Environment
Novell ZENworks 10 Configuration Management with Support Pack 3 - 10.3.2
Novell ZENworks 11 Configuration Management
Novell ZENworks 11 Configuration Management
Situation
Possible Symptoms:
- ZenworksWindowsService.exe crashes during an agent refresh.
- The ZCM Agent service is left running but the agent is not functioning properly.
- In some cases Windows will throw an error in NalShell.dll (which may also crash because the agent is down)
Resolution
For ZCM 10.x: This is fixed in version 10.3.3 - see KB 7007641 "ZENworks
Configuration Management 10.3.3 - update information and list of fixes"
which can be found at https://www.novell.com/support
For ZCM 11.x: This is fixed in version 11.1 - see KB 7008746 "ZENworks Configuration Management 11.1 - update information and list of fixes" which can be found at https://www.novell.com/support
Workaround:
On a Primary Server, Log into ZCC and go to ZCC>Device Management>Remote Management page. Toggle (check/uncheck) any of the check boxes on this remote management page and save the changes. This toggle action forces a setting change in the DB and will ultimately force the registered agents to update their settings during the next refresh.
To force the refresh to occur,
Run 'zac ref bypasscache' and then validate that the %ZENWORKS_HOME%\cache\zmd\settings\RemoteManagement.xml file is updated properly(timestamp). Edit the file in notepad and check that each setting defined in the XML has a value of 'True' or 'False'. If you see a blank/empty return field then you have duplicated the issue.
For ZCM 11.x: This is fixed in version 11.1 - see KB 7008746 "ZENworks Configuration Management 11.1 - update information and list of fixes" which can be found at https://www.novell.com/support
Workaround:
On a Primary Server, Log into ZCC and go to ZCC>Device Management>Remote Management page. Toggle (check/uncheck) any of the check boxes on this remote management page and save the changes. This toggle action forces a setting change in the DB and will ultimately force the registered agents to update their settings during the next refresh.
To force the refresh to occur,
Run 'zac ref bypasscache' and then validate that the %ZENWORKS_HOME%\cache\zmd\settings\RemoteManagement.xml file is updated properly(timestamp). Edit the file in notepad and check that each setting defined in the XML has a value of 'True' or 'False'. If you see a blank/empty return field then you have duplicated the issue.
Additional Information
zmd-messages.log shows the following error looping.
[DEBUG] [02/10/2011 13:53:03.764] [2156] [ZenworksWindowsService] [14] [] [Remote Management Module] [] [Could not update the Remote Management conf file with the new settings.] [] []
[DEBUG] [02/10/2011 13:53:03.764] [2156] [ZenworksWindowsService] [14] [] [Remote Management Module] [] [Could not update allow session in User absence setting] [] []
"The Remote Management conf" file that the zmd-messages.log is referring to is the %ZENWORKS_HOME%\cache\zmd\settings\RemoteManagement.xml file. This file is populated during an Agent refresh. The xml file is generated based on the configuration page in ZCC. ZCC>Device Management>Remote Management. The xml file was being populated with blank/empty fields. The blank or empty fields were causing the file recreation to recur causing an endless loop. Ultimately this would lead to the agent crashing.
[DEBUG] [02/10/2011 13:53:03.764] [2156] [ZenworksWindowsService] [14] [] [Remote Management Module] [] [Could not update the Remote Management conf file with the new settings.] [] []
[DEBUG] [02/10/2011 13:53:03.764] [2156] [ZenworksWindowsService] [14] [] [Remote Management Module] [] [Could not update allow session in User absence setting] [] []
"The Remote Management conf" file that the zmd-messages.log is referring to is the %ZENWORKS_HOME%\cache\zmd\settings\RemoteManagement.xml file. This file is populated during an Agent refresh. The xml file is generated based on the configuration page in ZCC. ZCC>Device Management>Remote Management. The xml file was being populated with blank/empty fields. The blank or empty fields were causing the file recreation to recur causing an endless loop. Ultimately this would lead to the agent crashing.