason why the installer fails because its not a standard in the XML file.

Furthermore it's suggested to check any custom configurations you may have applied to your StoreFront setup, i.e.

• Customize Receiver Appearance
• Manage Featured App Groups

I reverted any of my StoreFront's Stores to Classic Experiences (which saw me losing my Enhanced Experience and Featured App Groups settings flushed down the drain in the process), but to no prevail:

The Application Log's error code 1603 pointed me to Citrix Discussions:

I had the same 1603 error when trying to do an in-place upgrade from StoreFront 3.0.0.45 to 3.5.0.23.  Tried several reboots and many other troubleshooting steps including all suggestions above, but what worked for me in the end was to install 3.0.1.57 first, reboot, then install 3.5.0.23 on top of that.

This left me with the only choice that seems to work right now, but.... it did not work for me!

For valid upgrade paths to the latest StoreFront v3.5 have a look at Citrix eDocs.

Solution

As the aforementioned error code 1603 is generated by the MSI installer technology and thus not Citrix specific, I dug deeper into that error code and found CTX126640:

Note: The 1603 exit error is a generic installation error which stands for Fatal error during installation. Refer to the MSI installation logs for further traces because this problem does not apply to every situation.

Problem Cause
A previous installation of a Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable package may cause the installation process to fail.

I compared a working StoreFront v3.5 setup with my failing v3.0 setup and identified several Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable packages installed on the failing system:

I decided to remove any of the Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable packages and launched the StoreFront v3.5 upgrade executable once more - ét voila! It worked! Problem solved.

Further reading:

• Citrix Discussions - StoreFront Upgrade from 3.0 to 3.5 fails
• Citrix Discussions - StoreFront 3.0.0.45 failed Upgrade
• CTX126640 - XenApp 6 Installation Fails with Error Code 1603
• Citrix eDocs - Install, set up, upgrade, and uninstall