Issue Installing SQL Server 2012 Express Instances on Lync Server 2013

I ran into this issue at a customer recently.  The Lync Server 2013 Deployment Wizard would throw an error while trying to install SQL Server 2012 Express:

Checking prerequisite SqlInstanceRtc...installing...failure code -2067922934
Prerequisite installation failed: SqlInstanceRtc

Clicking on View Log didn't tell us a lot either:


Note: You may need to click on the image above in order to read the text.

Neither did the SQL installation log file, which can be found at C:\Users<username>\AppData\Local\Temp\1\SqlSetup.txt:


Note: You may need to click on the image above in order to read the text.

The only real interesting thing in the log file was:

Process returned exit code: 0x84BE000A

 

This particular customer uses OS images that have been hardened according to a set of STIGs (Security Technical Implementation Guide).  You can find some more information on STIG here.  In comparing the changes to a default installation of Windows we found that all of the users had been removed from the "Debug programs" policy:


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The user running the Lync Server 2013 Deployment Wizard needs to be included in order for SQL to be installed.  The default setting includes the local Administrators group:


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After adding the local Administrators group and rebooting the server, we were able to complete the SQL Server 2012 Express installation and continue on with the Lync Server 2013 install:

 

If you are installing Lync Server 2013 on an OS that has been hardened, ensure that the user doing the install has all the rights necessary for a smooth installation.