I am trying to install Altiris Server Management Suite, but installation always fails with a critical error: "A critical error occured: Failed while stopping service: AeXSvc Configuration failed while attempting: Restarting services..."

I have tracked it down to be an issue, with "Altiris Service" which remains in "Starting" state forever - it does not start and it also can't be stopped gracefully.

I am installing Altiris SMS v7.0.9 using Symantec Installation Manager.
OS is Windows 2003 Server 32-bits; In "Add/Remove programms" I see 3 versions of .NET frameworks - 2.0; 3.0 and 3.5;

In my opinion this issue is not as much related with Installation Manager, but rather with the "Altiris Service" which does not start up on system-boot.

Here is the relevant Log, which is generated, when I try to start "Altiris service" manually from Services:

Log File Name: C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Logs\Agent.log
Priority: 4
Date: 6/10/2009 12:50:28 AM
Tick Count: 86973431
Host Name: ALTIRIS-CMS
Process: aexnsagent.exe (1156)
Thread ID: 3260
Module: AgentScheduler.dll
Source: ScheduleEngine
Description: A monitored event has occurred, check all schedules

Log File Name: C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Logs\Agent.log
Priority: 4
Date: 6/10/2009 12:49:28 AM
Tick Count: 86913414
Host Name: ALTIRIS-CMS
Process: aexnsagent.exe (1156)
Thread ID: 3260
Module: AgentScheduler.dll
Source: ScheduleEngine
Description: A monitored event has occurred, check all schedules

Log File Name: C:\Program Files\Altiris\Notification Server\Logs\a.log
Priority: 4
Date: 6/10/2009 12:48:45 AM
Tick Count: 86870573
Host Name: ALTIRIS-CMS
Process: AeXSvc (1700)
Thread ID: 18
Module: AeXSVC.exe
Source: Altiris.NS.NSMailQueue.MailQueueThreadProc
Description: NS Mail queue has been paused.

Log File Name: C:\Program Files\Altiris\Notification Server\Logs\a.log
Priority: 4
Date: 6/10/2009 12:48:31 AM
Tick Count: 86855862
Host Name: ALTIRIS-CMS
Process: AeXSvc (1700)
Thread ID: 12
Module: AeXSVC.exe
Source: Altiris.NS.ItemTaskManagement.ItemTaskManagerService.RestartTasks
Description: ItemTaskManager: Reseting tasks

Log File Name: C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Logs\Agent.log
Priority: 4
Date: 6/10/2009 12:48:28 AM
Tick Count: 86853408
Host Name: ALTIRIS-CMS
Process: aexnsagent.exe (1156)
Thread ID: 3260
Module: AgentScheduler.dll
Source: ScheduleEngine
Description: A monitored event has occurred, check all schedules

Log File Name: C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Logs\Agent.log
Priority: 4
Date: 6/10/2009 12:48:28 AM
Tick Count: 86853408
Host Name: ALTIRIS-CMS
Process: aexnsagent.exe (1156)
Thread ID: 3260
Module: AgentScheduler.dll
Source: ScheduleEngine
Description: A monitored event has occurred, check all schedules

Log File Name: C:\Program Files\Altiris\Notification Server\Logs\a.log
Priority: 4
Date: 6/10/2009 12:48:26 AM
Tick Count: 86850975
Host Name: ALTIRIS-CMS
Process: AeXSvc (1700)
Thread ID: 11
Module: AeXSVC.exe
Source: Altiris.NS.TaskManagement.TaskManagerService.RestartTasks
Description: TaskManager: Finding tasks which need to be restarted...

Log File Name: C:\Program Files\Altiris\Notification Server\Logs\a.log
Priority: 4
Date: 6/10/2009 12:48:26 AM
Tick Count: 86850774
Host Name: ALTIRIS-CMS
Process: AeXSvc (1700)
Thread ID: 11
Module: AeXSVC.exe
Source: Altiris.NS.TaskManagement.TaskManagerService.RestartTasks
Description: TaskManager: Stopping all

Log File Name: C:\Program Files\Altiris\Notification Server\Logs\a.log
Priority: 4
Date: 6/10/2009 12:48:25 AM
Tick Count: 86850474
Host Name: ALTIRIS-CMS
Process: AeXSvc (1700)
Thread ID: 11
Module: AeXSVC.exe
Source: Altiris.NS.TaskManagement.TaskManagerService
Description: Found database version=7.0.4739

Log File Name: C:\Program Files\Altiris\Notification Server\Logs\a.log
Priority: 4
Date: 6/10/2009 12:48:19 AM
Tick Count: 86844285
Host Name: ALTIRIS-CMS
Process: AeXSvc (1700)
Thread ID: 28
Module: AeXSVC.exe
Source: Altiris.NS.Server.GroupMessaging_Trace
Description: [AeXSVC.exe:AeXSVC.exe] CPU usage performance counter initialized.

Log File Name: C:\Program Files\Altiris\Notification Server\Logs\a.log
Priority: 4
Date: 6/10/2009 12:48:15 AM
Tick Count: 86840570
Host Name: ALTIRIS-CMS
Process: AeXSvc (1700)
Thread ID: 5
Module: AeXSVC.exe
Source: NSMailQueue
Description: NS Mail Queue started

Log File Name: C:\Program Files\Altiris\Notification Server\Logs\a.log
Priority: 4
Date: 6/10/2009 12:48:15 AM
Tick Count: 86840560
Host Name: ALTIRIS-CMS
Process: AeXSvc (1700)
Thread ID: 5
Module: AeXSVC.exe
Source: Altiris.NS.NSMailQueue.LoadMailQueueSettings
Description: Loading NS Mail Queue Settings

Log File Name: C:\Program Files\Altiris\Notification Server\Logs\a.log
Priority: 4
Date: 6/10/2009 12:48:15 AM
Tick Count: 86840129
Host Name: ALTIRIS-CMS
Process: AeXSvc (1700)
Thread ID: 15
Module: AeXSVC.exe
Source: Altiris.NS.ClientMessaging.ClientEvtQueueWatcher.LogEventQueueStatusThreadProc
Description: NS client messaging event queue watcher thread has started. Update event queue status every 180 secs.

Log File Name: C:\Program Files\Altiris\Notification Server\Logs\a.log
Priority: 4
Date: 6/10/2009 12:48:15 AM
Tick Count: 86840109
Host Name: ALTIRIS-CMS
Process: AeXSvc (1700)
Thread ID: 11
Module: AeXSVC.exe
Source: Altiris.NS.TaskManagement.TaskManagerService
Description: Wait for the database to be ready and restart any outstanding tasks...

Log File Name: C:\Program Files\Altiris\Notification Server\Logs\a.log
Priority: 4
Date: 6/10/2009 12:48:15 AM
Tick Count: 86840039
Host Name: ALTIRIS-CMS
Process: AeXSvc (1700)
Thread ID: 12
Module: AeXSVC.exe
Source: Altiris.NS.ItemTaskManagement.ItemTaskManagerService
Description: Wait for the database to be ready and restart any outstanding tasks...

Log File Name: C:\Program Files\Altiris\Notification Server\Logs\a.log
Priority: 4
Date: 6/10/2009 12:48:14 AM
Tick Count: 86839077
Host Name: ALTIRIS-CMS
Process: AeXSvc (1700)
Thread ID: 5
Module: AeXSVC.exe
Source: Altiris.NS.AeXService.OnStart
Description: AeXSvc OnStart

I am hopefully looking forward from Symantec to solve this issue!
Thanks