Scripting Agent Initialization Failed: “File is not found” Error During Exchange 2016 Setup

Scripting Agent Initialization Failed: “File is not found” error came up during an Exchange 2016 Setup into an existing Exchange 2010 environment. 

The error message is descriptive enough to make us understand that it is something to do with scripting agent within the Exchange environment. The scripting agent is not one of those features that every organization uses either. 

Preparing Setup COMPLETEDStopping Services COMPLETEDCopying Exchange Files COMPLETEDLanguage Files COMPLETEDRestoring Services COMPLETEDLanguage Configuration COMPLETEDExchange Management Tools FAILEDThe following error was generated when “$error.Clear();Set-WERRegistryMarkers;” was run: “Microsoft.Exchange.Provisioning.ProvisioningBrokerException: Provisioning layerinitialization failed: ‘”Scripting Agent initialization failed: “File is not found: ‘C:Program FilesMicrosoftExchange ServerV15BinCmdletExtensionAgentsScriptingAgentConfig.xml’.””‘ —> Microsoft.Exchange.Provisioning.ProvisioningException: “Scripting Agent initialization failed: “File is notfound: ‘C:Program FilesMicrosoftExchange ServerV15BinCmdletExtensionAgentsScriptingAgentConfig.xml’.”” —> System.IO.FileNotFoundException: “File is not found: ‘C:Program FilesMicrosoftExchange ServerV15BinCmdletExtensionAgentsScriptingAgentConfig.xml’.”at Microsoft.Exchange.ProvisioningAgent.ScriptingAgentConfiguration.Initialize(String xmlConfigPath)at Microsoft.Exchange.ProvisioningAgent.ScriptingAgentConfiguration..ctor(String xmlConfigPath)— End of inner exception stack trace —

The issue here is that the Exchange 2010 has scripting agent enabled and while running the 2016 setup, it is expecting the “ScriptingAgentConfig.xml” file within the folder structure of the Exchange 2016 server.

There are two ways we can go about solving the issue.

First solution is to :

• Disable the scripting agent temporarily using the Exchange 2010 Shell (run Disable-CmdletExtensionAgent “Scripting Agent”).
• Re-run Exchange 2016 setup.
• Enable the scripting agent back by running Enable-CmdletExtensionAgent “Scripting Agent” from the Shell. 

Second solution is to :

• Copy the “ScriptingAgentConfig.xml” file from one of the Exchange 2010 servers. The location is C:Program FilesMicrosoftExchange ServerV14BinCmdletExtensionAgents, assuming that Exchange 2010 is installed on the C drive. 
• Paste it into the Exchange 2016 server that is giving the error, the location is C:Program FilesMicrosoftExchange ServerV15BinCmdletExtensionAgents, assuming that Exchange 2016 is getting installed on the C drive.
• Re-run the Exchange 2016 setup.

Have you come across this error at all? Any other workarounds to get past the error?