How To Uninstall System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 with SP1

Table of contents

Sometimes, things that should be simple just aren’t. Removing SCVMM 2012 with Service Pack 1 can be one of those things.

Now in its fourth (or sixth, depending on how you count) iteration, System Center Virtual Machine Manager still does not have actual upgrade capability. In order to install new versions, even service packs, you must completely uninstall your existing version and then install whatever you’re replacing it with. Or, maybe you’ve had enough of it and just want to get rid of it altogether. Don’t worry; I won’t judge. In my case, I wanted to replace it with the newly released 2012 R2 version.

This should be pretty straightforward, right? Go to the Programs and Features applet in Control Panel and click Uninstall on SCVMM, right? Well, I was greeted with the following error:

VMM Remove Error

VMM Remove Error

To save your eyes, the text of that screen is: “You cannot upgrade from the currently installed version of VMM to System Center 2012 SP1 – Virtual Machine Manager. You must first uninstall VMM, and then install System Center 2012 SP1. If you are running System Center 2012, when you uninstall VMM, you can retain the database. When you install System Center 2012 SP1, use the retained database.”

Why is it giving an error about being unable to install VMM when we came here to uninstall VMM? Hmm.

Updated December 16,th 2013: Through reader feedback (see comments), there is another way. Remove the cumulative updates first. To do so, use the View Installed Updates link in the Uninstall screen of Programs and Features. Once that is done, the regular uninstaller should work as intended.

To find the answer to this problem, I dove into the registry. Specifically, I went to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionUninstall{5DFD53D1-9331-4868-9B5C-20569E0DF437}. If you’re wondering whether or not I jumped directly to that key, the answer is, “Yes”. It’s not a truthful answer, but it’s the one I’m going with. Inside that key, I examined the UninstallString key-value pair. Its contents were: Msiexec /I {CDFB453F-5FA4-4884-B282-F46BDFC06051} MSIPATCHREMOVE={5DFD53D1-9331-4868-9B5C-20569E0DF437} BOOTSTRAPPED=1 /qb;. There’s only two really important things you have to recognize in that. The first is “Msiexec”. That’s the Windows component responsible for installing and uninstalling things. The second one is “/I”. That’s the switch that tells Msiexec to install things. This is why we’re getting an install error when we try to uninstall: someone instructed its uninstall action to try to install it. Who does that? How does that get out of testing?

Well, while we all enjoy a bit of good trivia, the “why” of it all won’t change anything. What we have to do is change the /I to /X, which is what instructs Msiexec to uninstall things. In my case, I just copy/pasted the whole thing with the changed character and it worked fine. I didn’t test, but you probably only need this portion: Msiexec /I {CDFB453F-5FA4-4884-B282-F46BDFC06051}. You can change it where it sits and use the Uninstall button again, or you can paste it into a command-line. Either way, the product will be removed.

Unfortunately, this isn’t as nice as the guided uninstall routine that you’re supposed to get (I’ve seen screenshots of it, I know it exists). It just rips it out. This will have varying effects, depending on where you run it.

When run on the VMM server, the database is left intact. This is what you want if you’re trying to “upgrade” VMM, as the install routine will update it to the current version as long as you properly point it to the existing database. If you’re trying to rid yourself of SCVMM altogether, you’ll need to manually remove the database. If you installed it locally, that’s as simple as uninstalling SQL Server. SQL Server’s uninstall routines work much better than SCVMM’s.

When run from any system that has the VMM console installed, all the shortcut icons remain but the application itself is removed.

Most of the files are removed from the Program Files folder, but there are a few that remain. Go ahead and remove the System Center 2012 folder. If you’re upgrading, the new version creates its own R2 folder.

You might see some error messages when starting PowerShell in relation to the missing modules. This only happened to me on the server. They went away when I installed the new version. On my desktop, either I never got the error messages or they went away on their own. This behavior could probably stand a bit more scrutiny to see if there’s any necessary work to clean up PowerShell profiles.

I was able to install the recent versions of the server and console without incident once this had all completed. Well, I had to uninstall the ADK, get and install the new ADK, reboot, and some other things I forgot. But why spoil your fun by telling you everything? I had actually hoped to conclude this article with a nice story about how I got everything working without trouble, but alas, it was not to be. It works, but there are more issues to iron out. Well, more material for future blog posts, I suppose!

 

Altaro Hyper-V Backup
Share this post

Not a DOJO Member yet?

Join thousands of other IT pros and receive a weekly roundup email with the latest content & updates!

9 thoughts on "How To Uninstall System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 with SP1"

  • Miha Pecnik says:

    I’m just wondering, did you uninstall (as recommended) the CU’s beforehand? I’m quite sure that was the problem.

    • Eric Siron says:

      As recommended where and by whom? The official documentation has nothing about it: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg610584.aspx. There were no entries for the cumulative updates in order to uninstall them. I’m quite sure that it wasn’t the problem. As I stated in the article, the problem is that whoever designed the uninstaller put in a “/I” where there was supposed to be a “/X”.

  • Eric Siron says:

    Interesting, and good information. None of my searching turned any of that up. But, none of it explains HOW to remove the roll-ups. They don’t get their own entries. If they had, I would have removed them.
    But, most importantly, no one can explain why the SC VMM team can’t just get their act together and write a decent uninstall routine. Or, even better, allow direct upgrades. It’s not like they have to go far to find someone who understands how Windows Installer works.

  • Miha Pecnik says:

    I totally agree, the team should have implemented a proper upgrade some time ago. They also shouldn’t ship half finished products (P2V, Hyper-V Replica… come to mind).

    I simply uninstalled the roll-ups using the Installed Updates.

    • Eric Siron says:

      Ah, of course. Under the updates section. That makes sense.
      I’ll see if I can’t recreate the environment and see if removing the updates corrects the UninstallString key field.

  • Onthax says:

    Just an update on this one.
    removing the update rollups does fix the flag.

  • Onthax says:

    Just an update on this one.
    removing the update rollups does fix the flag.

  • Mitja Tomazic says:

    There is another twist to this.

    If SCVMM 2012 SP1 is installed on domain controller, domain controller has to be demoted first and then removal done with local system account.

  • Mitja Tomazic says:

    There is another twist to this.

    If SCVMM 2012 SP1 is installed on domain controller, domain controller has to be demoted first and then removal done with local system account.

Leave a comment or ask a question

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Your email address will not be published.

Notify me of follow-up replies via email

Yes, I would like to receive new blog posts by email

What is the color of grass?

Please note: If you’re not already a member on the Dojo Forums you will create a new account and receive an activation email.