Heads Up! VSA Manager 5.1.x – Install Error 2896: Executing action failed

I was asked recently to provide some assistance with a VSA installation problem. The issue which this person experienced is described in the release notes for VSA 5.1.1 .

VSA 5.1.1 installation fails with the Error 2896: Executing action failed message
This problem might occur when the location of the temp drive is set to a drive other than C:, where VSA Manager is to be installed.
Workaround: Make sure that the user and system TEMP and TMP variables point to a specified location on the C: drive.

However this workaround did not work for him and it led to finding another possible cause for this error. If you have your vCenter server installed on a drive other than the C: drive, you may also encounter this installation problem when trying to deploy the VSA Manager. In this case, to resolve this issue, you will need to do the following:

1. Run the vSphere Storage Appliance (VSA) Manager installer. The installer extracts and copies the files.
2. When the extraction completes, the Next button is enabled. Do not click Next at this stage.
3. Navigate to %TEMP%/sva/VSAManager/installTool, and open the runtool.bat file using a text editor.
4. In the ninth line of code, add /d before %BUILDDIR%. For example, change: cd %BUILDDIR% to: cd /d %BUILDDIR% 
5. Save and close the runtool.bat file.
6. Click Next to continue with the installation.

This will allow the installation to proceed successfully. I’ll ask to get a KB updated with this information.

Get notification of these blogs postings and more VMware Storage information by following me on Twitter: @CormacJHogan