When installing SharePoint 2013 prerequisites on Windows Server 2008 R2, the prerequisite installer fails with the following error
"AppFabric installation failed because installer MSI returned with error code : 1603".
This is a generic MSI error message and does not give any indication about how to get the issue fixed. Uninstall or reinstalling only makes it worse.
This issue can be caused because the path to the PowerShell executable that is needed for the AppFabric installation is incorrect.
In some scenarios, repeated uninstallation and re-installation does not fix the issue. This is because the installer does not remove the PSModulePath entry in Environment Variables during un-installation and the installation fails because the entry already exists.
You can implement any one of the two solutions listed below
- Solution 1
Append the following path to PSModulePath entry in the environment variables - %SYSTEMROOT%\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0
- Go to My Computer, right-click Properties
- On the System' page, click Advanced System Settings on the left-side pane.
- If you receive a UAC prompt, click on Yes to launch the System Properties dialog box
- From the Advanced tab, click Environment Variables
- Within the System Variables section in the lower half, select PSModulePath and click on Edit (or double-click PSModulePath')
- Append the following path to PSModulePath entry in the environment variables
%SYSTEMROOT%\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\
- Ensure that the PSModulePath entry looks like this:
C:\Windows\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules\;c:\Program Files\AppFabric 1.1 for Windows Server\PowershellModules
- There are chances that other applications might be referencing the same variable and may fail if it is deleted. This is what we can do if solution 1 does not help.
- Remove the PSModulePath entry from the 'Environment Variables' and re-run the installer. Once it completes successfully, ensure that the PSModulePath entry looks the same as mentioned in solution 1.
For more information about AppFabric for Windows Server, see AppFabric for Windows Server
Download AppFabric 1.1 from Official Microsoft Download Center