Invalid Registration Key causes Unmanaged Device

  • 7022212
  • 26-Oct-2017
  • 30-Apr-2018

Environment

ZENworks Configuration Management
ZENworks Configuration Management 2017 Registration
ZENworks Configuration Management 11.4 Registration

Situation

Registration Key is renamed or deleted causes devices using that original Registration key to become unmanaged if cache is cleared (zac cc).

Resolution

Rename the Registration key back to original name, or recreate a Registration key with the original name.

Cause

In case device got unmanaged due to some reason, then the device will fail to communicate with the zone and needs to be registered again with valid registration key.

If the device registration response is cleared from the cache (zac cc) and key is invalid, device will go unmanaged.
Because, when the device reattempt to register the device, it refers to the initial-web-services file. In this case, it has the old key.
This statement below indicates that the device registration state is cleared from cache.

[DEBUG] [07/16/2017 09:42:20.013] [8468] [ZenworksWindowsService] [5] [] [RegistrationManager] [] [HaveRegisteredOnce : False] [] [] [] [ZENworks Agent]


Status

Reported to Engineering

Additional Information

Recommendation: Do not rename or delete Registration Keys.

Note: Latest version of ZENworks has a Registration setting that will affect behavior.
ZCC > Configuration > Device Management > Registration | "Disable Use of Registration Keys sent by Managed Devices"
This setting allows registration key to be used by Server only for first time registration to update group membership.
This is disabled by default, for more details refer to the ZCC help page or documentation.