Unattended Install SQL Server 2005 gives Workstation components error if components already installed

Question

Hi,

I have asked a similar question previously but it was never resolved so here I am again!

I have an unattended installation of SQL Server 2005 that works great when installing SQL Server on a machine that does not have it already installed.

I use the following parameters when I perform the installation (this is installed automatically via Inno Setup):

#define SQL_SILENT                    "/passive /qb"
#define SQL_USERNAME                  "username=MyUserName"
#define SQL_COMPANYNAME               "companyname=MyCompanyName"
#define SQL_ADDLOCAL                  "ADDLOCAL=SQL_Engine"
#define SQL_UPGRADE                   ""
#define SQL_DISABLENETWORKPROTOCOLS   "disablenetworkprotocols=0"
#define SQL_INSTANCENAME              "instancename=MYSQLINSTANCE"
#define SQL_SQLAUTOSTART              "SQLAUTOSTART=1"
#define SQL_SECURITYMODE              "SECURITYMODE=SQL"
#define SQL_SAPWD                     "SAPWD=StrongPassword"
#define SQL_SQLACCOUNT                "SQLACCOUNT="""""
#define SQL_SQLPASSWORD               "SQLPASSWORD="""""

It installs the instance of SQL Server Express without a problem. However, when I attempt to install SQL Server on a machine that already has another instance with workstation components I get the following error:

"A component that you have specified in the ADD_LOCAL property is already installed. To upgrade the existing component, refer to the template.ini and set the UPGRADE property to the name of the component."

I have also tried using the UPGRADE method as per the error message

#define SQL_UPGRADE       "UPGRADE=SQL_Engine INSTANCENAME=MYSQLINSTANCE"

but get the following error:

"SQL Server Setup cannot perform the upgrade because the component is not installed on the computer. To proceed, verify the component to be upgraded in currently installed, and that the component to be upgraded is specified in the ADDLOCAL property."

I can manually remove the workstation components from Add/Remove programs (Program and Features in Vista) and the installation works fine but this is not something I want to manually do everytime. Especially if this is being installed on a PC that makes use of these components.

I would be very grateful for any advise on how I can stop this error from being displayed during the unattended install.

Thank you

Answer 1

To fix the above problem I had to make sure components and tools un-installed first.

However, this is no longer relevant as I will be installing SQL Server 2008 which I am sure will have many more problems!