chrisbmn.com — Troubleshooting

SCOM 2016 - Linux Agent Deployment “Signed certificate verification operation was not successful”

Wed, 18 Jan 2017 13:08:11 -0600

Today, while trying to add my linux servers to my new SCOM 2016 environment, I ran into an interesting issue. When deploying the agent to my CentOS 6.8 server, all was going fine, then suddenly *holy drama!* - the agent install fails, indicating "The SSL certificate could not be checked for revocation" When clicking the details link, this is what is shown: SCOM uses ssl to communicate via between the management server and the monitored system/server/client, etc. The problem I faced is that the server has a host name set to SERVER.DOMAIN-COOL.COM, and in order to authenticate successfully the HOSTNAME name MUST match the FQDN (fully qualified domain name) of the name that is resolved by SCOM. i.e. SERVER.DOMAIN.COM. If you are facing this scenario and your UNIX/Linux server has a different hostname then what is in DNS you have two choices. Either you change the hostname on your server, which may or may not be an option, or you create a new certificate with the FQDN hostname and private key without touching the server name at all using the scxsslconfig tool. I decided to perform the latter. Just open the a shell and run…

/opt/microsoft/scx/bin/tools/scxsslconfig –h server –d domain.com -f –v

After executing the command, make sure to restart the agent.

/opt/microsoft/scx/bin/tools/scxadmin –restart

After the service is restarted head back to your SCOM console, and attempt to manage the linux server again. This time it will complete successfully.

DPM, Windows Server Backup and "The backup storage location is invalid" error..

Thu, 13 Oct 2016 07:41:39 -0500

While working with DPM, I came across an issue, where my internal backup of the DPM server, kept failing with "DPM cannot create a backup because Windows Server Backup (WSB) on the protected computer encountered an error (WSB Event ID: 546, WSB Error Code: 0x10851A0). (ID 30229 Details: Internal error code: 0x80990ED0)" Upon closer inspection, when I launch an admin command prompt and attempt to perform a local backup using wbadmin:

wbadmin start systemstatebackup -backupTarget:c:

I receive the following error: The backup storage location is invalid. You cannot use a volume that is included in the backup as a storage location. The solution to this issue, is to simply add a new key to the registry. Create the following:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\wbengine.
 Create a key called "SystemStateBackup"
 Set the value of this entry as follows:
 Name: AllowSSBToAnyVolume
 Data type: DWORD
 Value data: 1

Immediately after creating the key, the backups should complete successfully.

Unable to add Roles and Features to Server 2012

Thu, 22 Jan 2015 11:02:38 -0600

You're trying to install a new Role of Feature onto your 2012 server, and your met with this ugly screen.. This isn't a good sight, and is normally indicative of a patch, or update in a pending reboot state. However, this could also be indicative of system file corruption.. So first and foremost, it should be stated that this is a difficult issue to troubleshoot, and to resolve. Here's the reasons. Let say we rename pending, or move it, this could potentially lead to an issue sometime down the road. Lets also assume we do a repair, we still do not have an 100% that another problem won't manifest. So the important thing to note, is that troubleshooting, is not a guarantee of recovery, and repair, is no guarantee it won't happen again. With that being said, lets try to reboot the system. If that doesn't work, then you have a few other options to try.. I will list a few that have worked for me. This however, doesn't guarantee that your issue will be resolved, so MAKE SURE YOU HAVE GOOD BACKUPS, because this is likely caused by a corrupted patch installation or un-installation, and may in fact lead to the need to re-install the OS if we don't apply careful corrective measures. Additionally - I won't state that this article is all inclusive, so if you have any additional suggestions, please drop a comment, and I'd love to add it to my article. The first thing to try is a verification that the TrustedInstaller service is running and set to Automatic. (Windows Modules Installer) - If it is infact running, and not disabled, and the system has been rebooted at least 2 times, a dism command to try and clean the install.

dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth

If this doesn't yield anything productive, and additinal dism command, this time, while booted from recovery media, may yield positive results.

dism.exe /image:C:\ /cleanup-image /revertpendingactions

perhaps, you run this command, and receive an error - Error 0x800ffff or After running the command, the CBS log (C:\Windows\logs\CBS\cbs.log) may indicate the following: This may be indicative of a patch/hotfix/update, in a stuck or corrupted state. Further reviewing the c:\windows\winsxs\pending.xml, may indicate patches in a condition of which the OS believes still need to be installed or uninstalled. If this is the case, and you have rebooted, at least 2 times. (If you haven't, STOP right there, and go reboot again) - However if you have, its possible that one of these items is corrupted. Search for the patch or installation, and attempt to manually install/uninstall. If that doesn't work, you may have to try doing some registry hacking. I'm not including it here, however, I have included a link below. ANOTHER IMPORTANT NOTE - Proceed very carefully when making ANY registry changes. Make sure you understand what you are doing, before you attempt to modify the registry.. IF YOU DO NOT understand these changes, and which apply to you, SKIP THIS STEP, and move on to the next step. I have seen far to many individuals kill their system, by willy-nilly registry hacking.. CONSIDER YOURSELVES WARNED.. https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc164360(v=EXCHG.80).aspx or http://www.itninja.com/question/how-to-determine-if-a-pc-is-reboot-pending Next, you may try to move the C:\Windows\WinSxS\pending.xml to an alternate location. (You can't simply rename this file in the windows directory) - You can however, move it to a location outside of this path. Try rebooting the computer after you move the file, and with any hope, you should now have access to add roles and features again, and have the ability to update. Obviously, this is a bit of a work around, but this may get the system into a condition that more repair options become available. (Windows Updates, stand alone patches, etc.) If at this point, you are still having NO luck, and none of these avenues are addressing your issue, it's most likely time to reload the OS, or if you have support, engage your escalation avenues.

CentOS 6.5 Installation fails – “Unable to read package metadata.”

Sat, 18 Oct 2014 12:44:22 -0500

So in the past few weeks I have been studying to take the RHCSA, and in my studies have been using both RHEL 6.5 at work, and CentOS 6.5 as a playground environment at home. (Since both are essentially the same. I came across in interesting little issue, while recently installing CentOS on my laptop at the house. CentOS installation fails with the message: “Unable to read package metadata. This may be due to missing repodata directory. Please ensure that your install tree has been correctly generated”. Now, naturally, I went and performed some google-fu, and came up with a variety of articles, and forum posts/reply's that ranged from everything like: re-install until it works, to edit source .conf files to omit directories, to update paths to some .xml files, to pray to the linux gods for help.. Actually, this is a very simple issue to overcome. and really doesn't require any files edits at all. (Unless you really like doing that sort of thing - I don't, if I can avoid it) Simply click the "Edit" button on the prompt, and Add the corresponding repository server. In case of CentOS 6.5 64bit: http://mirror.centos.org/centos/6.5/os/x86_64/ or if on 32 bit: http://mirror.centos.org/centos/6.5/os/i386/ After I made this change, my installer happily went on its merry way installing the OS.