SAP Solution Manager 7.1 - Path component contains reserved character (':'): K:NaN.exe

Problem

While installing SAP Solution Manager 7.1 SR 1 on Windows with SQL today I ran into the following error trying to run the Installer.

An error occurred while processing option SAP Solution Manager 7.1 SR1 > SAP Systems > MS SQL Server > Central System > Central System( Last error reported by the step: Path component contains reserved character (':'): K:NaN.exe). You can now:

• Choose Retry to repeat the current step.
• Choose Log Files to get more information about the error.
• Stop the option and continue with it later.

Log files are written to C:/Program Files/sapinst_instdir/SOLMAN71SR1/SYSTEM/MSS/CENTRAL/AS/sapinst_dev.log

Solution

From the log sapinst_dev.log it looks like it fails to find the JAVA_HOME Path. 

TRACE      2012-05-31 11:53:48.877
NWDiagAgent.getJavaHome()
TRACE      2012-05-31 11:53:48.888 NWOption(sapjvmHome).value()sTRACE      2012-05-31 11:53:48.888 NWOption.getDefaultValue(sapjvmHome)
TRACE[W]   2012-05-31 11:53:48.891 [ianxcreghelper.cpp:283]           CNTRegistryKey::CNTRegistryKey(., HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, Software\JavaSoft\Java Development Kit, ...) Error 2 (The system cannot find the file specified.
) in execution of a 'RegOpenKeyEx' function, line (78), with parameter (Software\JavaSoft\Java Development Kit).
TRACE[W]   2012-05-31 11:53:48.892 [ianxcreghelper.cpp:465]
           CNTRegistryKey::CNTRegistryKey(., HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, Software\JavaSoft\Java Development Kit, ...)
The subkey 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\JavaSoft\Java Development Kit' does not exist on the 'localhost' host.
ERROR      2012-05-31 11:53:48.912 [syxxcpath.cpp:63]
           CSyPathComponent::CSyPathComponent(const iastring& stringValue, bool mightBePrefix)
           lib=syslib module=syslib
FSL-02107  Path component contains reserved character (':'): K:NaN.exe

That wasn't my first guess of course because if you read the Selection 1.1 New Features of
the  SAP Solution Manager 7.1 on Windows: MS SQL Server it says the following about SAP Java Virtual Machine (SAP JVM) 

You no longer have to download and install a Java Development Kit (JDK) from another software vendor as a prerequisite for the installation with SAPinst.The SAP JVM 4 is a Java Development Kit (JDK) provided and supported by SAP. The SAP JVM is fully compliant to the Java Platform Standard Edition (JDK) 1.4. It is available on the Installation Master DVD and is installed automatically by SAPinst when you start the installation.The diagnostics agent is installed automatically with SAP JVM 6.

However this appears that it doesn't set or create the JAVA_HOME System Environment Variable that the Installer later checks for.

Update 6-21-2012 - On rebuilding this server I ran into the same JAVA_HOME problem again even after doing the below described creating the JAVA_HOME System Environment Variable.  I then Figured out that for some reason when I run the installer logged in as a Domain Admin get the error but not running the installer logged in as the local administrator.

It then fails to "Create users for the SAP System" because the local account doesn't have access to the domain accounts. Which I then Stop the installer and then log back into my domain account and restart the install process using the same options. Its not pretty and I think i'm missing something but it seems work.


Searching the machine I did find it does copy java in a few places it seems.


Such as "C:\Program Files\sapinst_instdir\SOLMAN71SR1\SYSTEM\MSS\CENTRAL\AS\sapjvm\sapjvm_6\"


I however deiceded to just install java like i did on previous Windows SAP installations. I copied the j2sdk1.4.2_24-x64 folder to c:\j2sdk1.4.2_24-x64 and then set the JAVA_HOME System Environment Variable to "c:\j2sdk1.4.2_24-x64/bin". I retry the SAP Installer with the same options and it correctly continues. Not sure if this is the correct method but it worked.