Troubleshooting: Connector install failures

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 23:14:39 Z

Typical install failures

This document explains how to troubleshoot setup issues

Reminder: there are different phases of client software installation:

Install. That’s usual software installation. Files are copied and registered.
Discovery. Connector software tried to find WHS over UPNP. That’s the screen with Vista circle cursor going round and round.
Authentication: You are asked to enter the password for your Home Server
Configuring the software. Connector software does webservice calls to join WHS. That’s what you see in the very end with either two green marks on the screen (good!) or anything else, usually with some red circles and crosses (bad!)

The most typical failure in phase one is not having admin privileges or not being logged on as an admin on the home computer where you are trying to install the Windows Home Server Connector software.

The most typical problem in phase 2 are: Discovery goes to a “Locate your server manually” page.

The most typical problems in phase 3 are:

- You receive a message saying that you cannot connect to the server

- You receive a balloon saying that your password is incorrect

If Discovery.exe goes to a “Network error” page, you most probably failed phase 4 (or in some cases 3). You might also see some errors or warnings on the “configuring” page.

Steps-by-step troubleshooting for the copying files phase

Verify that you have administrative privileges on the home computer, enough space on the disk and you are logged on as an admin.
If the software tells you that it found incompatible products, uninstall .net framework and any Visual Studio/SQL server beta products you have
Open the msi log on the machine (in %temp%\HomeServerClientMsi.log) and the setup log (in %temp%\HomeServerClientSetup.log) and look for errors

Steps-by-step troubleshooting for discovering the server

Verify that your home server is turned on connected to the network
If you build the home server yourself or if the home server has mouse/monitor, verify you have network drivers and the server has an IP. (type ipconfig /all on the server and verify you have a valid IP)
Connect the server and the home computer into the same router. If you have multiple routers in your home, server discovery might not work.
Try to see if you can reach the home server. From a command prompt, type “ping <servername> (default is server) and nslookup <servername>. Both should work and the IP addresses printed by the two commands should match
Choose “Find my server manually” and type the server name in the edit box
If 5 does not work, open serverdiscovery.log and look for errors. Most probably the error will come from ParnerManager.dll. In this case, proceed with troubleshooting Join issues as explained in the server join troubleshooting doc

Steps-by-step troubleshooting for authenticating with the server

Follow the steps 1 to 4 as for discovering the server
If nothing works, open the pcdiscovery.log, look at last ERROR: line. Look up the error for the HRESULT. If it is not obvious, and the error comes from partner manager, follow the instructions in the server join troubleshooter.

Steps-by-step troubleshooting for configuring the software

If the configuring page displays a warning, read the warning text carefully and proceed to the next screen. You might have some disks that cannot be backed up for various reasons (not NTFS).
Follow the steps 1 to 4 as for discovering the server
If nothing works, open the pcdiscovery.log, look at last ERROR: line. Look up the error for the HRESULT. If it is not obvious, and the error comes from partner manager, follow the instructions in the server join troubleshooter

Additional information may be found at this link.