Oh, the depths of the nuances found in SharePoint.
While setting up a new SharePoint 2013 farm that included the Business Intelligence components, we were not able to get the Reporting Services Add-In to successfully install. The installer would run all the way through, then roll back the entire thing and show this:
Looking to the log of the installer, here’s what we found:
2014-01-08 11:27:54: User: svc_sp2013farmadmin
2014-01-08 11:27:54: Installing Report Server feature.
2014-01-08 11:27:58: Beginning uninstall of cab files.
2014-01-08 11:27:58: Cab files uninstalled successfully.
2014-01-08 11:27:58: Calling copyappbincontents command.
2014-01-08 11:28:52: SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard version 15.0.4420.1017. Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 2012. All rights reserved.
Performing configuration task 1 of 3
Initializing SharePoint Products configuration...
Successfully initialized the SharePoint Products configuration.
Performing configuration task 2 of 3
Installing the application content files...
Installing the SharePoint Central Administration Web Application content files...
Installing the SharePoint Web Application content files...
Failed to install the application content files.
An exception of type System.NullReferenceException was thrown. Additional exception information: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
Total number of configuration settings run: 2
Total number of successful configuration settings: 1
Total number of unsuccessful configuration settings: 1
Successfully stopped the configuration of SharePoint Products.
Configuration of SharePoint Products failed. Configuration must be performed before you use SharePoint Products. For further details, see the diagnostic log located at D:\SharePointLogs\PSCDiagnostics_1_8_2014_11_27_58_106_1169585150.log and the application event log.
I swear Object reference not set to an instance of an object is the most infuriating error message ever created.
We also were getting an event log entry.
Failed to install the application content files.
An exception of type System.NullReferenceException was thrown. Additional exception information: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPAspConfigurationFile.ApplyActionToXmlDocument(XmlDocument xdAction, XmlDocument xd, String sourceFileName, SupportedXmlDocutmentActions supportedActions)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPAspConfigurationFile.MergeWebConfig(XmlDocument xdWebConfig, String fileMask)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPWebService.ApplyApplicationContentToLocalServer()
at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.ApplicationContentTask.Run()
at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.TaskThread.ExecuteTask()
After a bit of searching I finally came across this thread on MSDN, which suggested (of all things) to remove any Comments from the web.config files for my web applications. Odd, but worth a try.
I found the following in the web.config for my MySites web application. I don’t remember commenting that line out, but I went ahead and removed the comments and saved the file.
<modules runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests="true">
<remove name="AnonymousIdentification" />
<remove name="FileAuthorization" />
<remove name="Profile" />
<remove name="WebDAVModule" />
<!--<remove name="Session" />-->
...
</modules>
I then re-ran the Installer for Reporting Services, and sure enough, it finished successfully.
Given that the comment is legitimate XML markup it seems odd that the SharePoint Configuration Wizard would choke on it. But nevertheless, I’m past this issue an on to the next one.
