Have you ever encountered the “Offline Installation of Microsoft Machine Learning Server Components” screen while installing SQL Server? If so, you’re not alone. In this blog post, we will discuss the cause of this issue and provide a solution to move forward with the installation.

When installing SQL Server, you may come across a screen that prompts for an offline installation of Microsoft Machine Learning Server Components. This screen appears when the setup is unable to connect to the internet and download the necessary components. It seems that selecting the Machine Learning feature triggers this behavior.

To understand the cause of this screen, we can refer to the RSetup.log file. In the log, you may find an error message indicating that the setup was unable to connect to the remote server. This confirms that the installation is unable to download the required packages due to the lack of internet connectivity.

So, how can we resolve this issue and continue with the installation? The solution is to manually download all the required files and store them in a specific folder. Here are the steps to follow:

1. Identify the URLs for the files that need to be downloaded. These URLs are specific to the features selected during the installation process.
2. For the “R” feature, download the files from the following URLs:
• https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=851496&clcid=1033
• https://rserverdistribution.azureedge.net/production/SRS/9.2.0.24/3013/1033/33f8d690e29044b4b6ff3d3989c8756d/SRS_9.2.0.24_1033.cab
3. For the “Python” feature, download the files from the following URLs:
• https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=851502&clcid=1033
• https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=851508&clcid=1033
4. Once you have downloaded all the necessary files, store them in a folder of your choice.
5. During the installation, when prompted for the offline installation of Microsoft Machine Learning Server Components, specify the folder where you have stored the downloaded files.
6. The setup will then use the files from the specified folder to complete the installation without requiring an internet connection.

We hope that this solution helps you overcome the offline installation issue in SQL Server. By following these steps, you can save time and avoid the frustration of being stuck at the offline installation screen.

Thank you for reading this blog post. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please feel free to leave a comment below.