Troubleshooting Issues After Deployment

Applies To: System Center Essentials 2010

If you encounter issues after you deploy System Center Essentials 2010, the following information might help diagnose and correct problems.

SQL Server management pack event description, "Error getting state of service"

Issue: If you import the Microsoft SQL Server 2005 or SQL Server 2008 management pack, you might receive messages that report an error getting a state of service. This might happen if the SQL Server management pack is running the SQL Server Full Text Search Service Monitor, but the SQL Server Full Text Search Service is not running.

Workaround: To stop receiving reports about this message, in the management pack, you can disable the SQL Server Full Text Search Service Monitor. For more information about this issue, see "Appendix: Known Issues" in the SQL Server Management Pack Guide (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=185254).

Information in the Administration Overview pane is not automatically refreshed

Issue: Some information displayed in the Administration Overview pane is not automatically refreshed.

Workaround: Navigate to another workspace in the console and then return to the Administration Overview pane.

Status of updates, installed software, and inventory are shown as "Unknown"

Issue: If the Windows Update agent is incorrectly configured or cannot send status information back to the Essentials management server, you might experience the following symptoms:

  • The update status of a managed computer is reported as "Unknown".

  • The properties for a computer show many of the hardware inventory attributes (including Operating System, Hard Disk, Manufacturer, and Memory) as "Unknown" or blank.

  • Viewing the installed software for a computer shows no information.

  • Event viewer shows Event ID 13022: "Many client computers are not reporting their inventory. <X> have been detected so far."

If Essentials 2010 does not display accurate status information for installed software, updates, or inventory, try using one or more of the following workarounds to resolve the issue.

Workaround: Check Group Policy configuration.

If the managed computer has not received and applied Group Policy, it does not report its status to the Essentials management server.

To check Group Policy configuration on the managed computer

  1. On the managed computer that is not reporting to the Essentials management server, open Registry Editor and navigate to HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate. Verify that the WUServer and WUStatusServer values are set to https://<FQDN of your Essentials server>:8531. If the values are set to the Essentials management server, try the workaround to check the Windows Update log instead, otherwise continue to step 2.

  2. If you configured the Essentials management server to use domain-based Group Policy, verify that the managed computer is a member of the SCE Managed Computer <management group name> security group located in the Users container in your Active Directory domain. If the computer is not a member of this group, add the computer to the security group, and then restart the managed computer.

  3. If you configured the Essentials management server to use domain-based Group Policy, at a command prompt, type gpresult.exe /v on the managed computer to determine if the computer is receiving the SCE Managed Computer <management group name> Group Policy. If the computer is not applying the policy, see Troubleshooting Group Policy in Microsoft Windows Server (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=199025).

  4. If you have configured Essentials 2010 to use local Group Policy settings, a scheduled task runs one time per day that configures the local Group Policy object on the managed computer. Run Resultant Set of Policy (rsop.msc) to determine whether there is an Active Directory Group Policy (which has a higher order of precedence) that is overriding the Windows Update agent configuration in the local Group Policy object.

Workaround: Check the Windows Update log on the managed computer.

If you have verified that the Windows Update agent is configured to report to the Essentials management server, but you are still encountering this issue, check the Windows Update log on the managed computer to verify that it is attempting to contact the Essentials management server and that the attempt is successful.

  1. Open the Windows Update log on the managed computer. The log can be found at %windir%\windowsupdate.log.

  2. Scroll to the bottom of the log file and look for the last attempt to contact. If the log contains send failure warnings, the attempt to contact the Essentials management server was unsuccessful.

Workaround: Check for duplicate SUSClient IDs.

If many managed computers are not reporting to the Essentials management server, and you use an image file to install the operating system on computers, the most likely cause of this issue is that the managed computers are sharing the same SUSClientID. The WSUS technology in Essentials 2010 uses the SUSClientID to uniquely identify each managed computer that contacts the Essentials management server. If more than one computer is using the same SUSClientID, only the first computer that reports to the Essentials management server will be fully managed.

If this is the case in your environment, see the following article and blog entry for more information about how to resolve this issue.

Workaround: Check ISA Firewall Client configuration.

Ensure that the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) port is enabled and that port 8531 is defined for the SSL port. For more information about configuring ISA Firewall Client, see Firewall Exceptions for System Center Essentials 2010.