stsadm deploy fails

Question

I am trying to deploy a SharePoint 2010 feature using the following commands:

stsadm -o addsolution -filename %featureWSPFile%
stsadm -o deploysolution -name %featureWSPFile% -url http://localhost:2010 -immediate -allowGacDeployment
stsadm -o execadmsvcjobs
stsadm -o activatefeature -name %featureName% -url http://localhost:2010

However, I get the following error message:

Failed to find the XML file at location '14\Template\Features\%featureName%\feature.xml'

Answer 1

stsadm -o execadmsvcjobs does not always wait until the job you created has finished processing, nor does it ensure that the job processed successfully. A safer approach is to watch the solution deployment status in Central Administration and not execute your ActivateFeature command until you see that it has deployed.

I have also seen it happen where the "Windows SharePoint Services Administration" and/or "Windows SharePoint Services Timer" service has stopped on one or more of the servers in the farm. When this happens your Activate command will fail because it was not able to deploy the feature to the server where that service was stopped. You need to make sure those two services are running on all servers in your farm.

In either case, you will see what is going on by looking at: Central Administration -> System Settings -> Farm Management -> Manage Farm Solutions