AppFabric installation failed because installer MSI returned with error code : 1603

I fixed this error in my deployment. It only occured for me if I had run the installer once before. As soon as you start the Installer, it will create a temporary folder. Copy that folder and save it off with a different name. Now cancel that install.

Open Regedit and search (CTRL+F) for "AppFabric". You should find an entry under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Products{SomeStringOfCharacters}. Under that check SourceList it will have a Key called LastUsedSource. Update the folder path within it to match the temporary folder we just saved off. Also check SourceList/Net. It will likely have multiple keys with numeric Names. Make sure the Data value for them match your temporary folder path as well.

Now go into your temporary folder and run Setup.exe. It should complete now. I've seen behavior like this with other installers that first extract files to a temporary folder. Re-running the installer mostly works from the new temporary folder but some aspect of it holds on to the old temporary folder in the registry and tries to load something up from the old location.

I was trying to re-install AppFabric 1.1 on my Dev Computer running Windows 8 and I get this error. I found here that adding this :

%SYSTEMROOT%\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\  

to PSModulePath (System properties -> Environment Variables -> System variables) solved my issue.

Looks like I got all the possible issues with that installation.

Troubleshooting: look at actual log file (in the log provided by the installer look for LOGFILE=...):

Process.Start: C:\Windows\system32\msiexec.exe /quiet /norestart /i "c:\2964b29c3cd7dcb37c9e\Packages\AppFabric-1.1-for-Windows-Server-64.msi" ADDDEFAULT=Worker,WorkerAdmin,CacheService,CacheClient,CacheAdmin,Setup /l*vx "c:\Temp\AppServerSetup1_1(2014-07-09 11-58-09).log" LOGFILE="c:\Temp\AppServerSetup1_1_CustomActions(2014-07-09 11-58-09).log" INSTALLDIR="C:\Program Files\AppFabric 1.1 for Windows Server" LANGID=en-US

After you located the actual log file, check for errors. I had to:

1. Fails to create AS_Observer:
   • Exec: c:\Windows\system32\net.exe localgroup AS_Observers /delete
2. Fails to set ACLs on config folder:
   • Exec: md C:\Windows\SysWOW64\inetsrv\config
3. COM not registered:
   • Install activation service feature for .NET 3.5 (both HTTP and non-HTTP) and enable HTTP activation for .NET 4.5

done. Hope that helps.

In my case it was a localgroup which was already existed through a previous install. Removing localgroup (AS_Observers) resolved my issue.

net localgroup AS_Observers /delete

hope this might help someone.

I also hit this error…

The installation msi will try to create a new task in the Windows Task scheduler to remind you to give customer feedback. This install step executes regardless of whether you do or do not click the check box to participate in customer feedback. In many corporate environments (including mine) creating new windows tasks is denied to all but domain administrators. As a result, running as a local admin is not sufficient and the entire installation fails when adding the task returns “access denied”. This shows up in the install log as a 1603.

The only workaround we could find was to manually pull all the files out of the msi, remove the “add schedule task” from the install script, and then create a new msi. After that one line change, it worked fine.

Although many links talk about deleting the trailing space in the environment variable, that did not apply to my case as there was no trailing space in my case.

https://serverfault.com/a/593339/270420

This was the answer that finally helped me out. I had to delete the AS_Observers and AS_Administrators groups created during previous installation attempt and then reinstall.

Doing this resolved the problem and I could successfully install AppFabric. Couldn't post this as answer in the server fault site due to insufficient reputation.

I've also had a similar problem. The cause was AppFabric generated a scheduled task and it was left behind when it was uninstalled.

the error message in the logs:

"/create /tn "\Microsoft\Windows\AppFabric\Customer Experience Improvement Program\Consolidator" /xml "C:\Program Files\AppFabric 1.1 for Windows Server\Consolidator.xml" Error: ERROR: Cannot create a file when that file already exists."

It can't create the Task because it already exists.

To delete this task.

• Go to: %SYSTEM32%\Tasks\Microsoft\Windows.
• Delete the AppFabric Folder.

Then try to re-install it again.

Note: You could also try to delete it from the Task Scheduler GUI but in my case it wasn't shown there.

Last but not least, I've found this page. Is quite complete the cause and further explanation.

SOLVED: Error 1306 AppFabric + Windows Server 2012

I had this same error. Just had to install IIS and everything worked.

Thanks for all of the help.

The log error actually tells you what to do. It is complaining because the file already exists below.

Delete the "Consolidator" file from:

C:\Windows\System32\Tasks\Microsoft\Windows\AppFabric\Customer Experience Improvement Program

Courtesy of Charles Babcock, MCT

My problem was that there was task already for Customer Experience Improvement Program in Task Scheduler "\Microsoft\Windows\AppFabric\Customer Experience Improvement Program\Consolidator". I removed that task and after that installation succeeded.

In my case it was: - My system account contained two words -- Name and Surname, like "Vasya Pupkin", so web platform installer saw only first "Vasya", so you need to rename system user to "VasyaPupkin" without space symbol, or install under different account. - Also I've noticed error in PowerShell env path, so check System variables PSModulePath, and remove unnecessary - symbol (") (SQL server path contains error, \PowerShell\Modules")

I finally made it. I was able to install AppFabric for Win Server 2012 R2. I am not really sure what exact change made it worked. I saw and tried many many solutions from various websites but above solution of making changes to Registry - 'HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT'worked (please think twice before making changes to Registry on production environment - this was my demo environment so I just went ahead); I changed the temporary folder path but it did not worked first time. Then I deleted the registry entry and then uninstalled AppFabric 1.1 pre-installed instance from Control panel. Then I tried Installation and it worked. This also restored the Registry entry.

May be I am really late for reply, Seriously guys this error resolution took hours of time, i tried every possible solution.

1. installing IIS
2. changing Power Shell from environment variable.
3. Deleting the local group

While, the solution is really really simple. If you look closely in environment variable PSModulePath there will be commas at end of the value simply remove those and enjoy

I had the same problem today. I've found this link, where you can try 3 solutions. First solution helped for me.

Microsoft ANSWER for this issue

For me the following method worked, Firstly ensure that windows update service is running from services.msc or you can run this command in an administrator Command Prompt -

net start wuauserv

Next edit the following registry from regedit -> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\InetStp -> MajorVersion -> Change this value from 10 to 9.

Then try installing the AppFabric and it should work. Note :- revert back to registry value changes you made to ensure there are no problems in future if any.

So, I was having the same issue. The main reason I am installing Appfabric is to create a SharePoint 2013 development server.
What did not work:

• Updating the Environmental Variable PSModulePath - did not work. Still recieved the 1603 error after running the setup agian.
• tried to find the registry entries. Could not find them.

What worked for me to get Appfrabic installed was installing from the setup file via powershell. Woo hoo! It worked for me! This is the link I retrieved the commands from: Installing AppFabric 1.1 with PowerShell DSC results in modal dialog error

        Start-Process -FilePath 'c:\temp\SharePoint\pre\appfabric\setup.exe' -ArgumentList '/i cacheclient","cachingService","CacheAdmin /gac /l c:\temp\appfabric.log' -Wait | Write-verbose
        Start-Process -FilePath 'c:\temp\SharePoint\pre\AppFabric1.1-RTM-KB2671763-x64-ENU.exe' -ArgumentList '/quiet' -Wait | Write-verbose

I hope this helps others with the same issue.