SharePoint 2013 Pre requisites install fail, Error: The tool was unable to install Application Server Role, Web Server (IIS) Role.
While installing SharePoint 2013 in a Windows 2012 Server I was getting the following error right after the prerequisites installation begins:
SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update\RebootRequired
Error: The tool was unable to install Application Server Role, Web Server (IIS) Role.
To solve the issue I set the following Local Policy:
1. – Windows Start
2. – run MMC
3. – Click File, Add/Remove Snap-in…
4. – Select Group Policy Object Editor and ADD it
5. – Navigate to Administrative templates / System
6. – Select and edit “Specify Settings for optional component installation and component repair”
7. – Enable and select “Contract Windows Update directly to download repair content instead of Windows Server Update Services (WSUS)”
9.- Re run the prerequisite installation
SharelockPoint 
thanks for this.
How to install app
Thanks, this fixed the issue.
thanks. worked a treat
Thank you very, very much!
thanks, helped to install SharePoint
It worked Like a charm….You Rock Brother !!!
thanks so much, its very helpfull
for me still it is not working,.. Can any one help me plz…
This is the only solution worked for me , tried several renaming server manager file etc etc. , Thanks a Lot
Its works. Very good solution .. Thank you
Thanks a ton, this is THE simplest way of achieving this that I’ve seen. Especially nice if you’re trying one of the eval VHDs that doesn’t include the sources.
Thanks very thanks, bufff increíble.
Thank you so much. After banging my head for several hours, your blog post helped me fix the issue. Thanks a lot for taking time to write this post.
This fix didn’t work for me unfortunately. Not sure if it makes a difference but i am using 2012 R2. However, Microsoft have a hotfix for this error here: https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2765260 about to try that to see if it helps.
did it help?
Would really like to know if this fixed your issues.
neither the gpo setting or the hot fix worked…..hot fix said it wasn’t applicable to this computer. I am running win 2012 r2……
Thank you very much. I almost started to install manually before read it. And tryed a lot of sugestions before.
Only yours worked. Thanks again, saved me a lot of time
Thanks ! At least I can install sharepoint now
I tried the mmc solution but it did not work for me.
The fix for me was to install Net 3.5. I had to point the Net 3.5 installation to D:\sources\sxs which was my WS2012 R2 installation ISO. Presumably the pre-installer was unable to find the local sources\sxs directory.
I also had to deal with an App Fabric installation error. The answer was to correct the PSModulePath variable as per this post – http://blogs.technet.com/b/praveenh/archive/2013/02/22/sharepoint-2013-prerequisites-fails-with-msi-installer-error-code-1603-while-installing-appfabric-1-1.aspx
if you use the splitream SP1 install, and still have error installing, please take a look at: http://support2.microsoft.com/kb/3005628
how we do same in windows server 2008 or 2008 R2. i am facing same issue. Please let me know if there is different way to do in 2008 because i can not find “Specify Settings for optional component installation and component repair” in server MMC console.
go to windows\system32 directory.
then just make duplication for the servermanager.exe and then rename to servermanagercmd.exe
i hope it will work then!
It works.. for me
Duplicating and renaming the file was the fix for me
Adeel khan
April 14, 2015 at 1:32 pm
go to windows\system32 directory.
then just make duplication for the servermanager.exe and then rename to servermanagercmd.exe
The duplication of the servermanager to servermanagercmd was the only thing that worked for me. Thank you very much.
This worked for me. Thank you very much. Microsoft these are your products get it together.
Thank you very much, really I am struggling since 2days with this error, many many thanks
but i could not solve my error like this… please if you have another way help me…
Thanks a lot. Fixed my issue.
If you are installing on Windows Server 2012 R2 you must run the ISO for SharePoint 2012 with SP1. The ISO without SP1 you get the error above all the time.
Thanks! This is so helpful.
thanks. fixed my issue.
This fixed my issue!! Had this multiple times in the past and it was a headache to get working.
This worked for me, appreciate the assistance
a mi el archivo de prerrequisitos me pide reiniciar siempre la máquina y entra a un ciclo infinito (reinicio y vuelve a correr los prerrequisitos)
Adeel khan
April 14, 2015 at 1:32 pm
go to windows\system32 directory.
then just make duplication for the servermanager.exe and then rename to servermanagercmd.exe
This worked for me as well…
HotFix only would download windows 8 version (not server 2012)
This didn’t work: https://sharelockpoint.wordpress.com/2013/09/09/sharepoint-2013-pre-requisites-install-fail-error-the-tool-was-unable-to-install-application-server-role-web-server-iis-role/
This didn’t work: https://epmpoint.wordpress.com/tag/pre-requisite-installer-sharepoint-2013-installation-failed/
Not sure what the root cause was but glad its running
Awesome… This worked like a charm..!!