Agent service is not running after applying the ZENworks 11.2.1 update

  • 7010390
  • 05-Jul-2012
  • 09-Nov-2012

Environment

Novell ZENworks Configuration Management 11.2.1

Situation

The new install or upgrade of a ZENworks primary server or agent to ZENworks 11.2.1 completes successfully. After a reboot the error "The ZENworks Service does not appear to be running. Please restart the service and try your request again" appears when trying to right-click the ZENworks agent in the system tray on some Windows devices.

At this point, the ZENworks agent is non-functional: bundles and policies can not be deployed. The agent cannot be contacted by ZCC.

Resolution

This is fixed in version 11.2.2 - see KB 7010757 "ZENworks Configuration Management 11.2.2 - update information and list of fixes" which can be found at https://support.microfocus.com/kb/doc.php?id=7010757

Workaround: if it is not possible to upgrade to ZCM 11.2.2 at this time, to fix the issue in the database, to ensure that no more devices are affected, follow the instructions in the re-released ZCM 11.2.1 Update Manual file at https://download.novell.com/Download?buildid=woOqw2K-U_c~ - this location also contains a utility that can be used to determine if the zone is affected by this issue or not. If the tool shows a mismatch, then follow the instructions for the manual ZIP file, starting at the beginning.

For any affected devices:
Check %ZENWORKS_HOME%\conf\ and make sure the following files exist:
    (a) if the Windows device is a ZENworks primary server
        logger.xsl
        LoggerConfiguration-windows.xml
        logger-server-conf.xml
        logger-zmd-conf.xml
        logger-zman-conf.xml

    (b) if the Windows device is a managed device
        logger.xsl
        logger-zmd-conf.xml
        LoggerConfiguration-windows.xml

    If any of the files are missing, they can be copied from another ZENworks 11.2.1 device that updated successfully. Then restart the "Novell ZENworks Agent Service" on the device. Try to access the agent again. Reboot if the error still appears.

If these files were missing on a ZENworks server, rebuild the deployment agents.
    Run 'novell-zenworks-configure -c CreateExtractorPacks -Z' on the server. When prompted, select to rebuild all the agents.

Cause

The System Update was being downloaded and was canceled, either because it was believed that it was "stuck" (it's >2Gb and downloading via NCC takes a long time) or the download took more than one hour (there's a hard-coded limit in the download that thinks there's an error if it's not complete in an hour: this has not been a problem with downloads for 10.x as they are much smaller, and previous 11.x updates were done via media, not NCC). If the download is restarted, or the manual zip file is imported without first deleting the partially downloaded update, then extra System Update commands are being inserted into the database, which cause a problem when managed devices are updated.