SharePoint 2013 PowerPivot Install - Error Deploying Farm Solution

I ran into an issue recently that I thought would be good to pass along. I was installing the BI features for SharePoint 2013 on a new farm and ran into an issue when configuring PowerPivot. This environment is a 3 tier environment as depicted in the image below.

These are the BI steps that I had already completed. (along with some helpful links)

• Configured Excel Services
• Configured PerformancePoint Services
• Configured Reporting Services
• Installed SQL Server PowerPivot for SharePoint SSAS instance on DBMS1 server using SQL 2014 Enterprise ISO. (I already had a DBE instance so that was not needed in this install

  

• Installed PowerPivot for SharePoint Add-in

 Here is the download link for SQL Server 2014. The installer does not deploy or configure Power Pivot features in SharePoint. The following components install by default:

• Power Pivot for SharePoint 2013. This component includes:
  1. PowerShell scripts (.ps1 files)
  2. SharePoint solution packages (.wsp)
  3. Power Pivot for SharePoint 2013 configuration tool to deploy Power Pivot in a SharePoint 2013 farm
• Microsoft OLE DB Provider for Analysis Services (MSOLAP).
• ADOMD.NET data provider.
• SQL Server Analysis Management Objects.

A recommended best practice is to install spPowerPivot.msi on all servers in the SharePoint farm for configuration consistency, including application servers and web-front end servers. The installer package includes the Analysis Services data providers as well as the Power Pivot for SharePoint 2013 configuration tool. When you install spPowerPivot.msi you can customize the installation by excluding individual components.

The next step is to configure the PowerPivot for SharePoint Add-in

This is the area in which I ran into an issue.  Here is the technet article about the configuration.

1. I launched the configuration tool

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2. I set the default account information, DB Server and PowerPivot info

   

3. I set the parameters for the task "Create PowerPivot Service Application" to use my naming format.  (Remove the GUID from the DB)

   

4. I set the web application deployment location for the task "Deploy Web Application Solution"

   

5. I set the unattended account info for the task "Create Unattended Account for Data Refresh"

   

6. I then clicked Validate and Run

The configuration failed on the task "Deploy Farm Solution" with the error:

Running PS Script failed. Reason: Solution failed to deployed, reason: SPAPP01 :
Error: Cannot add the specified assembly to the global assembly cache: Microsoft.AnalysisServices.SPAddin.dll.

The solution DID deploy to SPWEB01 and SPAPP02.

These were the items I tried to debug first all of which failed:

1. IIS Reset on all servers
2. Reset Timer Service on all servers
3. Ran Configuration tool as Administrator
4. Set default account to different account names with different permissions (farm/install/service/etc...)

I then stumbled across this blog - Troubleshooting PowerPivot for SharePoint Solution Deployments - which lead me into the correct direction based on this statement:

"...the Timer service depends on the Administration service to carry out the deployment work because the Timer service usually runs under a low-privileged service account that might not have the required permissions to deploy assemblies in the Global Assembly Cache and so forth, while the Administration service uses the high-privileged Local System account with full access to all local resources."

So I head out to SPAPP01 and check out what account is running the Administration service and sure enough it was set to the fully qualified farm domain account!

I reset the log on to be Local System and reran the configuration.

Success!

Hopefully this helps someone else moving forward!

Originally Posted - SharePoint 2013 PowerPivot Install - Error Deploying Farm Solution

by Drew Madelung via Everyone's Blog Posts - SharePoint Community