Snapin won't install on Windows Server 2016

[martin9700]

No error message during the install, but after the snapin is not available. Application event log logged this error:

Source: App
Description: Activation of app Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy!CortanaUI failed with error: This app can't be activated by the Built-in Administrator. See the Microsoft-Windows-TWinUI/Operational log for additional information.

Attempted to register the dll manually using regsvr32, and got this error:

The module "SwisPowerShell.dll" was loaded but the entry-point DllRegisterServer was not found. Make sure that "SwisPowerShell.dll" is a valid DLL or OCX file and then try again.

[tdanner]

regsvr32 is for registering COM objects. SwisPowerShell.dll can be manually registered using installutil.exe. You might find it in C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319 and C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319.

Note that PowerShell has separate registration for 32-bit and 64-bit shells. SwisPowerShell.dll is compiled as "AnyCpu" so it will work in either mode, but a 32-bit PowerShell instance will only see a registration from the 32-bit installutil.exe and 64-bit PowerShell needs a 64-bit registration.

I don't know what Cortana has to do with this. Are you sure that error is related to the snapin not showing up?

[martin9700]

Nope, just a time correlation (on two separate installs). I'll try installutil.exe and report back.

[martin9700]

Fixed, thank you. Can that be added to the installer?

[tdanner]

That's what the installer does. I don't know why it failed on your system. If you want to spend more time on this, you could collect the installation log by following these steps:

1. Uninstall the Orion SDK
2. Install from the command line: msiexec /l*v C:\sdk-install.log OrionSDK.msi
3. Check to see if the snapin was registered correctly.
4. If it was, we are stuck.
5. If it was not registered correctly, you can send me the log file (first.last at solarwinds dot com) and I'll take a look.

[cabjas01]

The problem maybe due to the installer not using the .NET 4.0 InstallUtil folder. The installer allows installation to .NET 4.0 only, but will only run installutil.exe if .NET 3.5 is installed which is not installed by default on Win10 or WS2016.

Product.wxs contains the following.
?define InstallUtilExe32 = "[WindowsFolder]\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\InstallUtil.exe" ?
?define InstallUtilExe64 = "[WindowsFolder]\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v2.0.50727\InstallUtil.exe" ?

Possible solutions: Stop installer from running if .NET 3.5 is not installed (not preferred) or use v4.0.30319 InstallUtil.exe instead of v2.0.50727 and require .NET 4+.

[tdanner]

I posted a prerelease with this change. https://github.com/solarwinds/OrionSDK/releases/tag/v2.3.98-beta

Thanks, @cabjas01 !