Error after unregistering locally and re-registering to another server

  • 3503425
  • 15-Jan-2008
  • 27-Apr-2012

Environment

Novell ZENworks 10 Configuration Management

Situation

After running
zac unr -f
ERROR: "RegistrationManager - Unknown exception during registration ping: Object reference not set to an instance of an object."

Resolution

This error can occur when attempting to register through a proxy. Other possible reasons indicate a change of information stored in the local persistent cache that needs to be corrected.
In this case, the old server was no longer in use so the attempt to unregister the managed device (zac unr -f) and re-register to a new server (zac reg) was failing as the old server had pushed out a proxy setting and the new server did not use this proxy setting.
To get rid of the proxy setting that comes from the server to the agent you should first delete the setting in ZCC so it will not come back after a refresh.
Then, on the agent, delete the file
%ZENWORKS_HOME%\ZENworks\cache\zmd\settings\PROXY_SETTINGS.xml
You can also set the proxy at the agent using the zac set-proxy command. If the /default option was not used the value can be cleared using the /clear option (zac sp /clear). The/clear option will not delete the default value set using the/default option. If the/defaultoption was used then the entire cache directory needs to be deleted.

Additional Information

NOTE: zac ccdoes not update persistent cache settings. The proxy is a persistent cache setting.
Deleting the entire cache directory should only be used as a last resort. It will cause the system to lose information that may be costly to recover, such as bundle content, install-state of ZENworks-managed applications, and the list of closest-server rules.