The template you have chosen is invalid or cannot be found

I was trying to create a site collection in my Virtual machine using a site template taken in a test server. But i was keep getting the weired error "The template you have chosen is invalid or cannot be found". I checked the publishing features of the source site and confirmed those are turned off while taking the template. I was able to understand some features available in the test server might be missing in my virtual machine.

There were lot of features installed in the test server. It was bit difficult to trace the missing feature. Other issues was, using the Site Collection features list I couldn't trace the features which will be installed as part of SharePoint infrastructure updates. However to track the missing features the following tool[STPInspector] http://www.codeplex.com/STPInspector developed by Madhur ahuja was very helpful. It showed the features missing in the source machine. The best part was, i was able to identify the search related features which will be installed as part of the SharePoint Infrastructure updates.

I installed the following Infrastructure updates after the service pack installation.

• http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=256CE3C3-6A42-4953-8E1B-E0BF27FD465B&displaylang=en
• http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=3811C371-0E83-47C8-976B-0B7F26A3B3C4&displaylang=en

It resolved my problem and I was able to create the site collection using the template.