SIF Pre-Requisites Install Fails Due To Web Platform Installer

Introduction to Sitecore Installation Framework (SIF)

Sitecore Installation Framework, also known as SIF, is a PowerShell module for handling the installation and configuration of Sitecore instances. This could be a local developer installation but also production setups. It will install and configure your web instances, windows services, databases, search engine configuration, certificates, and much more. SIF uses configuration files to install the Sitecore instance.

Pre-Requisites Install Fail - Error

While installing a new on-prem server for a client, we got the following error while installing the Sitecore prerequisites

[-------- DownloadWebPlatformInstaller : DownloadFile ------------------------]
[DownloadWebPlatformInstaller]:[Download] https://download.microsoft.com/download/C/F/F/CFF3A0B8-99D4-41A2-AE1A-496C08BEB904/WebPlatformInstaller_amd64_en-US.msi => C:\Users\AriaA\AppData\Local\Temp\WebPlatformInstaller_amd64_en-US.msi
    Error downloading https://download.microsoft.com/download/C/F/F/CFF3A0B8-99D4-41A2-AE1A-496C08BEB904/WebPlatformInstaller_amd64_en-US.msi: The remote server returned an error: (404) Not Found.
    [TIME] 00:00:48
    Error downloading https://download.microsoft.com/download/C/F/F/CFF3A0B8-99D4-41A2-AE1A-496C08BEB904/WebPlatformInstaller_amd64_en-US.msi: The remote server returned an error: (404) Not Found.
 

So it seems that Microsoft has moved the download location of the Web Platform Installer v5. Sitecore provides us (on-prem install) with SIF scripts to install the prerequisites, so we don’t have to go into a new server and download all the software ourselves. However, this time they moved the location and renamed the .msi file.

Previously in Prerequisites.json the following was specified:

“WebPlatformDownload”: {
“Type”: “String”,
“Description”: “Download location of Microsoft Web Platform Installer 5.0”,
“DefaultValue”: “https://download.microsoft.com/download/C/F/F/CFF3A0B8-99D4-41A2-AE1A-496C08BEB904/WebPlatformInstaller_amd64_en-US.msi“
}
 

Which should now be updated to:

WebPlatformDownload”: {
“Type”: “String”,
“Description”: “Download location of Microsoft Web Platform Installer 5.0”,
“DefaultValue”: “https://download.microsoft.com/download/8/4/9/849DBCF2-DFD9-49F5-9A19-9AEE5B29341A/WebPlatformInstaller_x64_en-US.msi“
}
 

Next time when you will run Install-SitecoreConfiguration -Path .\Prerequisites.json the script will work as expected.

Happy Coding