Release Management for VSTS execute msi error

Question

I'm trying to execute a MSI package on an OnPremise Server Agent (Windows Server 2012 R2) with Release Management for Visual Studio Team Services, and while executing an MSI package, I'm getting the following error:

"The Windows Installer Service could not be accessed".

I've checked that the MSI Service is installed and started. I've reinstalled and re-registered the MSI Service.

Any suggestion?

Answer 1

By default VSTS Agent service is installed to run as Network Service special user, which doesn't seem to have enough permissions to work with Windows Installer service.

Reconfigure it to run as Local System and it should help.

Answer 2

When you deploy MSI with a pipeline it creates a temp copy of the power shell script file on the target machine and runs it locally. In maybe some issues with your script. Please locate your script on the target machine and run it there to make sure the script works as expected. The script location something like C:\azagent\A4_work_temp<guid>.ps1'