SolarWinds Administration Service missing or not updated for the SolarWinds platform

Scenario 1:
Upon checking of SolarWinds Platform Service Manager you may notice that SolarWinds Administration Service is missing or not updated.  Further review of logs will show the following

SolarWinds.Administration.Updater.UpdateExecutor - Failed to install SWA service. Retrying... SolarWinds.Administration.Updater.Exceptions.InstallException: SWA msi installer has exited with code: 1603

Product: SolarWinds Administration Service – Error 1923. Service 'SolarWinds Administration Service' (SolarWindsAdministration) could not be installed. Verify that you have sufficient privileges to install system services.

Error 1923. Service 'SolarWinds Administration Service' (SolarWindsAdministration) could not be installed. Verify that you have sufficient privileges to install system services.

OR

2024-04-18 21:46:33,043 [1] WARN  (null) SolarWinds.Administration.Updater.UpdateExecutor - Failed to install SWA service. Retrying...
SolarWinds.Administration.Updater.Exceptions.InstallException: SWA msi installer has exited with code: 1618
   at SolarWinds.Administration.Updater.SwaMsiInstaller.Install(String swaMsiPath)
   at SolarWinds.Administration.Utils.ActionHelper.RetryOnFault(Action action, Int32 maxTries, Action`1 onRetry, Action`1 onLastAttempt)


Note:
While protecting deployment with High Availability the missing service may result in a failover.

Scenario 2:
In another scenario, the service was installed however the Additional Polling Engines have a newer version than the Main Polling Engine and the Centralized Upgrade console shows the following status:


Scenario 4:
The user has upgraded and notices the SolarWinds Administration service missing from some servers. 

In the Application event logs we see:

• Process not fully terminated resulting in refused permissions.
• Mismatched version of services on Main Polling Engine and Additional Polling Engine/Additional Web Server
• SolarWinds Platform detected a new version and automatically update SolarWinds Administration Service, but trying to install an older version of the SolarWinds Platform
• The System Account installs the SolarWinds Administration service when upgrading via Centralized Upgrade and lacks the necessary privileges.

Solution for Scenario 1 & Scenario 2:

1. Manually install (on Main Polling Engine and Additional Polling Engines where there is mismatch) SolarWinds Administration Service (SWA) by looking at the version indicated in the Administration.Service.log (C:\ProgramData\SolarWinds\Logs\Administration) using the installation file located at C:\ProgramData\SolarWinds\Installers\Observability-xxxx.x.x.xxxx-AdministrationService.msi

2. Select Services (this option is not available if you are running Orion Platform 2020.2.1 and higher as all 3 options are selected by default).
3. If the issue still exists or you face an error during the re-install of the SolarWinds Administration service, a reboot should fix the problem.

For Scenario 3:

The version of Administration Service should be the same as the installer of the SolarWinds Platform.  To prevent the automatic update of SWA perform the following the steps:

1. Access Orion Advanced Configuration page: http://<Orion_IP_Address>/Orion/admin/Advancedconfiguration/global.aspx
2. Search for SWA
3. Uncheck AllowSwaAutoUpdate
4. Click Save

Scenario 4:

Step 1:

Installation is performed by the LocalSystem account:

Property(N): LogonUser = SYSTEM
Property(N): UserSID = S-1-5-18

That LocalSystem account should have sufficient privileges by default, please try to explicitly edit group policy. To do this make the following steps:

1. Open gpedit.msc
2. Go to Computer Configuration -> Windows Settings -> Security Settings -> Local Policies -> User Rights Assignment
3. Find "Log on as a service" -> open it -> Add User or Group -> Advanced -> Find Now
4. From the list find the "System" account, add it and apply all windows.

Step 2:
Ensure the System Account has full control over the installers folder 
Default location: C:\ProgramData\SolarWinds\Installers



Step 3:
Ensure the System Account has full control over Administration.exe
Default Location: C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\SolarWinds\AdministrationService\ SolarWinds.Administration.exe