Windows 11 Upgrade and Marketing Automation Service Error for Sitecore 10.3

Recently, while trying to install Sitecore 10.3 with Sitecore Install Assistant on a brand new Windows 11 Home operating system, came across the ever infamous Marketing Automation (MA) Service error. As it is well known, the entry point for this error is multifarious. I have written a few blog posts as part of other Sitecore version installations and they are mostly permission-related. 

This time, the error I encountered was for a totally new scenario. Here is what I did:

1. I decided to reset, in other words, reinstall my Windows 10 Home OS

2. As part of the reset, I upgraded my Windows 10 Home OS to Windows 11 Home OS.

After that I performed the Sitecore pre-requisites installation and then started the 10.3 install and that is when I bumped on the below service start issue.

I then retracted and tried other Sitecore version installs and they too failed at the same step.

On some analysis, I found from the event viewer that the MA service was having issues with .NET 4.0.30319 environment setup. 

I had .NET framework 4.8 already available in the machine since I installed the prerequisites as part of Sitecore installation. On further investigation, I bumped across this update: December 13, 2022-KB5020880 Cumulative Update for .NET Framework 3.5 and 4.8.1 for Windows 11, version 22H2 

KB5020880 Update details

On installation of the update and with a machine restart, the marketing automation service was able to start without any issues and Sitecore 10.3 installation was successful.

To be sure that the issue is definitely resolved by the new update, I uninstalled the update as per this link: Uninstall a Windows update in Windows 11 and replicated the issue. Installation of just the KB5020880 Update then fixed the issue.

Error - 1:

Faulting application name: Sitecore.MAEngine.exe, version: 9.0.2146.7545, time stamp: 0xe13cb96d

Faulting module name: KERNELBASE.dll, version: 10.0.22621.963, time stamp: 0x766ca8ae

Exception code: 0xe0434352

Fault offset: 0x00000000000906bc

Faulting process id: 0x0x3A44

Faulting application start time: 0x0x1D91352978D17EA

Faulting application path: C:\inetpub\wwwroot\sc103newxconnect.dev.local\App_Data\jobs\continuous\AutomationEngine\Sitecore.MAEngine.exe

Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\System32\KERNELBASE.dll

Report Id: ff3cb5ad-c435-4cfe-b1ec-c3f121d18f38

Faulting package full name: 

Faulting package-relative application ID: 

Error - 2:

Waiting for service 'Sitecore Marketing Automation Engine - XP0.xconnect-MarketingAutomationService 

(XP0.xconnect-MarketingAutomationService)' to start...

Install-SitecoreConfiguration : Failed to start service 'Sitecore Marketing Automation Engine - 

XP0xnew.xconnect-MarketingAutomationService (XP0.xconnect-MarketingAutomationService)'.

 

Application: Sitecore.MAEngine.exe

Framework Version: v4.0.30319

Description: The process was terminated due to an unhandled exception.

Exception Info: System.InvalidOperationException

   at Sitecore.XConnect.Client.XConnectClientConfiguration.CheckInitialized()

   at Sitecore.XConnect.Client.XConnectClientConfiguration.get_CurrentModel()

   at Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.CallSiteRuntimeResolver.VisitScoped(Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.ScopedCallSite, Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.ServiceProviderEngineScope)

   at Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.DynamicServiceProviderEngine+<>c__DisplayClass1_0.<RealizeService>b__0(Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.ServiceProviderEngineScope)

   at Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ActivatorUtilities+ConstructorMatcher.CreateInstance(System.IServiceProvider)

   at Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.CallSiteRuntimeResolver.VisitScoped(Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.ScopedCallSite, Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.ServiceProviderEngineScope)

   at Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.DynamicServiceProviderEngine+<>c__DisplayClass1_0.<RealizeService>b__0(Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.ServiceProviderEngineScope)

   at Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ActivatorUtilities+ConstructorMatcher.CreateInstance(System.IServiceProvider)

   at Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.CallSiteRuntimeResolver.VisitScoped(Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.ScopedCallSite, Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.ServiceProviderEngineScope)

   at Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.DynamicServiceProviderEngine+<>c__DisplayClass1_0.<RealizeService>b__0(Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.ServiceProviderEngineScope)

   at Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ActivatorUtilities+ConstructorMatcher.CreateInstance(System.IServiceProvider)

   at Sitecore.XConnect.Configuration.Extensions+<>c__DisplayClass33_0.<UseServiceDecorator>b__1(System.IServiceProvider)

   at Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.CallSiteRuntimeResolver.VisitScoped(Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.ScopedCallSite, Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.ServiceProviderEngineScope)

   at Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.DynamicServiceProviderEngine+<>c__DisplayClass1_0.<RealizeService>b__0(Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.ServiceProviderEngineScope)

   at Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ActivatorUtilities+ConstructorMatcher.CreateInstance(System.IServiceProvider)

   at Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.CallSiteRuntimeResolver.VisitTransient(Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.TransientCallSite, Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.ServiceProviderEngineScope)

   at Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.CallSiteRuntimeResolver.VisitIEnumerable(Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.IEnumerableCallSite, Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.ServiceProviderEngineScope)

   at Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.DynamicServiceProviderEngine+<>c__DisplayClass1_0.<RealizeService>b__0(Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.ServiceProviderEngineScope)

   at Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ActivatorUtilities+ConstructorMatcher.CreateInstance(System.IServiceProvider)

   at Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.CallSiteRuntimeResolver.VisitScoped(Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.ScopedCallSite, Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.ServiceProviderEngineScope)

   at Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.DynamicServiceProviderEngine+<>c__DisplayClass1_0.<RealizeService>b__0(Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.ServiceProviderEngineScope)

   at Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceProviderServiceExtensions.GetService[[System.__Canon, mscorlib, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089]](System.IServiceProvider)

   at Sitecore.Xdb.MarketingAutomation.Engine.App.ServiceConfiguration.get_Engine()

   at Sitecore.Xdb.MarketingAutomation.Engine.App.EngineService.OnStart(System.String[])

   at System.ServiceProcess.ServiceBase.ServiceQueuedMainCallback(System.Object)

   at System.Runtime.ExceptionServices.ExceptionDispatchInfo.Throw()

   at System.ServiceProcess.ServiceBase.Run(System.ServiceProcess.ServiceBase[])

   at Sitecore.Xdb.MarketingAutomation.Engine.App.Program.RunAsService()

   at Sitecore.Xdb.MarketingAutomation.Engine.App.Program.Main(System.String[])