OK, in my case it was a clustered environment, but I bet this applies to single instances as well.
I ran the setup (it’s not quite my first SQL Server install, you know) and after configuring all the steps, I hit Install and waited. The good news is that I didn’t have to wait too much. The bad news is that the setup failed with this error: A MOF syntax error occurred. Riiiight, veeery self-explanatory.
However, the solution is simple:
Open the “Summary <<impossible path to type>>.txt” file by clicking the link provided (see above picture). Locate the “failed” word (yes, CTRL + F, search for failed). This is what I got:
This is helpful… not, with one tiny exception: the Detail.txt file.
Copy the Configuration error description (“A MOF syntax error occurred”) and open the Detail.txt file from the mentioned location.
Search for the error description.
This is what I got:
OK, now assuming that something happened and that’s why I got the error, I looked for something that might have happened before the error was written out (yes, I know, I’m a genius).
Not to keep you too much staring at the above picture: I got something called “Access denied“.
Resolution, at least in my case: WTF couple of times, and then check to see what exactly is missing. In my case there was a domain group called DevUsers that was supposed to be in the local administrators group for both nodes. It was not there.
I hope this helps some desperate soul out there.
Best regards,
io
SQL-PLAY 