Problems with jre 1.7 and xplat agent on Linux managed devices

  • 7010783
  • 14-Sep-2012
  • 22-Apr-2013

Environment

Novell ZENworks Configuration Management 11.2

Situation

Case 1:  If jre 1.6 is removed and jre 1.7 is installed on a Linux managed device prior to installing the ZENworks agent, the agent install fails with error:
 
ERROR:
 
Exiting with error code -1.
Exiting with error code 255
.
 
Case 2:  If ZENworks agent is installed with jre 1.6 and later the jre 1.7 is installed onto the Linux device, the managed device will fail to register and the managed device is unmanaged.
 
 

Resolution

Workaround:
 
 For case 1.  Don't use jre 1.7 with the Linux xplat agent as it is not supported.  Install ZENworks agent with the 1.6 jre.
 
For case 2:  If the 1.7 jre is required for other applications, then do not remove the 1.6 jre. 
 
Install the 1.7 jre after ZENworks agent is installed and modify the link: /opt/novell/zenworks/share/zmd/java
 
so that instead of pointing to: /usr/java/latest
 
it will point to: jre1.6.0_16

Cause

Prior to 11.3, the ZENworks xplat agent has problems with jre 1.7 due to new security features in the jre.  This causes the agent to become dysfunctional.

Additional Information

 Note:  Updating to a newer minor release (example JRE 1.6 update 16 to JRE 1.6 update 43) is fully supported by Novell.  The agent links to latest jre in order to allow these types of updates.