Can Not Connect to Messaging Agent or Archiving Agent on Windows 2008

  • Document ID:7008461
  • Creation Date:26-Apr-2011
  • Modified Date:12-Aug-2014
    • Micro Focus Products:
      GroupWise Messenger

Environment

Novell Instant Messenger (GroupWise Instant Messenger) 2.1 or later
Microsoft Windows 2008 R2
Messaging Agent and Archiving Agent on same box.

Situation

  • Messaging Agent and Archiving Agent Service stuck at 'Starting' when viewed from windows services.msc
  • Messaging Agent is online, and able to view the web interface for the Messaging Agent.
  • Attempting to connect to Messenger, only gets a "Connecting..." message or a pop up saying "The server is not responding."
  • Archiving Agent is online, and able to view the web interface for the Archiving Agent.
  • Attempting to connect to the Messenger's Archiving Agent, only gets a "Connecting to archive agent: <ip_address:port of server>" or a pop up saying "The server is not responding."
  • IP6 is enabled on Windows 2008.
  • Disabling IP6 on the Windows 2008 server, does not seem to help.
  • The Windows 2008 Firewall is Enabled.

Resolution

There are a couple of things to verify

Verifying Windows 2008 Firewall and Port configuration
  1. Start Menu > Administrative Tools > Windows Firewall with Advanced Security
  2. Select Action at the top of the "Windows Firewall with Advanced Security" window, then selecting properties. 
  3. The three sections are Domain Profile, Private Profile, and Public Profile.  An exception will have to be added depending on where this server is located in or out of the overall System Firewall.  For just internal Messenger Connectivity, the Public Profile's Firewall state can either
     A) Be disabled
     B) Set Inbound Connections to Allow
     C) Configure a rule to allow specific connections, ports, and ip addresses to be exempt for Messenger.  The configuration of the firewall, it's ports will depend on company security policies and any ports that may have been changed per company policy.
          Please contact Microsoft if additional help is needed in configuring the Windows Firewall or a System admin who may be more familiar with it's workings and any company specific policies and system or server configurations.
Verifying Messenger and Archive Agent startup files are configured for IPv4 only
  1. Navigate to the startup file directory for Messenger Agent, by default it's located under C:\Novell\NM\ma
  2. Edit the strtup.ma file and look for the switch ;/ipv4only and un-comment this switch so it shows as /ipv4only and save the file then restart nmma service from the Windows services.msc
  3. Navigate to the startup file directory for the Messenger Archving Agent, by default it's located under C:\Novell\NM\aa
  4. Edit the strtup.aa file and look for the switch ;/ipv4only and un-comment this switch so it shows as /ipv4only and save the file then restart the nmaa service from the Windows services.msc

Additional Information

It is has been request of Novell Development to update the documentation and to clarify the situation around disabling IP6 and Messenger.