Hello, I'm hoping someone here can assist me. Trying to install v4.1.1 (latest self-hosted stable release) on Windows 2016/IIS and can't get the initial installer to launch when going to https://localhost/limesurvey/admin. Have installed WebPlatform/PHP 7.4 which seems to be working fine as phpinfo is displaying fine with mbstring enabled. No error is returned, it looks like the page redirects to /limesurvey/index.php?installer but then no page or error is provided and from iis log appears to loop trying to load that page. I believe the iis_user permissions are set correctly as noted in the manual and I've tried setting php paths to /tmp and /temp (as in the manual) and neither has helped. I'm hoping/expecting this to be a simple issue/mistake that I've made but I'm lost so any help that can be provided is much appreciated. Thanks

I ran into the same issue. I was able to overcome it by setting the directory permissions to read and write for the limesurvey/tmp directory and limesurvey/upload directory.

Thanks for the response, unfortunately it doesn't look like a permissions issue, at least on a limesurvey directory as iis_usrs has read+write permissions and I have file audit on for any failure event and nothing is showing in the security log. I do think it's something simple/along these lines but I can't put my finger on it for the life of me....any other insights/thoughts would be great....thanks

I think we got it working and just as an 'fyi' for any others that may stumble upon this same issue, I'll post an update here. We had tried adding the limesurvey directory/site both as just a new directory under inetput\wwwroot and as a virtual directory but what seemed to get it working for us was using the 'add application' option from the default site and using the default app pool (v4.0 .NET). At least we get the 'Welcome'/select your language installer page to show up now and not sure why that step isn't in the install guide but there you go.

Can you try with LTS version before ?
www.limesurvey.org/lts-releases-download


I have 2 IIS installation but none with WebPlatform version of PHP ... and none with 4.X version.
Since even with mysql and apache : there are a lot of issue, i'm sure there are more with IIS+MSSQL

I am always wondering why we are not just dropping MSSQL support completely. I only see problems coming up and LS is never suficiently tested on the MS platform. Why not just dropping it completely? I mean I don't see other big OSS software like Wordpress providing MS support and they are just doing fine.

holch wrote: I am always wondering why we are not just dropping MSSQL support completely. I only see problems coming up and LS is never suficiently tested on the MS platform. Why not just dropping it completely? I mean I don't see other big OSS software like Wordpress providing MS support and they are just doing fine.

Maybe we can inform user we have "automatic test" for mariadb and mysql, but no test for MSSQL (seems we have now PGSQL test).

So this thread wasn't really about DB aspect of config but since it's been brought up and we're using MS SQL, I'll give some additional information we figured out (sure it's somewhere else as well). We had to download SQL drivers ( docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/connect/php...iew=sql-server-ver15 ) and add entries to PHP.INI. Apparently MS Web Platform PHP (latest 7.4) uses non-thread-safe (NTS) so had to copy those to \ext folder and add these two entries to bottom of PHP.INI file:

extension=php_sqlsrv_74_nts_x64.dll
extension=php_pdo_sqlsrv_74_nts_x64.dll

and then, after IIS restart, MS SQL was an option in the drop down during the install....I'll drop more info as we get thru this if anything seems like a struggle for us and maybe helpful for others.

Ohh, ok, of course, with a missing driver it won't work with MSSQL. There is little LS developers can do.

Hey Tim, if you find more info about that, could you please update the manual entry as well? www.limesurvey.org/manual/Installation_-...rvey_on_your_website . It could help a lot of MS SQL users in the near future.

Further updates....for MS SQL, after getting PHP PDO SQL drivers loaded, had to install a more recent version of ODBC drivers than are in place with the operating system. Got those here, ( docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/connect/odb...river-for-sql-server ).

then when trying to update are old DB, got this error "CDbCommand failed to execute the SQL statement: SQLSTATE[42000]: [Microsoft][ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server][SQL Server]Explicit value must be specified for identity column in table 'lime_question_themes' either when IDENTITY_INSERT is set to ON or when a replication user is inserting into a NOT FOR REPLICATION identity column."

found this bug report, bugs.limesurvey.org/view.php?id=15841 , and commented out line 2960 (and a few after it) in C:\limesurvey\application\helpers\update\updatedb_helper.php and reran the upgrade script and looks good now.

I'll consider trying to update the manual, just I'm a newbie and wouldn't want to send anyway astray with their efforts as everyone's mileage may vary.

Tim_JH wrote: I'll consider trying to update the manual, just I'm a newbie and wouldn't want to send anyway astray with their efforts as everyone's mileage may vary.

That's understandable. You might open a bugreport or add your comments to a bugreport. That way your workarounds and findings are not lost in the ocean of forum posts and users with the same issue can consult the bugreport.