All Working Applications Started Causing Errors

[pvr02]

Recently we started having issues where build times were taking extrmely long to complete. After digging around we noticed that our applications were showing failure rates in the 95% when I know they were closer to 2 or 3%. This is happening for ALL of our applications.

For testing I went ahead and copied an application (removed the original deployment), re-distributed the content, and re-deployed it. This started out successful as we had successful rates reaching up to around 80%. However it was short lived as after a few hours it started declining back down to around 35% currently.

I created a new application for CMTrace (just copies the exe to the system32 folder). Pushed this out to 5 computers to test. It successfully installed on all 5 computers. However after about 2 hours I checked the report again and it is showing that there are 2 errors now. I have confirmed that all of the computers have the exe in the correct location.

I also noticed that in the report, it shows a total of 5 deployments. However in the device count portion of the report it shows 3 successful and 0 errors. See attached.

Also when using the "Client Center for Configuration Manager 2012" and monitoring computers we are noticing that most of the applications are showing up as NotInstalled with a Status of Application is available for enforcement (install or uninstall based on resolved state). Content may/may not have been downloaded. I have confirmed that all files are downloaded to the machine.

Thanks In Advance,

Paul

[Peter van der Woude]

Even though I like your screenshot, you do need to show some log files with information about this issue..

[Peter33]

Please check your CIAgent.log files on the clients for errors like in the attached picture and report back if you got similar errors. I might be able to help you in this case.

 

[pvr02]

Hello Peter33,

 

I am seeing that exact error in my ciagent.log files.

[Peter33]

All right. This is being caised by a bug in the application version history cleanup maintenance task. (based on my opinion and not confirmed by Microsoft)

Here is how i resolved it for our environment.

 

First disable the Application History Cleanup Task in the maintenance tasks of your primary Server.

Get the Application ID from the error line in the CIAgent.log and look up the application in the console. Edit the application by changing something, for examle the comment field. Save the changes and manually delete all Versions in the version history excet the newest. Update the distribution points. If the Application is referenced in any task sequnce, remove it from the task sequence and add it again.

 

Wait for your clients to update their policies and you should be fine again. You might have to repeat the steps for additional applications though.

[ramlan]

Can you share how you deployed application (CMTrace)? I have been wondering for a while on how to deploy this to all Win 7 systems. Did you create an application and deployed to all system collection or did you create a package?

[Peter van der Woude]

I would create a simple application that just copies the executable to the location you want and you that location as your detection method.

[pvr02]

Peter33

I followed your instructions but couldn't find the "Application History Cleanup" tasks. So I disabled "Check Application Title with Inventory Information", "Delete Aged Application Request Data", and "Delete Unused Application Revisions". Then proceeded to make the change to each application, delete old revisions, update the distribution points, and update all task sequences. As of right now everything appears to be working correctly. I'm not sure how you figured that out, but it was a huge help. I was struggling with this for over a week.

 

Is it OK to turn all of the maintenance tasks back on, or would you recommend leaving the one that is causing the problem off? If off, which one am I specifically looking for?

 

 

Ramlan

I did exactly what Peter described. I copied both the 32bit and 64bit exe from the install CD and created an application with 2 programs (one for each version) that just copies it into the system32 folder. Since it is strictly for tech use, I didn't bother trying to associate .log files with the application.

[Peter33]

Hi pvr,

 

the correct task to disable is indeed "Delete Unused Application Revisions". Enable the other one again because it's doing no harm, but keep the "Delete Unused Application Revisions" task disabled. This one is the bad guy here, causing all the trouble

Actually it took me some hours to figure out what was going on. Digging through all server and client logs. The only error i could find was the ciagent log error. So it was clear that the client was receiving a wrong policy for an application revision that wasn't even existing anymore. Since all clients together suddenly got this error from one day to another, the only remaining suspect was the maintenance task.

[pvr02]

I re-enabled the other 2 tasks and left the "Delete Unused Application Revisions" disabled.

 

Thank you for all your help. We are back up and running smoothly again.