All,
I recently inherited a physical SBS2011 server with Exchange 2010 SP1 RU8 installed. SP1 RU7v2 is the only other RU installed. When attempting to upgrade to SP3 the pre-install checks all pass but when it gets to the removal of Exchange part of the install the following error is thrown and the install fails.
Unable to remove product with code 4934d1ea-be46-48b1-8847-f1af20e892c1. Fatal error during installation. Error code is 1603. Last error reported by the MSI package is 'Service '' () could not be stopped. Verify that you have the correct permissions to stop system services.'.
After fixing the services and rebooting the server Email\Exchange connectivity is restored. I get the same error if I try and install SP2 or SP3, and if I try and uninstall the currently installed SP1 RU's. My account is a member of the Domain Admins, Enterprise Admins, Schema Admins, and Organization Management groups. I can fully interact with all MS Exchange services as well as IIS Admin Service, Remote Registry, WMI, and WWW services. I've disabled UAC and my AV prior to install and the issue persists.
I verified the RangeUpper value on my Schema is correct (14734), but attempted to run Setup.com /PrepareAD anyway (from an admin CMD). The command output shows the first two lines ("Welcome to Microsoft Exchange blah blah blah", and then"Preparing Exchange Setup") but then just goes back to the cursor waiting for the next command and no error or changes made. Same happens when I tried to run ServiceControl.ps1, first 2 or so lines of the command output are shown then back to the cursor with no actual error or changes made. Powershell Execution Policy is set to Unrestricted.
As near as I can tell what ever 4934d1ea-be46-48b1-8847-f1af20e892c1 represents is\was installed at some point and then removed, I can find that same GUID in the registry (HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\Folders) and the Windows\Installer folder. I suspect it is gone though because the error references that GUID, then the installer fails because it is unable to stop service (), which isn't anything. Mail is currently flowing to Outlook 2010 and below with no issues. I don't want to start ripping things out and mess up mailflow but I'm about out of ideas. Any help you can provide would be great, let me know if I can provide any more info.