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AnswerMachines downloading policy but not returning hardware/software reports

  • Monday, September 14, 2009 8:28 PM.Tim Harrison Users MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers Medals
     
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    I have a strange issue occurring in my system right now where machines are downloading and receiving policy, but aren't returning hardware and software reports.  About half of my machines are returning hardware and software reports.  The machines are all imaged the same way, so I don't understand whats going on.  At first, I thought these machines weren't downloading policy, but just for testing purposes, I created an advertisement for one that wasn't reporting sw/hw and within minutes it "Accepted" the mandatory advertisement.  This tells me its receiving policy - please correct me if I'm wrong.

    What could cause this?  Some of the machines not reporting have been in the field well over a month and have had plenty of time to upload the reports.
     

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  • Wednesday, November 04, 2009 2:54 PM.Tim Harrison Users MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers Medals
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    After a lot of research and painful trial and error, I found "the glitch".  Apparently, when the Microsoft people tell you that "the System Center client uses whatever proxy settings are in IE", they don't mean that it actually uses and reads a proxy auto-configuration script.  What system center does is essentially perform a proxycfg -u command and use whatever settings come back.  If those settings are invalid, you will get the error of, "ErrorMessage = "BITS error: 'The supplied proxy server or bypass list is invalid.\n'  Context: 'The error occurred while the remote file was being processed.\n'" in your PolicyAgent.log file.  If you see this, ensure that the manually specified proxy bypass list under Internet Options -> Connections Tab -> LAN Settings -> "Advanced" under Proxy Server -> Exceptions is a valid list.  This list can only contain entries such as http://www.domain.com or *.domain.com - there can be nothing following the ".com" part or it will be considered invalid.

    Thanks
    • Marked As Answer by.Tim Harrison Wednesday, November 04, 2009 2:54 PM
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  • Monday, September 14, 2009 8:43 PMUmansson Users MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers Medals
     
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    Hi

    Have you checked the InventoryAgent.log file for errors on of the clients that have problem?
    Regards Ulf Mansson MCT, MCSE www.lumagate.com
     
  • Monday, September 14, 2009 8:51 PMJason SandysMVPUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers Medals
     
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    The machines are all imaged the same way
    What way is that? Did you prepare the ConfigMgr agent before imaging?
    Jason | http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/jsandys | http://blogs.catapultsystems.com/jsandys/default.aspx | Twitter @JasonSandys
     
  • Monday, September 14, 2009 8:58 PM.Tim Harrison Users MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers Medals
     
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    Yes... the most recent error is:

    Failed to get IWbemService Ptr for \\localhost\root\vm\VirtualServer Namespace: 8004100E]LOG]!><time="16:00:19.502+240" date="09-09-2009" component="InventoryAgent" context="" type="2" thread="1044" file="wmiutils.cpp:532">
    Failed to enumerate instances of VirtualMachine: 8004100E]LOG]!><time="16:00:19.502+240" date="09-09-2009" component="InventoryAgent" context="" type="2" thread="1044" file="collectiontask.cpp:365">

    The part after "IWbemService Ptr for" changes... sometimes the path is different and corresponds to a different message after "Failed to enumerate instances of".  Some of the others are "Failed to enumerate instances of Package" or Failed to enumerate intances of Application", but the 8004100E error is always the same.

    ... and these a bit further down:

    Collection: 38/53 inventory data items successfully inventoried.]LOG]!><time="16:00:23.471+240" date="09-09-2009" component="InventoryAgent" context="" type="1" thread="1044" file="collectiontask.cpp:266">
    Inventory: Collection Task completed in 16.672 seconds]LOG]!><time="16:00:23.471+240" date="09-09-2009" component="InventoryAgent" context="" type="1" thread="1044" file="agentstate.cpp:787">
    Inventory: 15 Collection Task(s) failed.]LOG]!><time="16:00:23.471+240" date="09-09-2009" component="InventoryAgent" context="" type="2" thread="1044" file="agentstate.cpp:801">
    Inventory: Temp report = C:\WINDOWS\system32\CCM\Inventory\Temp\a7ac7f00-cb3e-47f8-8cd7-870a8dc837d8.xml]LOG]!><time="16:00:23.502+240" date="09-09-2009" component="InventoryAgent" context="" type="1" thread="1044" file="agentstate.cpp:2152">
    Inventory: Starting reporting task.]LOG]!><time="16:00:23.502+240" date="09-09-2009" component="InventoryAgent" context="" type="1" thread="3196" file="reporttask.cpp:240">
    Reporting: 9 report entries created.]LOG]!><time="16:00:24.190+240" date="09-09-2009" component="InventoryAgent" context="" type="1" thread="3196" file="reporttask.cpp:260">
    Inventory: Reporting Task completed in 0.687 seconds]LOG]!><time="16:00:24.190+240" date="09-09-2009" component="InventoryAgent" context="" type="1" thread="3196" file="agentstate.cpp:854">
    Inventory: Successfully sent report. Destination:mp:MP_HinvEndpoint, ID: {C8EAD62C-F221-4DC5-9E4C-3E730762B389}, Timeout: 80640 minutes MsgMode: Signed, Not Encrypted]LOG]!><time="16:00:24.221+240" date="09-09-2009" component="InventoryAgent" context="" type="1" thread="3196" file="agentstate.cpp:2038">
    Inventory: Cycle completed in 32.469 seconds]LOG]!><time="16:00:32.674+240" date="09-09-2009" component="InventoryAgent" context="" type="1" thread="3196" file="agentstate.cpp:1528">
    Inventory: Action completed.]LOG]!><time="16:00:32.674+240" date="09-09-2009" component="InventoryAgent" context="" type="1" thread="3196" file="agentstate.cpp:1538">

    FYI, these are internet-based clients connecting to a DMZ-based site system server.
     
  • Tuesday, September 15, 2009 12:20 PM.Tim Harrison Users MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers Medals
     
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    The machines are all imaged the same way
    What way is that? Did you prepare the ConfigMgr agent before imaging?
    Jason | http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/jsandys | http://blogs.catapultsystems.com/jsandys/default.aspx | Twitter @JasonSandys

    The way we have it set up is the clients are imaged as usual (OS/drivers/etc.) and as a post-install, they run a package I created that unpacks the client files and then calls "ccmsetup.exe /native CCMALWAYSINF=1 CCMHOSTNAME=configmgr.domain.com SMSSITECODE=ZZ1 ".  Following this, they run a script I created using information from THIS page which installs the trusted root cert and a client cert.  We are using three different types of Dell machines (Latitude D520, D530 and E5400) so the image is identical between them with the exception of device drivers.  I have several machines of each type both reporting and not reporting, so its not any one image that is having the problem.
     
  • Friday, September 18, 2009 3:47 PM.Tim Harrison Users MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers Medals
     
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    Just updating this - I advertised a dummy package to 40 internet-based field laptops and 9 out of those 40 that "accepted" the advertisement were machines that have not returned a hardware report.  These machines are indeed downloading policy.
     
  • Wednesday, September 30, 2009 4:47 PM.Tim Harrison Users MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers Medals
     
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    So I just wanted to update this issue... not every machine is able to download policy.  One thing I've noticed in common with all the machines that I'm having problems with is this line in the PolicyAgent.log:

    Raising event:

    instance of CCM_PolicyAgent_PolicyDownloadFailed
    {
        ClientID = "GUID:<GUID of Machine>";
        DateTime = "20090911160332.187000+000";
        DownloadErrorInfo =
    instance of CCM_BitsDownloadMethod_ErrorInfo
    {
        ErrorCode = 2149580863;
        ErrorMessage = "BITS error: 'The supplied proxy server or bypass list is invalid.\n'  Context: 'The error occurred while the remote file was being processed.\n'";
    };
        DownloadMethod = "BITS";
        DownloadSource = "http://CONFIGMGR.DOMAIN.COM/SMS_MP/.sms_pol?{1ca4b129-b637-4c62-9194-e581bcd42217}.6_00";
        PolicyNamespace = "\\\\<Client Computer Name>\\ROOT\\ccm\\Policy\\Machine\\RequestedConfig";
        PolicyPath = "CCM_Policy_Policy4.PolicyID=\"{1ca4b129-b637-4c62-9194-e581bcd42217}\",PolicySource=\"SMS:<SiteCode>\",PolicyVersion=\"6.00\"";
        ProcessID = 2020;
        ThreadID = 3952;
    };

    Any ideas?  It mentions a supplied proxy server or bypass list.  What we're doing to limit web browsing on these machines is pointing IE to an auto-config proxy.js script similar to this:

    function FindProxyForURL(url, host)
    {
    // variable strings to return
    var proxy_yes = "PROXY 10.10.10.10:8080";
    var proxy_no = "DIRECT";
    if (shExpMatch(url, "http://www.mycompanywebsite.com*")) { return proxy_no; }
    if (shExpMatch(url, "http://www.myotherwebsite.com*")) { return proxy_no; }
    if (shExpMatch(url, "http://www.my3rdallowedsite.com*")) { return proxy_no; }
    // Proxy anything else
    return proxy_yes;
    }

    Of course since the field agents can't get to 10.10.10.10:8080, the browser simply times out when they try to access an unacceptable site.

     
  • Friday, October 02, 2009 9:31 PMCarol BaileyMSFT, ModeratorUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers Medals
     
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    Tim, is this a different problem from the one you reported previously (http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/configmgribcm/thread/7b922255-4ed0-496c-bb33-dd634c0e3bdd) where we recommended you contacted CSS?  Did you do that?  I see from the log entry that it's also displaying issues with proxy server settings, which seems to be the same area as before.
     
  • Monday, October 05, 2009 12:14 PM.Tim Harrison Users MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers Medals
     
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    Carol - its not a "new" issue, but I thought I'd post a development I found.  It seems those who make the money-spending decisions here are disinclined to give me the green light to call MSFT's pay-for tech support hotline until I've exhausted all other resources.  I'd call CSS if perhaps they included technical support with the purchase of one of their products. 

    So, all I can do is keep researching on my own and asking the opinions of those here.  What I did discover is that re-installing the client fixes this issue.  While thats great for a "fix" for those that are broken, I need a way to make sure that those imaged from here on out do not experience the same problem.
     
  • Wednesday, November 04, 2009 2:54 PM.Tim Harrison Users MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers Medals
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    After a lot of research and painful trial and error, I found "the glitch".  Apparently, when the Microsoft people tell you that "the System Center client uses whatever proxy settings are in IE", they don't mean that it actually uses and reads a proxy auto-configuration script.  What system center does is essentially perform a proxycfg -u command and use whatever settings come back.  If those settings are invalid, you will get the error of, "ErrorMessage = "BITS error: 'The supplied proxy server or bypass list is invalid.\n'  Context: 'The error occurred while the remote file was being processed.\n'" in your PolicyAgent.log file.  If you see this, ensure that the manually specified proxy bypass list under Internet Options -> Connections Tab -> LAN Settings -> "Advanced" under Proxy Server -> Exceptions is a valid list.  This list can only contain entries such as http://www.domain.com or *.domain.com - there can be nothing following the ".com" part or it will be considered invalid.

    Thanks
    • Marked As Answer by.Tim Harrison Wednesday, November 04, 2009 2:54 PM
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  • 18 hours 26 minutes agoFinlandRobert Users MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers Medals
     
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    I have started seeing this in my ConfigMgr as well... Because of shortcomings with SharePoint, we MUST put "domain_fakeproxy" in our LAN settings in IE. This is directly from Microsoft Support. I'm wondering if ConfigMgr sees this as an invalid setting? Anyone know? Thanks for the help!

    Robert