In this article, we will be discussing about how you can resolve the error message: “Setup failed to start on the remote machine. Check the Task scheduler event log on the remote machine“.
About the Setup Failure Error
When you run the SQL Server 2005 setup on a Windows cluster (i.e. installing or uninstalling SQL Server), you might get an error message like the following: Setup failed to start on the remote machine. Check the Task scheduler event log on the remote machine.
I have experienced this error message running SQL Server 2005 cluster setup on a Windows Server 2003 R2 cluster (yes, I know it’s old, I was uninstalling SQL Server 🙂
How to Resolve the Error
If you get this error make sure that:
- The “Task Scheduler” Windows service is running on all cluster nodes.
- You are not logged in remotely on any of the cluster nodes except from the one on which you are running the SQL Server cluster setup.
After you ensure the above, you can re-run the setup and try again.
P.S.: Note that extended support for SQL Server 2005 ended on April 12, 2016. As of that, if you are interested in installing or upgrading SQL Server, consider using one of the latest SQL Server versions such as SQL Server 2016 or SQL Server 2017 and thus take advantage of all those amazing benefits and performance improvements they offer.
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Reference: SQLNetHub.com (https://www.sqlnethub.com)
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Artemakis Artemiou is a Senior SQL Server Architect, Author, a 9 Times Microsoft Data Platform MVP (2009-2018). He has over 20 years of experience in the IT industry in various roles. Artemakis is the founder of SQLNetHub and {essentialDevTips.com}. Artemakis is the creator of the well-known software tools Snippets Generator and DBA Security Advisor. Also, he is the author of many eBooks on SQL Server. Artemakis currently serves as the President of the Cyprus .NET User Group (CDNUG) and the International .NET Association Country Leader for Cyprus (INETA). Moreover, Artemakis teaches on Udemy, you can check his courses here.