Problems with pcAnywhere Agent and policies caused by exceeding the license count or by expired licenses

Products

Symantec Products

Issue/Introduction

One or more managed computers have the pcAnywhere Agent installed, but they are not running the configuration as specified in the pcAnywhere Settings policy.

In addition, the computer(s) do not appear as a member of the filter to receive the pcAnywhere Settings policy.

The following conditions are true on the managed computers:
- Symantec pcAnywhere Host Service is running.
- The Symantec pcA Agent is registered with the Symantec Management Agent.
- Basic inventory was sent recently.
- The client policy XML file shows no <pcasettings> element, even though it should.
- Agent logs may show that the pcA Agent received a policy, such as:

<event date='July 14 11:22:46' severity='4' hostName='YourComputerName' source='pcAAgent' module='pcAAgent.dll' process='aexnsagent.exe' pid='616' thread='2660' tickCount='111546' >
<![CDATA[pcAAgent::Got Policy from Server ]]></event>

And the following conditions are true on the Symantec Management Platform server:
- A pcAnywhere Settings policy is enabled and targets managed computers.
- The computers in question never appear in the target filter, even after a Complete Update is run on the server.
- There does not appear to be a problem processing NSEs (no obvious backups in the server queues).
- Entries similar to the following appear in the Notification Server logs (a*.log)...

<event date="Jul 14 14:05:41 +00:00" severity="4" hostName="YourComputerName" source="aaaaaaaa-bbbb-cccc-dddd-eeeeeeffffff" module="AeXSVC.exe" process="AeXSvc" pid="1620" thread="47" tickCount="531731500"><![CDATA[The specified machine does not have valid pcA License (Workstation: {0.EN_US}]]></event>

<event date="Jul 14 14:05:41 +00:00" severity="4" hostName="YourComputerName" source="Symantec.pcA.Tasks.pcAnywhereInventory.OnMessage" module="AeXSVC.exe" process="AeXSvc" pid="1620" thread="47" tickCount="531731500"><![CDATA[pcAnywhere :: Requesting License for Machine aaaaaaaa-bbbb-cccc-dddd-eeeeeeffffff)]]></event>

<event date="Jul 14 14:05:41 +00:00" severity="2" hostName="YourComputerName" source="LicenseManager::RequestLicense" module="AeXSVC.exe" process="AeXSvc" pid="1620" thread="47" tickCount="531731500"><![CDATA[pcAnywhere :: The specified resource failed to obtain a license as license exceeded(Product: c432b710-f971-11a2-8643-20105bf409af)]]></event>

Cause

pcAnywhere Solution exhibits unexpected behavior if the following conditions exist prior to deployment of the pcAnywhere Agent:

The Full licenses for pcAnywhere Solution have not yet been installed via Symantec Installation Manager (SIM)
Licenses have Expired
pcAnywhere Agent has been deployed to more computers than the license count covers

No errors or warnings of this condition are displayed within the Symantec Management Console.

When this occurs, computers may not appear in the target membership of the pcAnywhere Install or the pcAnywhere Settings policies as expected. Even after additional licenses have been imported in SIM, some computers may still have problems getting a license for pcAnywhere, and that is blocking application of the pcAnywhere Settings policy. In some cases, you are unable to stack licenses. Please see this document about adding licenses: http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH133385.

The Notification Server logs may still show the errors shown above in the Problem section. If so, this indicates that there is a missing or incorrect entry in the pcAnywhere_License_Status table, and that is preventing membership of the managed computer in the filters used by pcAnywhere Solution. Specifically, the last condition of the filter "pcAnywhere Plug-In for Windows Installed Active" is that the Status in the pcAnywhere_License_Status table is "Active".

Resolution

First, open SIM. Click "Add/Update licenses". Confirm that the License Type listed for Symantec pcAnywhere SP2 is "Full", and that the "In use" value does not exceed the "Count" and has not expired. If necessary, obtain and install new licenses to resolve the situation (http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH133385)

Then, to test for the condition described in the Cause section above, query the pcAnywhere_License_Status table by running the following SQL against Symantec_CMDB database:

SELECT * from pcAnywhere_License_Status
WHERE ResourceGuid = 'aaaaaaaa-bbbb-cccc-dddd-eeeeeeffffff'

NOTE: replace aaaaaaaa-bbbb-cccc-dddd-eeeeeeffffff with the correct GUID of a managed computer which has the Symantec pcA Agent installed but does not appear in the filter "pcAnywhere Plug-In for Windows Installed Active".

Symantec is working toward a resolution to this behavior. For now we offer the following work-arounds. Please contact Symantec Technical Support for assistance if needed.

To resolve this condition for a single managed computer:

Run the following SQL in SQL Server Management Studio on the NS:

INSERT INTO pcAnywhere_License_Status (ResourceGuid, Status)
VALUES ('aaaaaaaa-bbbb-cccc-dddd-eeeeeeffffff', 'Active')
NOTE: replace aaaaaaaa-bbbb-cccc-dddd-eeeeeeffffff with the correct GUID of the managed computer.
Then, verify that the computer appears in the "pcAnywhere Plug-In for Windows Installed Active" filter, as a target of the pcAnywhere Settings - Windows policy, and that the computer receives the Settings policy upon updating the Symantec Management Agent configuration.

To resolve this issue for a large number of computers:

Take a backup of the pcAnywhere_License_Status table. To do this, run the following SQL query in SQL Server Management Studio on the NS and save the results to a CSV file:

select * from pcAnywhere_License_Status
Execute the following SQL in SQL Server Management Studio on the NS, but only after the license issues are corrected in SIM:

USE Symantec_CMDB
DECLARE @nopcalicense TABLE ([ResourceGuid] UNIQUEIDENTIFIER, [status] NVARCHAR(50) DEFAULT 'Active')

INSERT INTO @nopcalicense (ResourceGuid)
SELECT [Guid] from vComputer
LEFT OUTER JOIN pcAnywhere_License_Status
ON vComputer.Guid = pcAnywhere_License_Status.ResourceGuid
WHERE vComputer.Guid IN (
     SELECT DISTINCT r.Guid
     FROM vComputer r,Inv_AeX_AC_Client_Agent i, Inv_AeX_AC_Identification a
     WHERE i.[Agent Name] LIKE '%Symantec pcA%'
     AND r.Guid = i.[_ResourceGuid]
     AND r.Guid = a.[_ResourceGuid]
     AND r.IsManaged = 1
     AND r.IsLocal = 1
)
AND pcAnywhere_License_Status.ResourceGuid IS NULL

SELECT r.Name, r.Guid
FROM vComputer r, @nopcalicense n
WHERE r.[Guid] = n.[ResourceGuid]

INSERT INTO pcAnywhere_License_Status
SELECT * FROM @nopcalicense

The query above:

finds all computers (Windows, Mac, or Linux) which reported the Symantec pcA Agent as installed but are missing from pcAnywhere_License_Status
only affects computers managed by the local server (not by other servers in a hierarchy)
adds the missing entry to the pcAnywhere_License_Status table with a Status of “Active”
outputs the affected computer names and GUIDs.

After running this SQL query, you can save a list of the affected computers by performing these steps:

right-click the results pane
click "Save Results As"
specify a path and CSV file name

NOTE: If the instructions above do not resolve the behavior, such that the pcAnywhere Settings policy does not target computers with the pcAnywhere Agent even after several days, then apply the patch described in Knowledge Base article entitled "New computers to which the pcAnywhere Agent is deployed do not apply the pcAnywhere Settings policy" (click the link below to open that article).

Applies To

Symantec pcAnywhere Solution 12.5