Sharepoint Foundation 2013 Installation fails to provision Central Admin web app

Question

Hello, I'm attempting to install SPF 2013 as a standalone instance on Windows Server 2012, and all goes fine until step 7/10 of the config wizard, when I get the below error:
Failed to provision the SharePoint Central Administration Web Application.
An exception of type System.NullReferenceException was thrown.  Additional exception information: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPAspSiteMapFile.MergeAspSiteMapFiles(XmlDocument xmldocSiteMap, String strSrcFilePath, String strMergeFilePattern)
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPAspSiteMapFile.Copy(String strSrcDir, String strSrcDirPrevious, String strSrcLeaf, String strDestDir, Boolean bMergeMaps, Boolean bBackupExistingFile)
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPWebApplication.CopyAppDomainDirectories(DirectoryInfo vrPath, OverwriteSetting overwrite)
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPAdministrationWebApplication.InstallFiles(DirectoryInfo virtualDirectoryPath, String validationKey, String decryptionKey)
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPWebApplication.Provision()
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPAdministrationWebApplication.Provision()
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPWebServiceInstance.Provision()
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.CentvalAdministrationSiteTask.ProvisionAdminVs()
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.CentralAdministrationSiteTask.Run()
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.TaskThread.ExecuteTask()
The admin.sitemap file is there in the _app_bin directory, so it's not clear why the procedure is failing with the NullReferenceException error. Any tips on this are much appreciated!

Answer 1

Hi Jeroen
I am getting the same error  when creating a new web application. where are steps 8 to 10 you followed?
Application error when access /_admin/extendvs.aspx, Error=Object reference not set to an instance of an object.   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPAspSiteMapFile.MergeAspSiteMapFiles(XmlDocument
xmldocSiteMap, String strSrcFilePath, String strMergeFilePattern)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPAspSiteMapFile.Copy(String strSrcDir, String strSrcDirPrevious, String strSrcLeaf, String strDestDir, Boolean bMergeMaps, Boolean
bBackupExistingFile)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPWebApplication.CopyAppDomainDirectories(DirectoryInfo vrPath, OverwriteSetting overwrite)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPWebApplication.Provision()    
at Microsoft.SharePoint.ApplicationPages.ExtendVirtualServerPage.BtnSubmit_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e)     at System....         11d8a99c-8ffc-20b8-9467-
ViewStateLog: Failed to write to the velocity cache:
http:/_layouts/15/error.aspx?ErrorText=Object reference not set to an instance of an object.&ErrorCorrelationId=11d8a99c-8ffc-20b8-9467-a8070aa333a8&IsDlg=1 4cd8a99c-8f37-20b8-9467-a392743b8825