I've spent the past few days attempting to install VMWare's VCenter 5.1 but the installer has other ideas, I first tried the install from build 947939 and each time I am hitting the same error:

This was after trying the simple installer which is supposed to do everything for you and instead just fails with bits of the install done and a nice big error in the install log for SSO:

_    Caused by: java.sql.SQLException: Cannot open database "RSA" requested by the login. The login failed.

Caused by: java.sql.SQLException: Login failed for user 'RSA_USER'._

Build 1123966 which was released just a few days ago fixes a few things. Finally, the installer understands what a dynamic SQL port is which is huge progress but again, Error 29114 rears it's ugly head.

Further digging into the vminst log shows this:

VMware Single Sign On-build-1123962: 05/30/13 00:44:45 ShellExecuteWait::done (wait) Res: 14
VMware Single Sign On-build-1123962: 05/30/13 00:44:45 RunSSOCommand:: error code returned is 14 while launching C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\SSOServer\utils\rsautil.cmd
VMware Single Sign On-build-1123962: 05/30/13 00:44:45 Posting error message 29114

According to VMWare the fix is listed in and that fix is as follows:

Cause
This issue is occurs when the SSO database RSA (default SSO DB name) does not meet the prerequisites for the SSO installation and the RSA DB table space RSA_INDEX has a filegroup type of PRIMARY, instead of RSA_INDEX.

_Resolution

To resolve this issue, change the filegroup for the RSA_INDEX table space to RSA_INDEX using SQL Management Studio and then install vCenter SSO._

Contact your Database Administrator before making changes to the database.
Small problem though:

Yep, the filegroups on my SQL server for the RSA database are already set correctly.

There are a few suggestions out on the web that also suggest changing part of the SQL script to create the index in an MDF rather than an NDF but this never worked for me.

At the time of writing I'm still bashing my head against this issue and getting more annoyed at the terrible installer which not only is broken but compounds the breakage but putting information into several different log files.

VMWare SSO has to be the most fiddly, broken installer that is required for an application that I've ever come across. It seems obvious that VMWare understand that SSO has it's share of issues as 5.1U1a came hot on the heels of 5.1U1 but the installer still leaves a lot to be desired, still breaks in the majority of situations and still is a nightmare.
this article