Security Update for SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 3 (KB970892) fails to install

First of all, Microsoft has clarified its support policy, and SQL Express 2005 is supported in our virtual environment on a Windows Server 2008 SP2 x64 guest and VMware vSphere host. Microsoft has a helpful reference as to exactly which virtualized environments they will support. See the Server Virtualization Validation Program wizard at http://www.windowsservercatalog.com/svvp.aspx?svvppage=svvpwizard.htm.

In this case Microsoft made the following recommendation, which did successfully resolve the issue. To summarize the problem, the security update KB970892 failed to install because the original installation of SQL Express 2005 SP3 did not run to a final completion, even though there was no indication of any problem during the original installation process.

The fix is as follows:

• Open the Programs and Features (Add/Remove Programs) control panel.
• Select Microsoft SQL Server 2005, and click Change.
• Select the database engine component.
• Allow the system configuration check to complete.
• Then choose Complete the suspended installation.
• You may get the error message "The feature you are trying to use is on a network resource that is unavailable. Click OK to try again, or enter an alternate path to a folder containing the installation package "SqlRun_SQL.msi" in the box below." This means that the installer needs access to the original installation files.
  
  • In this case download SQL Express 2005 SP3 from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=3181842a-4090-4431-acdd-9a1c832e65a6.
  • Execute SQLEXPR.EXE /x and extract the installation files to C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Setup Bootstrap\Baseline Cache\Express\SP3. This is the location recommended by the article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/955250/, but the location may not really matter.
  • Provide the Setup subdirectory of this path in response to the error dialog above.
• Installation will continue, but you may encounter an additional error "[(Microsoft] [SQL Native Client [SQL Server] Password Validation failed. The password does not meet the Windows policy requirements because it is too short.. To continue, correct the problem, and then run SQL Server Setup again."
  
  • To correct this problem, open the Registry Editor.
  • Locate the key HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQLServer\Parameters. Note that it may be MSSQL.2 or some other instance number instead of 1. For x86 operating systems, omit Wow6432Node from the registry path.
  • Create a string (REG_SZ) value named SQLArg3 and set the data to "-T4606" (no quotes).
  • In response to the error message, cancel the installation and allow it to roll back. Then try the installation again.
• Once the suspended installation of SQL Express 2005 SP3 runs to a successful completion, the KB970892 security patch should install successfully.
• You will need to start up the Backup Exec services after the patch installation.

I'll be interested to hear how this works for others.