Failed to create communication pipe for new CA process. Error code: 231 - async CA

[rkieslinger]

• Which version of WiX are you building with?

WiX v3.11.0.1701

• Which version of Visual Studio are you building with (if any)?

Visual Studio Professional 2017 - v15.4.1

• Which version of the WiX Toolset Visual Studio Extension are you building with (if any)?

WiX Toolset Visual Studio Extension v0.9.21.62588

• Which version of .NET are you building with?

.NET 4.7

• If the problem occurs when installing your packages built with WiX, what is the version of Windows the package is running on?

Windows v10.0 (Build 10586: Service Pack 0)

• Describe the problem and the steps to reproduce it.

If you put an asynchronous CA right before a synchronous CA, you will get the following error message on almost every installation:

Failed to create communication pipe for new CA process. Error code: 231

• Log

  MSI (s) (34:64) [16:40:07:271]: Executing op: ActionStart(Name=CA_Async,,)
  MSI (s) (34:64) [16:40:07:271]: Executing op: CustomActionSchedule(Action=CA_Async,ActionType=1153,Source=BinaryData,Target=CA_Async,)
  MSI (s) (34:64) [16:40:07:271]: Executing op: ActionStart(Name=CA_Sync,,)
  MSI (s) (34:64) [16:40:07:271]: Invoking remote custom action. DLL: C:\Windows\Installer\MSI3218.tmp, Entrypoint: CA_Async
  MSI (s) (34:64) [16:40:07:271]: Executing op: CustomActionSchedule(Action=CA_Sync,ActionType=1025,Source=BinaryData,Target=CA_Sync,)
  MSI (s) (34:64) [16:40:07:271]: Generating random cookie.
  MSI (s) (34:48) [16:40:07:271]: Invoking remote custom action. DLL: C:\Windows\Installer\MSI3219.tmp, Entrypoint: CA_Sync
  MSI (s) (34:64) [16:40:07:271]: Created Custom Action Server with PID 6124 (0x17EC).
  MSI (s) (34:30) [16:40:07:287]: Running as a service.
  MSI (s) (34:A4) [16:40:07:302]: Hello, I'm your 32bit Impersonated custom action server.
  SFXCA: Failed to create communication pipe for new CA process. Error code: 231
  CustomAction CA_Async returned actual error code 1603 (note this may not be 100% accurate if translation happened inside sandbox)
  1: CA_Async 2: 1603 
  SFXCA: Extracting custom action to temporary directory: C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\MSI3219.tmp-\
  SFXCA: Binding to CLR version v4.0.30319
  Calling custom action RZL.Setup.Sample.Wix.CustomAction!RZL.Setup.Sample.Wix.CustomAction.CustomAction.CA_Sync

• Code for reproduction

Managed CA (C#)

[CustomAction]
public static ActionResult CA_Async(Session session)
{
    Thread.Sleep(5000);
    return ActionResult.Success;
}

[CustomAction]
public static ActionResult CA_Sync(Session session)
{
    return ActionResult.Success;
}

Wix declaration

<CustomAction Id="CA_Async" Execute="deferred" Impersonate="yes" Return="asyncWait" BinaryKey="CA_binary" DllEntry="CA_Async" />
<CustomAction Id="CA_Sync" Execute="deferred" Impersonate="yes" Return="check" BinaryKey="CA_binary" DllEntry="CA_Sync" />

Installation Execution Sequence

<InstallExecuteSequence>
  <Custom Action="CA_Async" After="InstallInitialize" />
  <Custom Action="CA_Sync" After="CA_Async" />
</InstallExecuteSequence>

• Describe the behavior you expected and how it differed from the actual behavior.

There shouldn't be an error.

[barnson]

There might be an issue with globals with the sync/async mix.

[andrey-morskoy]

We have such kind of error even without sync/async mix. It happens occasionally and very rare. The interesting thing about it is that WiX is able to call a few CAs with the same declaration (Return="check" Execute="firstSequence") and then fails with error: SFXCA: Failed to create communication pipe for new CA process. Error code: 231

Here is the piece of the log:

MSI (c) (4C:1C) [16:23:51:215]: Doing action: CheckAppInstalled Action 16:23:51: CheckAppInstalled. Action start 16:23:51: CheckAppInstalled. MSI (c) (4C:A0) [16:23:51:480]: Invoking remote custom action. DLL: C:\Users_\AppData\Local\Temp\MSI5BAA.tmp, Entrypoint: CheckAppInstalled SFXCA: Extracting custom action to temporary directory: C:\Users_\AppData\Local\Temp\MSI5BAA.tmp-\ SFXCA: Binding to CLR version v4.0.30319 Calling custom action PluginInstaller.CustomActions!PluginInstaller.CustomActions.InstallerCustomActions.CheckAppInstalled Action ended 16:23:52: CheckAppInstalled. Return value 1. MSI (c) (4C:1C) [16:23:52:541]: Doing action: CheckAppVersion Action 16:23:52: CheckAppVersion. Action start 16:23:52: CheckAppVersion. MSI (c) (4C:10) [16:23:52:760]: Invoking remote custom action. DLL: C:\Users_\AppData\Local\Temp\MSI60BA.tmp, Entrypoint: CheckAppVersion SFXCA: Failed to create communication pipe for new CA process. Error code: 231 CustomAction CheckAppVersion returned actual error code 1603 (note this may not be 100% accurate if translation happened inside sandbox) Action ended 16:23:52: CheckAppVersion. Return value 3.