BUG: Access Violation in Setup.exe If SNMP Entries Exceed 1,000 Characters (186880)

SYMPTOMS

SQL Server setup causes an access violation (AV) when enabling Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) if the registry values under the following key contain more than approximately 1,000 characters:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\SNMP
   \Parameters\ExtensionAgents

In addition to failed Setup messages and symptoms, you may receive other access violations or the following error message:

Unhandled exception in SETUP.EXE (SQLSETUP.DLL) 0xC0000005: Access violation.

After this, SQL Server setup is stopped.

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, temporarily remove some of the entries before setting up SQL Server or attempting to enable SNMP support. Then restore the removed entries. Use the following steps to remove the entries:

In Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs, remove SNMP Agents.
If SQL Server had been installed or partially installed, remove it.
Reinstall SQL Server.

In some cases, it may be possible to complete installation by running SQL Server setup with the RegistryRebuild option. For more information on this option, see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

157805 BUG: RegistryRebuild Option of Setup Is Not Documented

MORE INFORMATION

The problem can occur both during the initial setup, if the server already has the SNMP service installed, or when later enabling or disabling SNMP support through the Set Server Options option of SQL Server Setup.

If the SQL value does not already exist under the ExtensionAgents subkey, the access violation is preceded by the following dialog:

   Caption:   Key Val
   Text:      The Key 1345105, Key 27, Val
              SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSSQLServer\SNMP\CurrentVersion

The Entry to this subkey is added, as is the SNMP subkey under the following registry key: