Getting Data In

Installing splunkforwarder msi with error: This installation package could not be opened...verify it's a valid Windows Installer Package

Ellen
Splunk Employee
Splunk Employee

I downloaded the Windows 2008 64-bit Universal Forwarder without error but when I run splunkforwarder-4.2-96430-x64-release.msi, I get the following Windows Installer message:

"This installation package could not be opened. Contact the application vendor to verify that this is a valid Windows Installer package."

Also tried this on another Windows 2008 VM image and saw the Windows Installer message: "This installation package is not supported by this processor type. Contact your product vendor."

Is there something special with the Universal Forwarder installation?

1 Solution

Ellen
Splunk Employee
Splunk Employee

The Universal Forwarder is supported under the same system requirements as core Splunk. The following links will provide further details.

http://www.splunk.com/base/Documentation/latest/Installation/Systemrequirements
http://www.splunk.com/base/Documentation/latest/Deploy/Deploymentoverview

The Windows Installer correctly reported the error due to a corrupted download of the msi file. While there was no download error message, the lack of disk space was a factor in the partially downloaded file.

Disk space was made available and a retry of the download resulted in a successful run and installation of the Universal Forwarder.

View solution in original post

Ellen
Splunk Employee
Splunk Employee

The Universal Forwarder is supported under the same system requirements as core Splunk. The following links will provide further details.

http://www.splunk.com/base/Documentation/latest/Installation/Systemrequirements
http://www.splunk.com/base/Documentation/latest/Deploy/Deploymentoverview

The Windows Installer correctly reported the error due to a corrupted download of the msi file. While there was no download error message, the lack of disk space was a factor in the partially downloaded file.

Disk space was made available and a retry of the download resulted in a successful run and installation of the Universal Forwarder.

Got questions? Get answers!

Join the Splunk Community Slack to learn, troubleshoot, and make connections with fellow Splunk practitioners in real time!

Meet up IRL or virtually!

Join Splunk User Groups to connect and learn in-person by region or remotely by topic or industry.

Get Updates on the Splunk Community!

Data Management Digest – September 2026

    Welcome to the September 2026 edition of Data Management Digest! September brought a fresh wave of ...

Federated Search for CloudWatch Unified Data Store Is Generally Available

As organizations modernize their cloud environments, AWS workloads generate more security, operational, and ...

Announcing Modern Navigation: A New Era of Splunk User Experience

We are excited to introduce the Modern Navigation feature in the Splunk Platform, available to both cloud and ...