Installing VMware View Composer service prompts the message: “The system must be rebooted before installation can continue.”

While the problem outlined in this post isn’t specific or caused by VMware View but rather Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2, it was an issue I encountered today that threw me off for a few minutes until I was able to determine the cause.

Problem

You attempt to install VMware View Composer on a Windows Server 2008 R2 server:

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… but notice that the installer is unable to continue as you are prompted with the message:

The system must be rebooted before installation can continue.

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Solution

As noted in the beginning of this post, the issue wasn’t specific to VMware View’s Composer install but rather a stuck pending operation in Windows. The following KB outlines 2 registry keys:

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1029288

  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlSession ManagerPendingFileRenameOperations
  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlSession ManagerFileRenameOperations

… that should be checked.  The server that I was working on turned out to have values defined in the PendingFileRenameOperations that could not successfully complete after multiple reboots:

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What I ended up doing was open up the Multi-String value and deleted what appeared to be printer drivers:

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This immediately corrected the issue and I was then able to continue installing the VMware View Composer service on the server:

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2 Responses

  1. Thanks! This did the trick, in my case it was a VMware tools file operation that was stuck there.

    //CJ