Description

The post installation steps for the ECM 2.1 module may fail with the following error when installing it on the Sitecore CMS 7.0 Initial Release (rev. 130424):

ERROR Installation failed: System.Reflection.TargetInvocationException: Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation. ---> System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
at Sitecore.Modules.EmailCampaign.Core.InstallationPostAction.ContentSearchManagerIndexesMethodInvoke(String methodName)
at Sitecore.Modules.EmailCampaign.Core.InstallationPostAction.RunPostStep()
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at System.RuntimeMethodHandle.InvokeMethod(Object target, Object[] arguments, Signature sig, Boolean constructor)
at System.Reflection.RuntimeMethodInfo.UnsafeInvokeInternal(Object obj, Object[] parameters, Object[] arguments)
at System.Reflection.RuntimeMethodInfo.Invoke(Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, Binder binder, Object[] parameters, CultureInfo culture)
at System.Reflection.MethodBase.Invoke(Object obj, Object[] parameters)
at Sitecore.Install.Installer.ExecutePostStep(String action, IProcessingContext context)
at Sitecore.Shell.Applications.Install.Dialogs.InstallPackage.InstallPackageForm.AsyncHelper.CatchExceptions(ThreadStart start)

Completing these steps is required for proper functioning of the ECM module.

Solution

To resolve the issue, apply one of the solutions below:

1. The issue is not reproducible on the Sitecore CMS 7.0 Update-1 (rev. 130810). You can update your CMS version and then rerun the ECM installation.
2. Install the attached Sitecore.Support.398307 package in order to perform the post installation steps after the ECM installation failed.