Configuration Wizard fails

SharePoint

After you install a hotfix or update for SharePoint, you have to run the SharePoint Configuration Wizard. Sometimes it is aborting with an error. You will get a link to a log file. This is something like “PSCDiagnostics_10_17_2008_16_53_57_799_923424762.log”.

In my case I got a timeout error:

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10/17/2008 16:55:59  1  ERR              Fehler beim Initialisieren des Updates der SharePoint-Produkte und -Technologien.
Eine Ausnahme vom Typ ‘System.ServiceProcess.TimeoutException’ wurde ausgelöst. Weitere Ausnahmeinformationen: Der Vorgang wurde nicht abgeschlossen, da der Timeout abgelaufen ist.
System.ServiceProcess.TimeoutException: Der Vorgang wurde nicht abgeschlossen, da der Timeout abgelaufen ist.
   bei System.ServiceProcess.ServiceController.WaitForStatus(ServiceControllerStatus desiredStatus, TimeSpan timeout)
   bei Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.ServiceHelper.Stop(String serviceName)
   bei Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.InitializeTask.StopServicesListedInRegistry(RegistryHelper registry)
   bei Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.InitializeTask.StopAllServices()
   bei Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.InitializeTask.PrepareForUpgrade()
   bei Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.InitializeTask.Run()
   bei Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.TaskThread.ExecuteTask()

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As you can see (or imagine if you can not read the German text) that a timeout prevented the Wizard from successfully finish.

You will also get the error if you run the Configuration Wizard through the command prompt with: “psconfig -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -wait -force”.

The problem is described very well here. A great “Thank you” goes to Bill Baer.

So how do you successfully run the Configuration Wizard? Here is quote from the blog entry mentioned above:

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Modify the service timeout values in the Registry:

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control add/modify DWORD value ServicesPipeTimeout to 60000 (60 seconds)
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control add/modify STRING value WaitToKillServiceTimeout to 120000 (120 seconds)

Restart the server machine.

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After I changed the registry entries, the Configuration Wizard worked as designed and the update was applied successfully.

The problem appeared for me after installing the Infrastructure Updates for WSS/MOSS. The version number of the servers did not match the installed update. You can find a list of version numbers for patches here.