Issue

When installing Microsoft SQL Express (either through the Surveyor Installer or manually), the installer ends prematurely, displaying an Access Denied message.

Further Information

Even though SQL fails installation, SQL Express is listed in Add or Remove Programs, and it appears that a valid installation completed. However, when trying to access SQL from Management Studio Express, you receive an error indicating “Only one administrator can access SQL at a time,” and the Surveyor Installation will fail the next steps during installation.

Cause

A potential cause of this failure is the account’s local security rights assignment. Regardless of having administrative privileges, the install account also needs the following user rights on the server:

SeBackupPrivilege

SeDebugPrivilege

SeSecurityPrivilege

If any of these rights are not assigned to the installation account, SQL Express will fail with a non-descript error message indicating “Access Denied.” This failure happens right at the end of SQL Installation, and setup does not roll-back after this.

Solution

Verify and modify the local security policy to ensure the account has necessary user rights assignment. For more information please see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2000257