Installation or upgrade of Rational ClearQuest and RequisitePro fails with MSI error 1603

The install operation fails with an error message like this:

Error occurred in phase: install                                        
 SU: ibm.gskit7 7.1.1006.0000-7-1-1-06-00-2011B-D110330                
 IU: ibm.gskit7.iu 999.999.999.-801196304->999.999.999.890104693        
 Message: Error executing "C:\Windows\system32\msiexec.exe" operation  
(status=1603).                                                          
 See agent output log for more information: C:                          
\ProgramData\IBM\Installation Manager\logs\native\20120417_1208c.log

In the installation log, the cause of the failure is MSI error code 1603. If the MSI log (gsk7install.log) was captured, users might also notice the following messages in the MSI log:

: Failed to create script engine...
1: Script Handler initialization failed, error = 0x0

followed by this text:

Action start 18:18:00: GSKQueryInstallPath.
1: f1: Function failed, the user might cancel the installation.
CustomAction GSKQueryInstallPath returned actual error code 1603 (note this may
not be 100% accurate if translation happened inside sandbox)
Action ended 18:18:00: GSKQueryInstallPath. Return value 3.

Note: The default location for the MSI log is in the %TEMP% directory.

The MSI installer for the GSKit MSI has an issue handling certain conditions on Windows 7 platforms.

Windows 7, both 32-bit and 64-bit

Recommended:

This problem has been fixed in Rational ClearQuest 8.0.x and Rational RequisitePro 8.0.x (7.1.3.x.).

If you are running version 7.1.1.x and 7.1.2.x, you must upgrade to version 8.0.x (7.1.3.x) or later to resolve the problem.

Manual work-around:

If you do not want to upgrade to the product version where the GSKit installation problem has been resolved, use the following instructions to work around the problem for the Rational product version you want to install. Before completing this process, review the limitations that apply to the work around and be aware that the process requires you to perform some manual actions to resolve the problem.

Limitations of this work-around:

• Installation using this work-around is performed in two parts.
  
  Part 1 - Install the Rational ClearQuest and/or Requisite Pro (7.1.2.3/7.1.1.6 or later) without the GSKit package.
  
  Part 2 - Install the GSKit package separately.
• Before beginning the manual work-around process, you must uninstall the previous product installation using Installation Manager. You cannot use Installation Manager to upgrade the product from an earlier version. However, after a product is installed using this work-around, it is possible to upgrade from that version to a later version provided a part of this work-around is applied. For more information, see Future upgrades.

Applying the work-around:

1. Verify that the system where you are installing does not have any of the following software installed: Rational ClearQuest, RequisitePro, or GSKit.
   
   If any installations are found, remove them before proceeding. For instructions, see Instructions to uninstall.
2. Extract the contents of the attached archive file, InstallGSKit-Manual.zip into a local directory on the system where you want to install Rational ClearQuest or Rational RequisitePro.
3. After extracting the archive, copy the file  com.ibm.rational.clearquest.nt_i386_7.1.2006.0000-7-1-2-06-00-2012A-D120328_SE.jar.
4. Navigate to the offerings directory in the product repository location where the product installation files are located. Then, rename or back up the file with the same name as the copied file. Then, paste the copied file into the directory.
   
   After the file has been updated, the Installation Manager install process skips the installation of GSKit by default.
5. Use Installation Manager to install Rational ClearQuest or Rational RequisitePro from this updated repository.
6. To install GSKit on the system where you installed the product, navigate to the local directory where you extracted InstallGSKit-Manual.zip. Then, run InstallGSKit.bat.

Notes:

1. The InstallGSKit.bat file uses WinZip32.exe for extracting files. If the system has another extraction utility installed, update the batch file to use the installed utility.
2. If you are experiencing this problem on a ClearQuest version other than 7.1.2.6, please contact IBM support and request a customized file for the specific ClearQuest version you are using.

After completing this process, the product is installed and ready to use with GSKit.

Instructions to uninstall:

1. Use IBM Installation Manager to remove the existing Rational ClearQuest or RequisitePro product version from the system.
2. To remove GSKit, run the RemoveGSKit.bat program available in the attached InstallGSKit-Manual.zip archive.

Future upgrades:

To upgrade the installed Rational product to a later version after following the manual installation process, you must use an updated version of the .jar file included in the InstallGSKit-Manual.zip is required. The new version must be specific to the version of the product that you are upgrading to. You must also perform steps 2, 3, and ,4 from the Applying the work-around procedure.

You do not have to reinstall GSKit as long as the same GSKit version is used in future releases of the Rational product version you are upgrading (7.1.2.x and 7.1.1.x).

Note: If the version of the GSKit does change, contact IBM Rational Technical Support for information about upgrading GSKit to the latest version.

InstallGskit-Manual.zip