SQL 2008 install fail - Attempted to perform an unauthorized opera

[lethe]

I'm trying to install SQL Server 2008 Developer edition on my laptop running
Windows XP Professional SP2. I ran the installer as a domain user with admin
rights to the local box. The installation advisor program certified that my
system was ready for the install, but nevertheless I had to uninstall SQL
Server 2005 Express edition and install .NET framework 3.5 SP1 first. Once
that was done, the installer finished, having successfully installed all the
components of SQL Server 2008 except for the core database engine. It failed
with this error message: Attempted to perform an unauthorized operation.

I uninstalled SQL Server 2008 and reinstalled with the same results.

Below is a snippet from my C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Setup
Bootstrap\Log\20081014_203925\Detail.txt which seems like it may be relevant.

Can anyone offer any assistance? Would be greatly appreciated.

2008-10-14 20:50:15 SQLEngine: --EtwSetup: Updating WMI Security
2008-10-14 20:50:15 SQLEngine: --EtwSetup: WMI
sddl:D:(A;;0x120fff;;;SY)(A;;0x120fff;;;BA)
2008-10-14 20:50:15 Slp: Sco: Attempting to create base registry key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, machine
2008-10-14 20:50:15 Slp: Sco: Attempting to open registry subkey
SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\WMI\Security
2008-10-14 20:50:15 Slp: Prompting user if they want to retry this action
due to the following failure:
2008-10-14 20:50:15 Slp: ----------------------------------------
2008-10-14 20:50:15 Slp: The following is an exception stack listing the
exceptions in outermost to innermost order
2008-10-14 20:50:15 Slp: Inner exceptions are being indented
2008-10-14 20:50:15 Slp:
2008-10-14 20:50:15 Slp: Exception type:
Microsoft.SqlServer.Configuration.Sco.ScoException
2008-10-14 20:50:15 Slp: Message:
2008-10-14 20:50:15 Slp: Attempted to perform an unauthorized
operation.
2008-10-14 20:50:15 Slp: Data:
2008-10-14 20:50:15 Slp: WatsonData =
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE@SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\WMI\Security
2008-10-14 20:50:15 Slp: DisableRetry = true
2008-10-14 20:50:15 Slp: Inner exception type:
System.UnauthorizedAccessException
2008-10-14 20:50:15 Slp: Message:
2008-10-14 20:50:15 Slp: Attempted to perform an
unauthorized operation.
2008-10-14 20:50:15 Slp: Stack:
2008-10-14 20:50:15 Slp: at
Microsoft.SqlServer.Configuration.Sco.InternalRegistryKey.OpenSubKey(String
subkey, RegistryAccess requestedAccess)
2008-10-14 20:50:15 Slp: ----------------------------------------
2008-10-14 20:50:31 Slp: User has chosen to cancel this action

[Aaron Bertrand [SQL Server MVP]]

Did you try running regedit and navigating to that key (while logged in as
that same user)? Could you view it? What about going to Edit|Permissions
while it is highlighted? The error message seems pretty straightforward to
me. Either your local admin user has been blocked from this key
(potentially by group policy / AD), or setup is not trying to connect as
that user (you can use regmon to check this), or maybe it is a generic error
disguising a "registry key not found" issue.

On 10/15/08 3:01 PM, in article
AED0754A-C457-4299...@microsoft.com, "lethe"

[lethe]

Thanks for the reply, Aaron. And thanks for the tips.

Using regedit, I am able to see the registry key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE@SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\WMI\Security. However it
seems to be readonly; if I try to add a key, I get "Cannot create key: Error
while opening the key Security.", and if I try to modify existing key, I get
"Cannot edit 1101D829-167B-4ebf-ACAE-28CAB7C34802: Error writing the value's
new contents.".

I'm not familiar with regmon, so I haven't verified that SQL Setup is
running as my admin user, but given the results above, I think that must be
the problem, right? Actually, there's a step in SQL Server Setup where it
asks you to choose an admin for the server, and there's an option to "set
current user". That option did select my admin login account, so I presume
that SQL setup is running as correct user.

I guess your suggestion that it's a corporate AD group policy is likely. I
went to Edit|permissions on this key, and I was able to allow write access to
admin for the key, after which I was able to edit the registry key. With
that done, I'm now going to try installing again. I'll post back with my
results. Fingers crossed.

Thanks again Aaron.

[lethe]

Aaron, it worked! Using regedit to grant write permissions to the registry
key allowed SQL server to install, no problem. I hope I'm not contravening
some corporate IT policy :-p

You're awesome. Thanks for your help.

[mjr2...@gmail.com]

Dear All,

I am facing following error Sql 2008 setup "Attempted to perform an unauthorized operation sql server 2008 ( Windows 7 )"

I tryed to run setup as administrator

I tryed to run setup to create new user as an administrator and login in new user then run setup

I tryed to run in compatible mode windows xp sp3.

I tryed to login in Administrato account and run setup

in this all time same error came i am tired too much. because of this i format my pc and install windows 7 but still it is same please help me.

Thanks is advance

Regards

Uday

uday...@hotmail.come8af65e50f16e0

[Erland Sommarskog]

(mjr2...@gmail.com) writes:
> I am facing following error Sql 2008 setup "Attempted to perform an
> unauthorized operation sql server 2008 ( Windows 7 )"
>
> I tryed to run setup as administrator
>
> I tryed to run setup to create new user as an administrator and login in
> new user then run setup

In C:\Program Files\Microcsoft SQL Server\Setup Bootstrap\log you should
find one folder for each install attempt. Can you zip one such folder and
upload the file somewhere (Skydrive, Dropbox, Google disk, whatever) and
post the link?


--
Erland Sommarskog, SQL Server MVP, esq...@sommarskog.se

Books Online for SQL Server 2005 at
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/2005/downloads/books.mspx
Books Online for SQL Server 2000 at
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/prodinfo/previousversions/books.mspx