website installation fails on a 64-bit, IIS6 server

[Mescalero]

Hi everyone,

I have an installation package that fails with a 1603. The installation creates two websites and associated application pools (when it works). The server is x64, with IIS6. Here is where the trouble is in the log file:

InstallShield 10:58:48: IIS6 check for ASP.NET version bitness, install is requesting 'x86'
InstallShield 10:58:48: OpenKeyLog, pszMDPath =/LM/W3SVC/APPPOOLS
InstallShield 10:58:48: GetData, pszMDPath = /
InstallShield 10:58:48: CloseKey failed with the following error: -2146646015
InstallShield 10:58:48: Value returned for Enable32bitAppOnWin64: 0
InstallShield 10:58:48: SetAspversion: machine is 64-bit and IIS running in a bit mode other than the currently selected mode
InstallShield 10:58:48: Error with IISRT: -2172
MSI (s) (AC:34) [10:58:48:355]: User policy value 'DisableRollback' is 0
MSI (s) (AC:34) [10:58:48:355]: Machine policy value 'DisableRollback' is 0
Action ended 10:58:48: InstallFinalize. Return value 3.

I have the Enable 32 Bit Applications setting set to Yes, and the ASP.NET Platform to 32-Bit within the project.

I suspect something is amiss with the IIS installation, but this is on an end user machine to which I don't have easy access. (This works on a x64, IIS in-house machine.)

I haven't found anything in the user forums that quite follows my predicament, so can anyone please explain what environmental factor keeps this from working? I would be most appreciative...

[joshstechnij]

In essence, the behavior you are seeing occurs when the target machine is 64-bit and does not have 32-bit supported enabled for application pools. Unlike IIS 7.x, IIS 6 does not support a per-application pool 32/64-bit setting, it is global to all app pools. As such, the Enable 32-bit Applications setting will not be applied on IIS 6 machines, since it will then affect all application pools and quite possibly break existing applications on the machine.

Please see the help library article "Considerations for Supporting IIS 6 on 64-Bit Platforms" for more information.

[Mescalero]

Thanks, Josh.

We ended up getting round this by running the following from a command line: cscript %SystemDrive%\inetpub\AdminScripts\adsutil.vbs set w3svc/AppPools/Enable32bitAppOnWin64 1

After that, the installation could complete.