sccm: ccmmigratepolicysettingsinit returns code 1603 during pull dp installation

as i sat down to write this, I realized a fellow mvp, alex zhuravlev, wrote about a very similar thing which is corrected by the same fix. it’s posted here if you’d like to read it: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/4709.configmgr-2012-beta2-site-component-manager-failed-to-install-this-component-because-the-microsoft-installer-file-for-this-component-mp-msi-could-not-install.aspx

recently, we started deploying pull DPs out to our regional locations. one of my engineers indicated that we were having issues where the DPs appeared to be in a waiting for content state. we narrowed the issue down to an error that popped up in the pulldp_install.log file. the end of the installation exits in 1603, which i’m sure you know is a very vague error.

going backward in the log file, we spotted an where the originating 1603 was logged. here are the log lines:

   1:  Getting settings from WMI and storing in <Program Files>\SMS_CCM\polmig.mof

   2:  CustomAction CcmMigratePolicySettingsInit returned actual error code 1603 (note this may not be 100% accurate if translation happened inside sandbox)

at this point, it was pretty clear the problem was happening while trying to retrieve the information from WMI and writing out to polmig.mof. apparently our methods for installing the ConfigMgr 2007 client was SO GOOD that it installed it on the new DP that was recently deployed. (We’re in the middle of a migration.) that was the issue. :|

the client and distribution point role were both removed from the affected server. the 2012 client was loaded, and the server was added back as a pull dp. after that, the installation went through successfully.