Error message when you try to upgrade a server farm to SharePoint Foundation 2010 or to SharePoint Server 2010: "This upgrade session has been stopped"

Symptoms

Consider the following scenario:

• You have a computer that is running Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 or Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.

• You run the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard (Psconfigui.exe) to upgrade a server farm.

• You try to upgrade to Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 or to Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010.

In this scenario, the upgrade does not finish. Additionally, you receive the following error message:

Cause

This problem can occur when the Setup program transitions from the configuration wizard to the timer service. If the timer service cannot start, this problem occurs.

For example, this problem may occur when the password for the server farm account has expired or was changed.

Resolution

To resolve this problem, review the upgrade logs to determine the cause of the problem.

Note This problem may also occur for reasons other than those mentioned in the "Cause" section.

If you determine that the cause of the problem is that the server farm account password has expired or was changed, update the server farm account password. Then, try to upgrade the server farm again.

To update the server farm account password, type the following command at an elevated command prompt and then press ENTER:

Stsadm -o updatefarmcredentials -userlogin domain\username -password passwordNote The domain\username placeholder and the password placeholder are the credentials that you use to log on as an administrator.