SBS 2003 R2 Must Be Installed as The Built-in Administrator

[Thanks to Damian Leibaschoff for this tip]

 

When you try to install SBS 2003 R2 you get a generic error:

 

When you review the R2_Setup.log you see the following errors:

12/07/2006 11:47:10 PM !Error! WorkItemExecutor: Exception occured in DoWork() for work item RunMSP: System.Exception: Unable to open product {5546F70C-0437-44EE-A923-7C23E6EFF689}, MsiOpenProduct() returned 1605

   at Setup_Util.SetupUtil.GetTargetPathOfProduct(String productCode, String target)

   at R2_SetupWizard.R2WI_RunMSP.get_MSIDefaultProperty()

   at R2_SetupWizard.R2WI_RunMSP.DoWork(StringDictionary sd)

   at R2_SetupWizard.WorkItemExecutor.ExecuteWorkItems(StringDictionary sd, ExecutorCallback beforeWork, ExecutorCallback afterWork)

12/07/2006 11:48:22 PM Warning: Exception occured while attempting to get remote target path. This is expected if the Remote.msi file for SBS 2003 is not installed. : System.Exception: Unable to open product {C73E81BF-432C-44E2-831D-F46081CA6E28}, MsiOpenProduct() returned 1605

   at Setup_Util.SetupUtil.GetTargetPathOfProduct(String productCode, String target)

   at Setup_Util.SetupUtil.FormatBrandingPath(ITextLogger log, String format)

12/07/2006 11:48:22 PM Warning: Exception occured while attempting to get client setup target path. This is expected if the Client Setup component for SBS 2003 is not installed. : System.Exception: Unable to open product {7FB55E52-C72D-4165-85D0-383ED3D7253F}, MsiOpenProduct() returned 1605

   at Setup_Util.SetupUtil.GetTargetPathOfProduct(String productCode, String target)

   at Setup_Util.SetupUtil.FormatBrandingPath(ITextLogger log, String format)

This can happen if you try to install SBS 2003 R2 as a user that is NOT the built-in Administrator.

How can you tell if you are running as the built-in Administrator?

From a command prompt run:

NET USER <USERNAME> /Domain

(Replace <USERNAME> with the user you are currently logged in with).

The built-in Administrator will show the following as the Comment:

“Built-In account for administering the computer/domain.”