SharePoint 2010 – Failed to create the configuration database

Installed SharePoint Server 2010 on my Windows 7 local machine. Once the installation completed, the configuration wizard launched, reached step 3 (creating the configuration database), and halted with the following error message.

Failed to create the configuration database. “An exception of type System.ArgumentException was thrown. Additional exception information: Specified value is not supported for the {0} parameter.”

configwizardsharepoint

I browsed the log file and spotted the related error lines.

Exception: System.ArgumentException: Specified value is not supported for the {0} parameter.
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities.SPUserUtility.GetDomainControllerToSearch(SPWebApplication webApp, String domainName)
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities.SPUtility.GetDomainAndPropColl(SPWebApplication webApplicaiton, String loginName, String[]& resolveUserAdProperties, SPActiveDirectoryDomain& gcPath, ResultPropertyCollection& propcol)
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From the error stack above I could tell that the configuration wizard was trying to connect to the domain controller – I used a domain account for the setup. And as I wasn’t connected to the domain, I thought that this might be the cause of the problem. Reconnected to the network, deleted the configuration database (partially created), and re-ran the wizard, and it completed successfully.