Complete Guide to Installing Sitecore 10.4

Today we are going to learn how to install Sitecore 10.4 XP in our local environment.

We need to download the instance from Sitecore 10.4 Download. Once that's done, follow these steps:

1. Extract the file once downloaded.

2. Check the pre-requisites before downloading.

3. Run the Sitecore application in administrator mode.

   

4. Click on start to begin the installation.

   

   5. Click on "Install" to set up all the prerequisites.

      

   6. Install Solr and set the path where Solr will be installed. Provide a prefix for convenience; for example, I used "sc104."

      

   7. Configure the Sitecore instance prefix and decide what the password should be once it's installed.

      

   8. Configure the database username and password for the databases that will be installed.

      

   9. Verify the Solr settings you configured earlier. If anything is missing or incorrectly set up, you can change it here. This will be the Solr URL where you can view the indexes.

      

   10. If you are using SXA, you can install it as a module here.

       

   11. Here you can see a summary of all the settings you have provided.

       

12. It checks the settings and gives the green light if everything is correct.

    

13. The last step is the installation, which will take some time to complete all the required files, and once done, it will redirect you to the Sitecore admin login page.

Errors I Faced During the Installation

1. You can see the errors encountered during the installation in the logs.
   [------- XConnectXP0_StartServices [2] : ManageService -----------------------] [XConnectXP0_StartServices [2]]:[Updating] sc1041xconnect.dev.local-MarketingAutomationService Waiting for service 'Sitecore Marketing Automation Engine - sc1041xconnect.dev.local-MarketingAutomationService (sc1041xconnect.dev.local-MarketingAutomationService)' to start... Waiting for service 'Sitecore Marketing Automation Engine - sc1041xconnect.dev.local-MarketingAutomationService (sc1041xconnect.dev.local-MarketingAutomationService)' to start... Waiting for service 'Sitecore Marketing Automation Engine - sc1041xconnect.dev.local-MarketingAutomationService (sc1041xconnect.dev.local-MarketingAutomationService)' to start... Waiting for service 'Sitecore Marketing Automation Engine - sc1041xconnect.dev.local-MarketingAutomationService (sc1041xconnect.dev.local-MarketingAutomationService)' to start... Waiting for service 'Sitecore Marketing Automation Engine - sc1041xconnect.dev.local-MarketingAutomationService (sc1041xconnect.dev.local-MarketingAutomationService)' to start... Waiting for service 'Sitecore Marketing Automation Engine - sc1041xconnect.dev.local-MarketingAutomationService (sc1041xconnect.dev.local-MarketingAutomationService)' to start... Waiting for service 'Sitecore Marketing Automation Engine - sc1041xconnect.dev.local-MarketingAutomationService (sc1041xconnect.dev.local-MarketingAutomationService)' to start... Waiting for service 'Sitecore Marketing Automation Engine - sc1041xconnect.dev.local-MarketingAutomationService (sc1041xconnect.dev.local-MarketingAutomationService)' to start... Waiting for service 'Sitecore Marketing Automation Engine - sc1041xconnect.dev.local-MarketingAutomationService (sc1041xconnect.dev.local-MarketingAutomationService)' to start... Waiting for service 'Sitecore Marketing Automation Engine - sc1041xconnect.dev.local-MarketingAutomationService (sc1041xconnect.dev.local-MarketingAutomationService)' to start... Waiting for service 'Sitecore Marketing Automation Engine - sc1041xconnect.dev.local-MarketingAutomationService (sc1041xconnect.dev.local-MarketingAutomationService)' to start... Waiting for service 'Sitecore Marketing Automation Engine - sc1041xconnect.dev.local-MarketingAutomationService (sc1041xconnect.dev.local-MarketingAutomationService)' to start... Waiting for service 'Sitecore Marketing Automation Engine - sc1041xconnect.dev.local-MarketingAutomationService (sc1041xconnect.dev.local-MarketingAutomationService)' to start... Waiting for service 'Sitecore Marketing Automation Engine - sc1041xconnect.dev.local-MarketingAutomationService (sc1041xconnect.dev.local-MarketingAutomationService)' to start... Waiting for service 'Sitecore Marketing Automation Engine - sc1041xconnect.dev.local-MarketingAutomationService (sc1041xconnect.dev.local-MarketingAutomationService)' to start... Failed to start service 'Sitecore Marketing Automation Engine - sc1041xconnect.dev.local-MarketingAutomationService (sc1041xconnect.dev.local-MarketingAutomationService)'. [TIME] 00:04:53 Failed to start service 'Sitecore Marketing Automation Engine - sc1041xconnect.dev.local-MarketingAutomationService (sc1041xconnect.dev.local-MarketingAutomationService)'.

2.xconnect logs found in the xconnect folder

2025-07-16 20:47:35.456 +05:30 [Information] XConnect Test Host Application Start, Machine: "Test", Site: "sc1041xconnect.dev.local", AppId: "T" 2025-07-16 20:47:35.490 +05:30 [Information] Sitecore.NET 10.4.0 (rev. 010422) 2025-07-16 20:47:40.477 +05:30 [Information] Certificate Validation ENABLED, Thumbprint app setting key ["validateCertificateThumbprint"] value is specified 2025-07-16 20:47:40.481 +05:30 [Information] SSL Validation Filter Enabled 2025-07-16 21:08:17.155 +05:30 [Information] XConnect Test Host Application End, Machine: "Test", Site: "sc1041xconnect.dev.local", AppId: "/" 2025-07-16 21:49:51.435 +05:30 [Information] XConnect Test Host Application Start, Machine: "Test", Site: "sc1041xconnect.dev.local", AppId: "" 2025-07-16 21:49:51.528 +05:30 [Information] Sitecore.NET 10.4.0 (rev. 010422) 2025-07-16 21:50:06.198 +05:30 [Information] Certificate Validation ENABLED, Thumbprint app setting key ["validateCertificateThumbprint"] value is specified 2025-07-16 21:50:06.209 +05:30 [Information] SSL Validation Filter Enabled

3. The error visible in the logs of the Sitecore marketing automation executable

   Sitecore management automation engine 2025-07-16 20:47:44.101 +05:30 [Error] Error initializing XConnect client. System.AggregateException: One or more errors occurred. ---> Sitecore.XConnect.XdbCollectionUnavailableException: The HTTP response was not successful: Forbidden at Sitecore.XConnect.Client.WebApi.ConfigurationWebApiClient.d__12.MoveNext() --- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown --- at System.Runtime.ExceptionServices.ExceptionDispatchInfo.Throw() at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(Task task) at Sitecore.XConnect.Client.XConnectClientConfiguration.d__37.MoveNext() --- End of inner exception stack trace --- at System.Threading.Tasks.Task.ThrowIfExceptional(Boolean includeTaskCanceledExceptions) at System.Threading.Tasks.Task.Wait(Int32 millisecondsTimeout, CancellationToken cancellationToken) at Sitecore.XConnect.Client.Configuration.XConnect.Extensions.ServiceCollectionExtensions.InitializeXConnectClientConfiguration(IServiceProvider provider, XConnectClientConfiguration config) ---> (Inner Exception #0) Sitecore.XConnect.XdbCollectionUnavailableException: The HTTP response was not successful: Forbidden at Sitecore.XConnect.Client.WebApi.ConfigurationWebApiClient.d__12.MoveNext() --- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown --- at System.Runtime.ExceptionServices.ExceptionDispatchInfo.Throw() at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(Task task) at Sitecore.XConnect.Client.XConnectClientConfiguration.d__37.MoveNext()<---

The above error occured because xconnect failed Sitecore.XConnect.XdbCollectionUnavailableException: The HTTP response was not successful: Forbidden

Solution:

The Sitecore Xconnect installed the certificate under Trusted Root Certification Authorities. I copied the same certificates to personal certificates, deleted the database, and restarted the process. This resolved all the issues.

Thank you,

Happy Coding!