SQL Server 2014 Service Pack 1 Unattended Setup Error - "The specified value 'Upgrade' is invalid"

SQL Server 2014 Service Pack 1 Unattended Setup Error - "The specified value 'Upgrade' is invalid"

I was recently sent a question regarding a failed unattended install of SQL Server 2014 Service Pack 1. The customer had spent some time searching online for the error message, but found surprisingly little detailed information for unattended SQL Server patching operations, unlike the other setup operations, which are documented thoroughly here.  

The command line attempting to be executed was:
<sql2014sp1file>.exe /IACCEPTSQLSERVERLICENSETERMS /ACTION=UPGRADE
/INSTANCENAME=MSSQLSERVER /INDICATEPROGRESS /QS

The summary.txt file showed the following error message: 

The specified value 'Upgrade' is invalid. To run in unattended mode, you must specify a valid ACTION. The valid values for ACTION are: ' None RemovePatch Uninstall Install Upgrade Patch Repair LandingPage ClusterReport RunRules PrepareFailoverCluster CompleteFailoverCluster InstallFailoverCluster RemoveNode AddNode EditionUpgrade Bootstrap ComponentUpdate Help RebuildDatabase RunDiscovery PrepareImage CompleteImage ConfigureImage'

Interestingly the error message states that 'Upgrade' is invalid, but then lists it as a potential value for the ACTION parameter. The confusion is that it is a valid value in version upgrade scenarios (ex: upgrading from SQL Server 2012 to SQL Server 2014), but not in this service pack patching scenario. Replacing this value with 'Patch' allows the unattended installer to complete and for the service pack to be applied.

<sql2014sp1file>.exe /IACCEPTSQLSERVERLICENSETERMS /ACTION=PATCH
/INSTANCENAME=MSSQLSERVER /INDICATEPROGRESS /QS

Hope it helps,
Sam Lester (MSFT)