Environment
ZENworks Configuration Management 2017
Situation
Due to changes in 11.4.2 and above, satellite servers are sending excessive errors to ZCC for missed content which later does sync.
Example from zmd-messages.log:
[ERROR] [11/17/2015 14:21:46.918] [1448] [ZenworksWindowsService] [8] [] [CDP: Patch-System-Bundles] [CDP.CdpContentFileError] [Failed to replicate content a3a7ce2048ef3a8ae72a78cf6f8e7196 ] [] [] [] [ZENworks Agent]
this was caused by:
[DEBUG] [11/17/2015 14:21:46.121] [1448] [ZenworksWindowsService] [8] [] [ZenFile] [] [Unexpected exception getting ZenFileInfo for http://192.168.0.116:80/zenworks-content/a3a7ce2048ef3a8ae72a78cf6f8e7196.zc: The remote server returned an error: (404) Not Found.
Resolution
Workaround. In the log entries above, the error 404 indicates that the parent primary did not have the content at the time that the satellite requeseted it. However, in many cases, the primary will later sync the content and the satellite will be successful in syncing it from the parent primary.
Depending on the schedules for satellite sync versus primary sync, in many cases the errors are expected and normal as retries occur.
While there is not currently a way to remove errors in the case where the satellite later does sync the content, there is in ZENworks 2017 update 1 a way to disable the errors altogether, or change them to warning.
This can be done either by system variable (xplat and Windows satellite) or registry key (Windows only satellite).
For system variable:
This can be done at zone level, device folder level or individual device.
ZCC / Configuration
or Device or Device Folder Settings tab
Device Management / System Variables
Set a variable with name: Content.Download.Failure.Log.Level
Set value to: Warning to change logging to Warnings instead of Errors
Set value to: NoLogging to change to report no errors or warnings at all
For Registry key on Windows satellites only if system variable is not desired (either will work):
HKLM/Software/Novell/ZCM ContentDownloadFailureLogLevel string
Set value to: Warning to change logging to Warnings instead of Errors
Set value to: NoLogging to change to report no errors or warnings at all
On 2017 Update 3 and later a new system variable can be set: Content.Download.Failure.Logging.Threshold
This takes a value that sets the number of failures that occur before one will be rolled up. So for example if the value is set to 10, only one error will be rolled up after 9 are ignored.
Additional Information
Note: If the satellite is set to NoLogging, then the satellite will not throw errors up to ZCC for failed sync even if the error is reasonable (for example, it never syncs due to parent primary problems). If using this setting, consider monitoring satellite content availability in ZCC > Bundles > [bundle name] > Settings > Satellite Server Replication. Then use zac cvc command on the satellite to confirm content is replicated. This will help to avoid errors at the managed device level.