I was recently building up an all-in-one development environment for a project and ran into an unexpected error. I had already installed Microsoft Visual Studio 2017 and attempted to install SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT).

The SSDT 15.5.2 for Visual Studio 2017 failed to install with the following error.

SSDT 15.5.2 for Visual Studio 2017 Installation Error: 0x80072f76

Upon studying the error log file, I found the following sequence of unexpected entries:

Acquiring package: Microsoft.DataTools.AnalysisServices, payload: pay98911873C1CF2F7FF48824555D2B0337, download from: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=866936
Error 0x80072f08: Failed to send request to URL: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=866936, trying to process HTTP status code anyway.
Error 0x80072f76: Failed attempt to download URL: 'https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=866936' to: 'C:\Users\sqltwins\AppData\Local\Temp\2\{5C5CD709-A276-454C-88E3-0E939CB80B0E}\pay98911873C1CF2F7FF48824555D2B0337'
Error 0x80072f76: Failed to acquire payload from: 'https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=866936' to working path: 'C:\Users\sqltwins\AppData\Local\Temp\2\{5C5CD709-A276-454C-88E3-0E939CB80B0E}\pay98911873C1CF2F7FF48824555D2B0337'
Failed to acquire payload: pay98911873C1CF2F7FF48824555D2B0337 to working path: C:\Users\sqltwins\AppData\Local\Temp\2\{5C5CD709-A276-454C-88E3-0E939CB80B0E}\pay98911873C1CF2F7FF48824555D2B0337, error: 0x80072f76.
MainViewModel.OnPackageAction: Install CompletedDownload for package SQL Server Analysis Services (id: Microsoft.DataTools.AnalysisServices)
Error 0x80072f76: Failed while caching, aborting execution.

From the error log entries, it is clear that the installer program was unable to access a particular URL in order to download the respective installer components.

So, I took the URL “https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=866936”, pasted it in the address bar of a browser and immediately ran into a problem:

Your current security settings do not allow this file to be downloaded.

Enhanced Security Configuration (ESC) preventing file downloads

This clearly indicates that the Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration (IE-ESC) was preventing the download and in-turn resulting into the error.

Solution

I immediately added microsoft.com to the “trusted sites” zone and restarted the installer. This time, the installer completed successfully! (One may suggest to disable Enhaned Security Configuration altogether, but that is not recommended due to the obvious security reasons.)

SSDT 15.5.2 for Visual Studio 2017 Installation

Hope this helps you someday when you are setting up your environments.

References

• Download SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT): https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/ssdt/download-sql-server-data-tools-ssdt
• Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration (ESC): https://support.microsoft.com/en-in/help/815141/internet-explorer-enhanced-security-configuration-changes-the-browsing

Until we meet next time,

Be courteous. Drive responsibly.