Applying SQL Server Replica failed with error: Failed to Retrieve data from this request

I was performing patching on SQL Server 2016. This is AlwaysOn with two replica running on AWS GovCloud. To those who is not familiar with AWS GovCloud, it is AWS Cloud service built for Federal and state government. But this error has nothing to do with AWS at all.

First of all, about the error: In order to repeat this error, here are environment settings and steps:

We have a AlwaysOn with two replicas. The names are DB001 and DB002. I’ve removed all other sensitive information on purpose.

To begin with, I’ve first applied CU patch on DB002, then failover AG to DB002. Then starting to apply CU patch on DB001. Then I got this error:

“SQL Server Setup has encountered the following error: Failed to retrieve data for this request..”

For people like me with no patience, the root cause was that on another node DB002, the service “Remote Registry” was disabled. You can repeat such error in your environment as following diagram:

To solve it, go to DB002 (and all other replicas if you had more than two replicas), change the service from “disabled” to “Automatic”. Then go back to DB001 node and re run patch executable file you should be good.

Now the detail troubleshooting process:

First we need to study the patching log. By default the location is: C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\130\Setup Bootstrap\Log You will find summary.txt file and a slew of subfolders with names after creating time. Read summary.txt and detail.txt file in the specific subfolder(the one created by your patching).

The summary.txt said:

Overall summary:
Final result: The patch installer has failed to update the shared features. To determine the reason for failure, review the log files.
Exit code (Decimal): -2146233088
Exit facility code: 19
Exit error code: 5376
Exit message: Failed to retrieve data for this request.
Start time: 2019–12–05 10:08:16
End time: 2019–12–05 10:11:13
Requested action: Patch
Exception help link: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink?LinkId=20476&ProdName=Microsoft+SQL+Server&EvtSrc=setup.rll&EvtID=50000&ProdVer=13.0.5492.2&EvtType=0xE8A0C283%400xAC7B1A58%401233%4053&EvtType=0xE8A0C283%400xAC7B1A58%401233%4053

The detail.txt said: (There are more such errors, search for “Error:” for all of them, they are in the end of the file)

(01) 2019–12–05 06:07:22 Slp: Error: Action “Microsoft.SqlServer.Configuration.SetupExtension.RunDiscoveryAction” threw an exception during execution.
(01) 2019–12–05 06:07:22 Slp: Microsoft.SqlServer.Setup.Chainer.Workflow.ActionExecutionException: Failed to retrieve data for this request. — -> Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Sdk.Sfc.EnumeratorException: Failed to retrieve data for this request. — -> Microsoft.SqlServer.Configuration.Sco.SqlRegistryException: The network path was not found..

When patch file running, it will first unzip itself to local disk. Then it detects this is windows cluster environment. So there’s RunDiscoveryAction process called to check each of replicas. This process will try to connect to “Remote Registry” services on each other replicas to fetch needed information. In our case, this service on DB002 was disabled. So process would be failed.

I hope this article useful to you.