Installing of Citrix XenApp 6.5 Hotfixes fails with “Installation ended prematurely because of an error”

Problem:

Recently I was having issues installing the Hotfixes XA650W2K8R2X64001 and XA650W2K8R2X64002 for XenApp 6.5  I keep getting the error “Installation ended prematurely because of an error” and in the event log I would get the below;

“Product: Citrix XenApp 6.5 – Update ‘XA650W2K8R2X64001’ could not be installed. Error code 1603. Windows Installer can create logs to help troubleshoot issues with installing software packages. Use the following link for instructions on turning on logging support: “

Cause:

After generating a verbose install log I noticed that there was some sort of certificate error

MSI (s) (18:34) 11:53:31:692: Doing action: UninstallCertificates
Action 11:53:31: UninstallCertificates.
Action start 11:53:31: UninstallCertificates.
MSI (s) (18:34) 11:53:31:695: Note: 1: 2235 2: 3: ExtendedType 4: SELECT `Action`,`Type`,`Source`,`Target`, NULL, `ExtendedType` FROM `CustomAction` WHERE `Action` = ‘UninstallCertificates’
MSI (s) (18:34) 11:53:31:695: Transforming table Binary.

MSI (s) (18:34) 11:53:31:695: Transforming table Binary.

MSI (s) (18:34) 11:53:31:695: Note: 1: 2262 2: Binary 3: -2147287038
MSI (s) (18:04) 11:53:31:702: Invoking remote custom action. DLL: C:\Windows\Installer\MSI34DA.tmp, Entrypoint: UninstallCertificates
MSI (s) (18:04) 11:53:31:800: Leaked MSIHANDLE (61806) of type 790531 for thread 5160
MSI (s) (18:04) 11:53:31:800: Leaked MSIHANDLE (61805) of type 790540 for thread 5160
MSI (s) (18:04) 11:53:31:800: Leaked MSIHANDLE (61803) of type 790541 for thread 5160
MSI (s) (18:04) 11:53:31:800: Note: 1: 2769 2: UninstallCertificates 3: 3
MSI (s) (18:04) 11:53:31:800: Transforming table Error.

MSI (s) (18:04) 11:53:31:801: Transforming table Error.

MSI (s) (18:04) 11:53:31:801: Note: 1: 2262 2: Error 3: -2147287038
DEBUG: Error 2769: Custom Action UninstallCertificates did not close 3 MSIHANDLEs.
Internal Error 2769. UninstallCertificates, 3
CustomAction UninstallCertificates returned actual error code 1603 (note this may not be 100% accurate if translation happened inside sandbox)
Action ended 11:53:31: UninstallCertificates. Return value 3.

With a lot of great help from the guys on the Citrix Forum in turned the problem was to do with a Citrix code signing certificate which had expired on the 12th of November 2011 and had something to do with PowerShell

 

Workaround:

  • On the effect server(s) open an MMC console (Start => Run => MMC)
  • File => Add/Remove Snap-in
  • Add Certificates and select “Computer account” when prompted, OK
  • Expand Certificates => Trusted Publishers => Certificates
  • Delete All of the expired Citrix Certificates
  • Try running the Hotfix install again

The hotfix in my case re-added the same expired certificate, hopefully Citrix will sort this out soon

 

UPDATE:

Citrix have now released an update to fix this issue http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX131927

References

http://forums.citrix.com/thread.jspa?threadID=297715&start=0&tstart=0

3 thoughts on “Installing of Citrix XenApp 6.5 Hotfixes fails with “Installation ended prematurely because of an error””

  1. Thanks for the post – I tried this but to no avail. However, in the event log were several errors relating to MSDTC (Microsoft Distributed Transaction Co-ordinator). This was only on one server is a three server farm.

    Trying to start the msdtc service failed (net start msdtc).

    I the end I uninstalled msdtc and reinstalled it and the hotfix rollup pack installed no problem.

    Run the following commands from an administrative command prompt to get it to work:

    > msdtc -uninstall
    > msdtc -install

    Fixed!

    Reply

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