Jo Douglass hits an error when upgrading to SQL Server 2017 on Standard Edition:
A quick one to signal boost this issue and its solution, as I’m sure other people will run into it. If you’re on Standard Edition of SQL Server and upgrading to 2017, you might run into an issue where the database services portion of the upgrade fails. This seems to be related to SSIS.
If you experience this problem, mid-way through the upgrade you’ll receive this error in a pop-up:
Wait on the Database Engine recovery handle failed. Check the SQL Server error log for potential causes.
At the end of the upgrade, it will show that the database services section has failed. Checking the error log will show this:
Script level upgrade for database ‘master’ failed because upgrade step ‘ISServer_upgrade.sql’ encountered error 917, state 1, severity 15.
Read on for the answer and a workaround.