SMS Advanced Client refuses to do it's job

[Erik Nettekoven]

Hi,

It seems like the SMS Advanced Client has died or what ever. It installs
fine but after that it doesn't receive any advertisements.

* execmgr.log stays awfully quiet (empty)
* PolicySpy does not report any error, but also doesn't report any SIDs. It
does display the basic info of the client (which site and server the client
is assigned to)
* nothing logged in the eventviewer
* no errors on the SMS server
* I can initiate every action succesfully

Tried several install/uninstall/reinstall variations, none of them seem to
fix it. The client hasn't respond for over 24hours now. I am completely lost.

*I am getting to the point to ask for a refund for this costly product.*

--
Regards,

Erik
MCSE 2000/2003

[Matthew Hudson]

Are all your clients or just this one machine..
so are you saying the client runs all the advs and inventories but just
doesn't update the log files?
Have you run the client spy to see if the policies are being recieved on the
machine?
--
-----------------------
http://sms-hints-tricks.blogspot.com/

[Erik Nettekoven]

Thank you for your reply!

We ordered and received new notebooks. After installing XP SP2 (domain
member), I installed the SMS client.

After the successful install I logged in with a user who should receive 2
advertisements, but he does not receive them. Deleted user profile and such,
logged in again waited a long time, no ad's, not even a hitch or an error.
Ran ccmclean, installed sms client again, tried ccmrepair. Still same
problem, it remains "silent".

The client does get discovered by the SMS server, I can remote control it
from the server and perform some other SMS management tasks on the client.
Client still does not receive any ad's.

Could you provide me with some more info on using the client spy? Like what
should I see? What is normal behaviour? How can use it? etc etc

I had the issue before on other clients, but then ccmclean, reinstall sms
client and then ccmrepair, fixed it. So I thought I had a workaround, but
this fails on the new hardware :-S
--
Regards,

Erik
MCSE 2000/2003

[Garth]

These might seem like stupid questions but are your site boundaries correct?
Is the Client PC being assigned to a site?

"Erik Nettekoven" <ErikNet...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
message news:6297A18D-CF1D-413F...@microsoft.com...

[Matthew Hudson]

Install the SMS Toolkit
Run the client spy, this will allow you to see if the package is being sent
to the computer. You can also run the policy spy and see what is going on.

When you look at the actions tab do you have all the actions or just Policy?
AFter you get the client install and SMS knows it is there then run the
System Status>Status messages Queries>All Status messages from a Specific
System and see if SMS finds any issues. If you run ccmclean also check the
Windows folder for the smsconfig.ini file and make sure it is deleted.

[Erik Nettekoven]

The only stupid questions that exist are the questions never asked...

Anyway, both anwsers are yes!

--
Regards,

Erik
MCSE 2000/2003

[Erik Nettekoven]

> Run the client spy (clispy.exe)
Ran from the server connected to the client I get the following results:
* Software Distribution Execution Requests - tab

* Software Distribution History - tab
Error connecting to the registry. Execution history cannot be viewed.
<seems logical, as nog packages have been executed yet>

* Software Distribution Cache Information
-Cache Config
-- Cache Location = C:\WINDOWS\system32\CCM\Cache
-- Cache Size = 250MB
-- Cache In Use = False
-Cached Items
-Downloading Items

* Software Distribution Pending Executions
-Machine
--Mandatory Advertisements With Future Executions
--Optional Advertisements
--Past Mandatory Advertisements
-User_SID
--Mandatory Advertisements With Future Executions
--Optional Advertisements
--Past Mandatory Advertisements

> You can also run the policy spy and see what is going on.
>When you look at the actions tab do you have all the actions or just Policy?

[Ran from the server connected to the client]
There is no "actions" tab, but there is an Actual tab and that says:
+ Machine
+ User_SID

When I open Machine there are a lot of folders underneath
When I open User_SID, there is one folder "CCM_Scheduler_ScheduledMessage"
folder underneath. But there are no package assigned to this specific user.
No other User_SIDs appear, although I did log on with several other user
account on the machine

[Ran directly on the client under the users context, no admin privileges]
Actual, Requested, Default tabs all display:
-No policy available at this time.
Events tab
-Empty

Client info sub window
- Connection to the client policy failed with error 80041003

> run the System Status>Status messages Queries>All Status messages
> from a Specific System and see if SMS finds any issues.

Only informational message found: client installed, client uninstalled,
client reassigned from "" to LIS (this is the correct site!), Client
generated a new SMS Unique Identifier

>the smsconfig.ini file and make sure it is deleted.

Did that as part of the ccmclean and reinstall procedure, as posted in my
first post.

[Sherry Kissinger [MVP-SMS]]

I don't think this question has been asked yet. Is your Management Point
healthy? In SMS toolkit 2, is MPTroubleshooter. In the post-install tab,
input the information at the top (note, the FQDN field is for
yourdomain.com, not servername.yourdomain.com); and run the tests. Does it
pass all tests?

I'm thinking it might not be the client, but perhaps the Management Point?
It's hard to tell, since you indicate you can do some SMS tasks remotely from
the server to the client. So why the client would pick up some policies
(like Remote Tools configuration policies) but not other policies (like
advert policies).

Another thought--you indicate that 'this client should deserve 2
advertisements'. How have you defined the members of the collection which
deserve those 2 ads? i.e., what is in them? a Direct computer membership, a
query?
--
Standarize. Simplify. Automate.

[Erik Nettekoven]

>Is your Management Point healthy? In SMS toolkit 2, is MPTroubleshooter.

When exploring the tools included in the toolkit, I ran every executable.
So, I already used MPTroubleshooter before, but it never hurts to run it
again. Results are the same: 9 passed, 2 not applicable

> I'm thinking it might not be the client, but perhaps the Management Point?

I am for 99% sure it is the client... because other clients in the same
network do not experience this kind of problems. You have to picture me in a
office with 8 pc's 2 laptops, all connected to the same switch, member of the
same domain, client in the same sms site and client from the same sms server,
getting DHCP from same server. And one laptop is acting up and all the other
clients seems to work.
I did experience this strange behaviour before, when I was creating 1 WDS
image for different hardware but same HAL. As that issue has not been
resolved we are stuck with 14 images. But now the problem also occurs on this
freshly installed machine, so we really do need a way to solve this
frustrating behaviour.

> How have you defined the members of the collection which
> deserve those 2 ads?

Query based on group membership. I don't think it has something to do with
the collections. The user is listed in the specific collections. Futhermore
we have used this account before to log in to a freshly installed pc and it
received the adv's within 15 minuten. We will be delivering new pc's to users
in a few days, but to save some time for the user we use this account to
pre-install some general used apps.

--
Regards,

Erik
MCSE 2000/2003

[Sherry Kissinger [MVP-SMS]]

Thanks; that really helps me understand your environment. Since other PCs
are working--just not this one--and it's a user advertisement... Hmm... this
falls under the "couldn't hurt but I don't think it'll help" category... how
about unjoining the computer from the domain, deleting any domain-specific
user profiles, then rejoin to the domain, and log in as that generic account?

I'm asking for that because I'm wondering if the user login is not being
acknowledged by the SMS client. You can also check the local execmgr.log;
it'll note when a user login or logoff is acknowledged.

Another can't hurt but might not help... download Roger Zander's SMS Client
Center: http://sourceforge.net/projects/smsclictr it won't help much with
user- or usergroup-targetted advertisements; but for the client itself on the
home/first page there is an SMS Guid / Regenerate the SMS Guid. It's
something to try anyway.

Another thing to do (while watching the local policyagent & policyevaluator
log files using trace32) is from the System Management applet, Actions tab,
run a User Policy Retrieval & Evaluation cycle--does that run without errors
in those logs? (again, this calls back to the SMS client not really
acknowledging that a domain user is logged in).

[Erik Nettekoven]

> run a User Policy Retrieval & Evaluation cycle--does that run without errors
> in those logs?

[SMS TRACE]
* When I run this for the machine it seems ok. It ends with: "Received delta
policy update with 0 assignments" This is correct as there are no adv's for
machines

* When I run this for the user it seems to "hang", after three steps it does
go any futher:
- Requesting User Policy Assignments for 'SID'
- Requesting policy from authority 'SMS:LIS'
- Raising event:
instance of CCM_PolicyAgent_AssignmentsRequested
{
AuthorityName = "SMS:LIS";
ClientID = "GUID:DC6C10EF-D438-4346-8033-33285A01CE80";
DateTime = "20071120100945.432000+000";
ProcessID = 612;
ResourceName = "S-1-5-21-4149001507-138326902-3470803699-1690";
ResourceType = "User";
ThreadID = 2904;
};
And after that, nothing happens.

[EXECMGR.LOG]
* Only show one error three times "WTSQueryUserToken[2](SessionID=0) failed
with GLE=1245 execmgr 11/20/2007 10:25:24 AM 860 (0x035C)", but this also
occurs on the working clients.

[POLICY SPY]
* Does display CCM_SoftwareDistribution for the generic account and three
ADV entries.

[Erik Nettekoven]

Ok, I found a rather peculiar solution. I ran the following from a command
prompt:
netsh winsock reset
(rebooted the computer as required after running the command)
When I log in with the generic account, SMS kicks off right away!

So it seems like something is messing with the tcp/ip stack or winsock, but
I have no idea what... And it find it weird it that is causes the sms client
to malfunction in this specific way. Any ideas in this one?
--
Regards,

Erik
MCSE 2000/2003

[Sherry Kissinger [MVP-SMS]]

Firewall? Anti-virus? VPN Client? Spyware? I've seen any of those cause
an issue with tcp/ip communications. My favorite one (only because it took
several days to figure out) was if the VPN client was installed after the
local firewall, the local firewall would end up with corrupt policies--and
although the client 'looked' like it was communicating fine outbound; any
inbound communications would fail. So for the most part; the end user didn't
notice anything was wrong until they used an application which wanted to call
back.

But the point is--it's working now? after you ran that command?

[Erik Nettekoven]

yes... but then again no...

There is no vpn/firewall or whatever networking software installed before or
after sms client install. The windows firewall is disabled via a domain wide
policy. I use a clean .wim image to deploy a clean window xp sp2 image to the
machine, the only included software is flash ie plugin AND the sms client. No
(other) networking software pre-installed.

Just deployed an fresh image to the machine, directly afterwards I ran the
winsock reset command, and the sms client still/again doesn't do a thing. It
seems like the sms client has troubles when it is included in a sysprepped
image, but only for this specific type of laptop.

So, the command worked the 1st time but the second it didn't. I am
completely losing my mind here.

[Sherry Kissinger [MVP-SMS]]

I apologize if you've already tried this; but just in case...

On a newly imaged machine, before you do anything else to try to fix the
issue; look at Control Panel, System Management. Is there a site code in the
Advanced tab?

Are you able to look at the contents of the WIM image (without actually
dumping it to a machine)? If so, if you look in c:\windows, is there a
smscfg.ini file? If you do have one, does it have a value for SMS Unique
Identifier? (before you image a box)? Before you sysprep an image with the
SMS client preloaded; you should have run stopped the SMS Client server, run
the CCMDelCert (from sms toolkit 2) to ensure you wouldn't get a duplicate
SMS GUID on your images.

Does this image work successfully on a different hardware platform? Or is
it not a hardware-agnostic image? (If not... have you looked at BDD2007 yet?)

[Erik Nettekoven]

>Is there a site code in the Advanced tab?

Yes, there is.

> in the contents of the .wim image is there a smscfg.ini file?
Yes, there is.

> If you do have one, does it have a value for SMS Unique Identifier?

No, this is empty. The complete contents are:
[Configuration - Client Properties]
SMS Unique Identifier=
SMS SMBIOS Serial Number Identifier=43004E0055003700340034003000460050004A00
SID=S-1-5-21-2018822226-2355600041-477017945
SMS Hardware Identifier 2=00E8C601010000EA
SMS Hardware Identifier=4BE9C601019A00EA
Previous SMSUID=
Last SMSUID Change Date=11/15/2007 13:45:37
Last Version=2.50.4253.3000
[SMS MultiBoot Configuration]
Number of Opal Installations=1

> Before you sysprep an image with the SMS client preloaded;

> you should have stopped the SMS Client server,
> run the CCMDelCert to ensure you wouldn't get a duplicate

> SMS GUID on your images.

Tried to get the client working before sysprepping using the following
steps, but the client does not function after these steps so no use of
sysprepped just yet:
* ran ccmclean (also deleted smscfg.ini)
* ran ccmdelcert
* deleted sms registry keys
* rebooted
* installed SMS client via Push method
* rebooted
* ran ccmrepair
* rebooted
* deleted DDR for this machine
* ran AD System Discovery
* ran netsh winsock reset
* rebooted

I check functionality by looking at the execmgr.log. On a operational and
functioning SMS client, the execmgr.log shows entries of:
"A user has logged on"
"The logged on user is DomainName\UserId"
"The User has logged off"

These entries do not show up in the execmgr.log on the not functioning SMS
client.

I found another difference between the working and not working client is
found in de smscliui.log. On the working client, no errors are found in this
log. In the faulty client I get the error "Failed to get active downloads,
error 80004005"

> Does this image work successfully on a different hardware platform? Or is
> it not a hardware-agnostic image?

I suppose hardware-agnostic means that the image is deployable on several
hardware configs... well I tried to make such images (1 for single processor
HAL en 1 for multiple processor HAL, we are deploying xp here...). They did
work, but also have this sms client issue (I though I already mentioned this
in one of my previous posts). But to answer the question, we need to define
"successfully", because the image is deployable to other hardware, but then
there are some drivers missing.

>have you looked at BDD2007

We are using BDD2007 together with a native WDS server, I find it very
limited for Windows XP or at least not very straight forward to use in
conjunction with Windows XP. And it lacks good documentation to my opinion.
There is a lot documentation on 'what' to do, but it lacks on 'howto' exactly
do it. Maybe this has changed over the past month, haven't looked into
anymore.

Is there maybe another way of communicating then through this newsgroup, it
is becoming a rather long story and a bit impractical...

[Erik Nettekoven]

I have turned on debug logging for execmgr to get some more information from
execmgr. It really doesn't clarify anything, but here is the log output when
I open 'Program Download Monitor':
FindUserExecutionManager execution manager used sid is null.
CExecutionManager::FindUserExecutionManager the user BAKKERNET\smsbasis is
not logged on
CExecutionManager::OnGetActiveDownloads the user is not logged on
<end of output>

How funny is that! execmgr logs that the user is not logged, however the
user IS actually logged on! How can I start 'Program Download Monitor' if I
am not logged on??