The new installer shows great promise, but as usual - new things need new adjustments.

First; a big hands up to the brave souls in the EPiServer development team diving into the deep end and making a new installer. It is not just an installer, it is a whole system of installers, installation scripts, extensibility, rollback support and what not. The test matrix is just daunting, I’ve been out there trying to make sense of some of the more crazy production errors, and I have seen strange things that could keep Sleeping Beauty awake at night. Writing installers is hard work!

Here is an unofficial list of issues that I know of, or have heard about:

1. You cannot install an R2 site to another drive than the system drive (where %programfiles% is located). The same apply to upgrades.
   Install to C: and move the site afterwards.
2. After R2 installation, you might have trouble upgrading version 4 sites (from 4.61 to 4.62 for an example) using the EPiServer Manager. Workaround: Uninstall the R2 shared components (EPiServerShared.msi). The errors will point to a service that has had a name change in R2.
3. Number 2 also applies to CMS 5 R1 sites (any SP). There is a new EPiServer CMS Manager (for CMS 5 R1) which fixes this for v5 sites you want to upgrade. Download the latest EPiServer CMS Manager (2.0.19.10 or newer.)
4. Upgrading to R2 fails if system files are under Subversion source control. The upgrade wizard attempts to move the UI, Util, App_Themes/Default and WebServices folders to the %programfiles% folder. A Subversion working copy adds folders, files and locks to these directories that prevents the upgrade from succeeding. Export the site from Subversion and upgrade the copy.
5. Upgrade fails if the <episerver  ...> section in web.config is moved to an external file, like this:
   <episerver configSource="episerversite.config"/>
   Workaround: Move the episerver config section back into web.config.
6. Installing the database using SQL authentication seems to be somewhat broken. As always, running the installation in the context of a windows user that has Administrator access to the database, allows for a smooth db install.
7. Make sure that you have .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 release – NOT the beta. The installer won’t complain, but I’ve got reports that some things breaks with the 3.5 SP1 Beta. (If you’ve installed VS 2008 SP1 Beta, you might be running 3.5 Beta).
8. The installer does not check the SQL Server version. It will not warn you about installing on SQL Server 2000 even though it is not supported (but documented in the requirements though.) You need SQL Server 2005 or higher.
9. Not an installer bug, but it can look like one as you cannot log in after installing or upgrading to R2. If you’re running on a localized version of Windows, the “Administrators” group might be called something else (like “Administratorer” in Norwegian.) There is a virtual role to catch this, but it is broken in R2. Workaround: Add the necessary localized Administrators group name to the authorization tags in web.config.
10. After installation, if you get an error stating “ClassFactory not initialized”, read this. The way EPiServer is initialized in R2 has changed in order to support IIS 7. You need to suspend attaching your event handlers until the first request to the site.
11. You cannot install child web sites in IIS, only root sites will work. Buglist: #13781
12. SQL Server 2008 (x64) and password validation during database creation is real serious about password complexity. Make sure the password is not compromised by variations of the username given. Buglist: #14613
13. If you upgrade an R1 site that is located in a virtual directory to R2, the UI path in web.config will be wrong. Buglist: #14693. You need to fix the path in web.config afterwards. Also see #14700. App-relative uiUrl is not allowed in R1 and breaks upgrade.
14. Added 2008-10-21: Related to number 9, the “Program Files” folder might be called something else in your language. If you’re working on a team, and the different team members have different OS languages installed, change the paths to program files to use %ProgramFiles% instead of the localized name:

<add name="UI"
             virtualPath="~/GUI/"
             physicalPath="%ProgramFiles%\EPiServer\CMS\5.2.375.7\application\UI"
             type="EPiServer.Web.Hosting.VirtualPathNonUnifiedProvider,EPiServer" />

15. Added 2008-10-21: The installer can fail with a license check (license file is locked). Workaround: Skip the license during installation and copy the license file into the site root directory after the installation.

Please note that these were issues known at the time of writing (October 13th 2008). The development team is hammering down on issues like crazy, so bugs will be fixed, issues will be resolved and workarounds will be introduced. This list is by no means complete, I cannot even guarantee that it is correct – these are just the things I’ve noticed or been told. I will try to update it though as I learn about things that has been fixed. So please comment!