SQL Server 2008 R2 Upgrade (Express to Standard) fails. No "Select Instance"

Question

I got stuck in the progress of upgrading 3 systems from SQL Server 2008 R2 Express Edition --> SQL Server 2008 R2 Standard Edition.

Problem

The Option "Select Instance" in the Upgrade Process is not available as seen below

First some general information to make things clear:

• On all 3 machines I used the Upgrade Advisor first to make sure there is nothing wrong.

• On 2 of those systems all worked smoothly. I used the following option in the Installation Center: "SQL Server Installation Center"-->"Edition Upgrade"

Log Files

• I dug into the logfiles created under the folder and compared those to each other:

C:\Programme\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Setup Bootstrap\Log

It seems pretty clear now that there is something wrong with those bootstrapper files. Seems as if they don't match to the installed SQL Server 2008R2 WITH SP1.

Loading of bootstrapper files seems to fail

He tries do load files for 10.50.1600.1 (SQL Server 2008 R2 RTM) although he has installed 10.50.2500.0 (SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1) referenced in this Wikipedia article.

failed setup log file:

2013-12-19 12:17:46 Slp: Loading extension 'MSI' from file 'c:\Programme\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Setup Bootstrap\SQLServer2008R2\x86\.\Microsoft.SqlServer.Configuration.MsiExtension.dll'
2013-12-19 12:17:46 Slp: Extension 'MSI' version '10.50.1600.1' loaded
2013-12-19 12:17:46 Slp: Loading extension 'Config' from file 'c:\Programme\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Setup Bootstrap\SQLServer2008R2\x86\.\Microsoft.SqlServer.Configuration.ConfigExtension.dll'
2013-12-19 12:17:46 Slp: Extension 'Config' version '10.50.1600.1' loaded
...
2013-12-19 12:18:00 Slp: Package ID sql_engine_core_shared_Cpu32: MSI: Package version data are " Installed Version: 10.51.2500.0 MinVersion: 10.50.1360 MaxVersion: 10.50.1600.1"
2013-12-19 12:18:00 Slp: Package ID sql_engine_core_shared_Cpu32: match result for MSI - Version: False, Cpu: True, Language: True
2013-12-19 12:18:00 Slp: Package ID sql_engine_core_shared_Cpu32: NotInstalled
2013-12-19 12:18:00 Slp: Package ID sql_engine_core_shared_loc_Cpu32_1028: NotInstalled
2013-12-19 12:18:00 Slp: Package ID sql_engine_core_shared_loc_Cpu32_1031: MSI: Package version data are " Installed Version: 10.51.2500.0 MinVersion: 10.50.1360 MaxVersion: 10.50.1600.1"
2013-12-19 12:18:00 Slp: Package ID sql_engine_core_shared_loc_Cpu32_1031: match result for MSI - Version: False, Cpu: True, Language: True
2013-12-19 12:18:00 Slp: Package ID sql_engine_core_shared_loc_Cpu32_1031: NotInstalled
...
2013-12-19 12:18:00 Slp: Package ID sql_ssms_Cpu32: Discovery: Package version data are " Installed Version: 10.51.2500.0 MinVersion: 10.50.1360 MaxVersion: 10.50.1600.1"
2013-12-19 12:18:00 Slp: Package ID sql_ssms_Cpu32: match result for Discovery - Version: False, Cpu: True, Language: True
2013-12-19 12:18:00 Slp: Package ID sql_ssms_Cpu32: Discovery: Package version data are " Installed Version: 10.51.2500.0 MinVersion: 10.50.1360 MaxVersion: 10.50.1600.1"
2013-12-19 12:18:00 Slp: Package ID sql_ssms_Cpu32: match result for Discovery - Version: False, Cpu: True, Language: True
2013-12-19 12:18:00 Slp: Package ID sql_ssms_Cpu32: Discovery: Package version data are " Installed Version: 10.51.2500.0 MinVersion: 10.50.1360 MaxVersion: 10.50.1600.1"
2013-12-19 12:18:00 Slp: Package ID sql_ssms_Cpu32: match result for Discovery - Version: False, Cpu: True, Language: True
2013-12-19 12:18:00 Slp: Package ID sql_ssms_Cpu32: Discovery: Package version data are " Installed Version: 10.51.2500.0 MinVersion: 10.50.1360 MaxVersion: 10.50.1600.1"
2013-12-19 12:18:00 Slp: Package ID sql_ssms_Cpu32: match result for Discovery - Version: False, Cpu: True, Language: True
2013-12-19 12:18:00 Slp: Package ID sql_ssms_Cpu32: Discovery: Package version data are " Installed Version: 10.51.2500.0 MinVersion: 10.50.1360 MaxVersion: 10.50.1600.1"
2013-12-19 12:18:00 Slp: Package ID sql_ssms_Cpu32: match result for Discovery - Version: False, Cpu: True, Language: True
2013-12-19 12:18:00 Slp: Package ID sql_ssms_Cpu32: Discovery: Package version data are " Installed Version: 10.51.2500.0 MinVersion: 10.50.1360 MaxVersion: 10.50.1600.1"
2013-12-19 12:18:00 Slp: Package ID sql_ssms_Cpu32: match result for Discovery - Version: False, Cpu: True, Language: True
2013-12-19 12:18:00 Slp: Package ID sql_ssms_Cpu32: Discovery: Package version data are " Installed Version: 10.51.2500.0 MinVersion: 10.50.1360 MaxVersion: 10.50.1600.1"
2013-12-19 12:18:00 Slp: Package ID sql_ssms_Cpu32: match result for Discovery - Version: False, Cpu: True, Language: True
2013-12-19 12:18:00 Slp: Package ID sql_ssms_Cpu32: NotInstalled - Package was found but determined as NotInstalled because at least one of CPU, version or language was not matched. Check the match result for which one was not matched.
2013-12-19 12:18:00 Slp: Package ID sql_ssms_loc_Cpu32_1028: NotInstalled
2013-12-19 12:18:00 Slp: Package ID sql_ssms_loc_Cpu32_1031: Discovery: Package version data are " Installed Version: 10.51.2500.0 MinVersion: 10.50.1360 MaxVersion: 10.50.1600.1"
2013-12-19 12:18:00 Slp: Package ID sql_ssms_loc_Cpu32_1031: match result for Discovery - Version: False, Cpu: True, Language: True
2013-12-19 12:18:00 Slp: Package ID sql_ssms_loc_Cpu32_1031: NotInstalled - Package was found but determined as NotInstalled because at least one of CPU, version or language was not matched. Check the match result for which one was not matched.
2013-12-19 12:18:00 Slp: Package ID sql_common_core_Cpu32: MSI: Package version data are " Installed Version: 10.51.2500.0 MinVersion: 10.50.1360 MaxVersion: 10.50.1600.1"
2013-12-19 12:18:00 Slp: Package ID sql_common_core_Cpu32: match result for MSI - Version: False, Cpu: True, Language: True
2013-12-19 12:18:00 Slp: Package ID sql_common_core_Cpu32: NotInstalled
2013-12-19 12:18:00 Slp: Package ID sql_common_core_loc_Cpu32_1028: NotInstalled
2013-12-19 12:18:00 Slp: Package ID sql_common_core_loc_Cpu32_1031: MSI: Package version data are " Installed Version: 10.51.2500.0 MinVersion: 10.50.1360 MaxVersion: 10.50.1600.1"
2013-12-19 12:18:00 Slp: Package ID sql_common_core_loc_Cpu32_1031: match result for MSI - Version: False, Cpu: True, Language: True

successful setup log file:

2013-12-19 11:55:26 Slp: Loading extension 'MSI' from file 'c:\Programme\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Setup Bootstrap\SQLServer2008R2\x86\.\Microsoft.SqlServer.Configuration.MsiExtension.dll'
2013-12-19 11:55:26 Slp: Extension 'MSI' version '10.50.2500.0' loaded
2013-12-19 11:55:26 Slp: Loading extension 'Config' from file 'c:\Programme\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Setup Bootstrap\SQLServer2008R2\x86\.\Microsoft.SqlServer.Configuration.ConfigExtension.dll'
2013-12-19 11:55:26 Slp: Extension 'Config' version '10.50.2500.0' loaded
...
2013-12-19 11:55:36 Slp: Package ID sql_engine_core_shared_Cpu32: Installed - Version: 10.51.2500.0
2013-12-19 11:55:36 Slp: Package ID sql_engine_core_shared_loc_Cpu32_1028: NotInstalled
2013-12-19 11:55:36 Slp: Package ID sql_engine_core_shared_loc_Cpu32_1031: Installed - Version: 10.51.2500.0
...
2013-12-19 11:55:36 Slp: Package ID sql_ssms_Cpu32: Installed - Version: 10.51.2500.0
2013-12-19 11:55:36 Slp: Package ID sql_ssms_loc_Cpu32_1028: NotInstalled
2013-12-19 11:55:36 Slp: Package ID sql_ssms_loc_Cpu32_1031: Installed - Version: 10.51.2500.0
2013-12-19 11:55:36 Slp: Package ID sql_ssms_loc_Cpu32_1033: Installed - Version: 10.51.2500.0
...
2013-12-19 11:55:36 Slp: Sco: Attempting to get feature configuration state for feature SQL_Engine_Core_Shared, version 
2013-12-19 11:55:36 Slp: Sco: Attempting to get feature flag ConfigurationState for feature SQL_Engine_Core_Shared from machine name SCHLEICH-10203
2013-12-19 11:55:36 Slp: Sco: Attempting to create base registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, machine XXXX
2013-12-19 11:55:36 Slp: Sco: Attempting to open registry subkey 
2013-12-19 11:55:36 Slp: Sco: Attempting to open registry subkey SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\100\ConfigurationState
2013-12-19 11:55:36 Slp: Sco: Attempting to get registry value SQL_Engine_Core_Shared
...
2013-12-19 11:55:36 Slp: Package ID sql_engine_core_shared_Cpu32: Installed - Version: 10.51.2500.0
2013-12-19 11:55:36 Slp: Package ID sql_engine_core_shared_loc_Cpu32_1028: NotInstalled
2013-12-19 11:55:36 Slp: Package ID sql_engine_core_shared_loc_Cpu32_1031: Installed - Version: 10.51.2500.0

Discovery Report

The SQL Server Discovery Report also reveals something:

On the Version where the upgrade fails:

On the Version where the upgrade was successful it says SP1:

Using the CD for the SQL Server 2008 R2 Standard Edition

this resulted in the same error as described above

Conclusion

What should be the next steps?

• Try a repair install?
• Reapply Update to SP1?
• Try to replace the bootstrapper files with newer ones?

Just Reinstall?

As the database stands in active merge-replication with another server, this is a procedure I want to avoid. As it seems its related more to the bootstrapper I hope anyone has encountered a similar problem and fixed it in an easier way.

Bootstrapper Folder

Is it possible to clean this folder, or replace the contents with those from the Installation CD?

Answer 1

Okay I resolved the issue!

Repairing the instance didn't help in the first place, as also no instance was found.

The reason was that the Bootstrapper folder wasn't matching the current installation of the SQL Server. The errors of the log files posted above were already pointing in this direction.

Finally I just made a backup of the bootstrapper folder and used the bootstrapper folder of one of the 2 other machines where the upgrade did work in the first place.

Now I was able to choose the instance while upgrading and everything worked as expected.

I only tried the Repair-Instance feature while pointing to the installation files of the standard version. Could this possible be the reason why the instance was not shown?