Novell ZFD Remote Management service is stuck in "starting" mode

  • 3355577
  • 17-Dec-2007
  • 25-May-2012

Environment

Novell ZENworks for Desktops 4.x
Novell ZENworks for Desktops 3.x
Novell ZENworks Desktop Management 6.5 - ZfD65

Situation

Novell ZFD Remote Management service is stuck in "starting" mode
Error: Problem: Install failed. MSI returned error code: 1603
When trying to update the agent the message "Unable to update ZENworks Agent with Error 1922. Service Novell ZfD Remote Management (Remote Management Agent) could not be deleted. Verify that you have sufficient privileges to remove system services." is displayed or logged in the MSI debug log. See how to enable MSI logging How to Enable Windows Installer Logging

Resolution

Fixed in ZENworks for Desktops 6.5 SP1

For ZfD4.x, fixed in ZfDAgent.msi version (4.00.1131.50307) or newer in ZFD401_IR6.EXE or newer found at Novell Product Updates
A workaround is to manually set the service to disabled, reboot and retry the agent update

Create a application that sets the registry start key to 4 instead of 2. 4 equalling disabled. HKLM/system/CurrentControlSet/Services/Remote Management Agent,start

This application can be added to the ZENagentinstall application's dependency list and set reboot required. This way the key is set to 4, the machine is rebooted so that the service is disabled and then the mgmt agent can install. There is no reason to set the key back to 2 as the Remote Management Key is recreated during the install.
It is reported that you can also get around this by one of two ways, killing zenrem32.exe process. Add something like taskkill /f /im zenrem32.exe in a "Run Before Distribution" Script under distribution options as part of the ZENworks Management Upgrade Application.
**NOTE: taskkill is used for Windows XP. net stop is used for Windows 2000.

Or issuing net stop "Remote Management Agent" this can be added into a "Run Before Distribution" script as the above.

Additional Information

This problem may also be seen at other times when troubleshooting problems when you cannot remote control a workstation

Formerly known as TID# 10095223 NOVL99550