1920 Error in Equallogic HIT Kit on Windows Server/Hyper-V 2012

As of this writing, I don’t believe that Equallogic/Dell is officially supporting Windows Server 2012 or Hyper-V 2012, but I can confirm that the HIT kit will install and run just fine on Hyper-V 2012. Follow these steps at your own risk.

Updated January 4, 2013: HIT Kit 4.5 has been released with support for Windows Server 2012. Please see Andreas Berg’s comment below for the link.

When I first tried to install, I received the following error: “Error 1920. Service EqualLogic Auto-Snapshot Manager Agent (EqlASMAgent) failed to start.  Verify that you have sufficient privileges to start system services.” I was running the installation as a domain administrator and tested that I was able to start other system services, so I knew that it wasn’t a problem with privileges. For verification, I tested with the local administrator account and that didn’t work either.

I still don’t know exactly what the underlying cause is, but it appears that the installer can’t properly verify the presence of prerequisite components. I installed a series of basic Windows features until I was able to get the HIT kit to install. I did not disable features between attempts so I can’t be certain what the exact required combination of features is, but the last feature I enabled before it started working was the .Net Framework 2.0. From working with a GUI installation of Server 2012, I believe that this is the only required component, but I had also installed Windows PowerShell 2 so I’m including it in the directions just to be safe. I also noticed that the HIT kit didn’t automatically enable MPIO like it does on 2008/2008 R2.

For Server Core 2012 or Hyper-V 2012, run the following at the command prompt (feature names are case sensitive):

DISM.EXE /ONLINE /ENABLE-FEATURE /FEATURENAME:NetFx2-ServerCore /FEATURENAME:MicrosoftWindowsPowershellV2 /FEATURENAME:MultipathIo

Installation within a GUI version of Server 2012 isn’t as easy because the .Net Framework 2.0 isn’t a standalone installer. It’s part of the 3.5 installer, and Microsoft has removed that from the online image (why?). You’ll need your Windows 2012 DVD. You can find command-line instructions on the ServerFault site.

To use the GUI, start in Server Manager and on the front page, click “Add roles and features”. Step through the initial screens to the “Server Roles” tab and set it as in the following screen shot:

All that’s done is the box for .Net 3.5 has been checked but both activation methods are left uninstalled.

Step through to the confirmation screen. At the very bottom, there is a link to “Specify an alternate source path”. Click that:

You’ll be presented with a very wordy dialog box, not shown here. At the very bottom, enter X:\sources\sxs, where “X:” is your DVD drive letter.

The installation of .Net will take a few minutes. After that, you’ll have no troubles installing the HIT kit. Remember that it does not automatically enable MPIO! If you used the Server GUI method shown above or the link on ServerFault, you’ll need to go back and enable MultipathIo. It’s on the same screen that you used to install .Net 3.5, or you can modify the line I presented to install on Server Core/Hyper-V so that it only enables MultipathIo and run it from a PowerShell prompt.