We've got a new Windows 2008 R2 Web Server. I've got a couple of old, but vital, ASP.NET apps that I'm trying to migrate off of an older 2003 R2 server, onto this new 2008 R2 server. The ASP.NET apps were written using VS 2005. We created a .MSI setup, because we needed to include a Crystal Reports module, which required an installation on the server.
I've copied the .MSI files to the new server, and started to run them, but they fail immediately with a "Installation success or error status: 1603." error (which I got out of the event log, as there wasn't much from the installer, except that it failed).
I've tried looking up this generic error and this is what I can tell you. The SYSTEM account has full control to the drive, folder and .MSI files involved. The drive, folder and file are not encrypted. This is not a substitution drive.
Best Answer
As you wrote, 1603 is probably as generic as it gets.
Use msiexec to set a verbose logging level during installation, this would be the easiest way to troubleshoot it: