SQL Server 2014 SP\CU installation getting stuck at “MsiTimingAction”

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Hello folks, and welcome back to this new post on Sidd's SQL Solutions. Recently I was working on regular SQL Server patching stuff, which often we have to do and I faced this odd situation on one of the server, which troubled me a lot. Fortunately I was able to fix it after two days of struggle, which also gave me my new post. This blog post will cover this issue and its fix in details.

The Issue:
The odd situation or the issue I faced here was while installing Service Pack 2 for SQL Server 2014 on a server running with Windows Server 2012 R2 OS. The setup starts up normally like others but gets stuck at “MsiTimingAction” page and simply refuses to progress any further. No matter how many times you restart the setup or your system\server it end up at the same stage.


It seems to be a known issue, which was fixed in Cumulative Update 2 of Service Pack 1 for SQL Server 2014. The system on which I was applying this patch was already running with CU8 of SP1 for SQL Server 2014 and giving me this error while I was trying to install SP2 on it. I even tried the approach of uninstalling CU8 of SP1 and tried installing CU2 of SP1 in hope to fix the issue but ended up with same result.



The Fix:
After hours of trying various fixes finally I was able to install SP2 on the server on Day 2 of my attempts. Below is the approach I used to fix this issue:

1. First step is to download desired CU\SP setup file and unpack it to a folder. You can do it by running the CU\SP setup’s exe from command prompt with “-x” parameter.

2. Now look for “Windows Installer” processes running in the background using Windows “task manager”. You may see up to three processes active in background depending upon version of Windows. Kill\terminate two out of three, which are not associated with any service. Below highlighted is the one to be spared.


3. Now start the setup using “setup.exe” file from the unpacked location through elevated command prompt using following command:
Setup.exe /SkipInstallerRunCheck

4. When setup reaches the “MsiTimingAction” page then check again for these “Windows Installer” processes and kill them if you found them to be running again.


Please note that even after this fix the setup still take a bit longer at this step then other servers but will be able to proceed to completion after few minutes.

Hope these steps able to help you as well. Let me know your feedback on the solution and share if you like the post or if it able to help you as well.


MCSA Certified SQL Server DBA with sublime development skills to automate regular tasks and interest in following and discussing trending technologies, well-being and spirituality.

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