Task status not showing on SMP console although Tasks can be initiated and completed on endpoints

Products

• Management Platform (Formerly known as Notification Server)

Issue/Introduction

It has been reported that Task are successfully initiated and executed/completed on endpoints but the Symantec Management Platform console does not show any status other than the default 'Not started'

In reviewing the Symantec Management Platform logs the following was observed.

process="w3wp"
module="w3wp.exe"
source="Altiris.TaskManagement.ClientTask.*"
Description: BaseXmlHttpCallback Exception: System.Exception: An exception occurred while executing the request ---> System.Exception: System.Exception: Slow the flow
   at CTDataLoad.DataLoaderThread.OnReportStatusXml(Hashtable input, Hashtable& output)
   at Altiris.DotNetLib.Sockets.SecureRemoting.SecureRemotingServer.ProcessRequestObject(Object work)

process="w3wp"
module="w3wp.exe"
source="Altiris.TaskManagement.ClientTask.*"
Description: BaseXmlHttpCallback Exception: System.Exception: An exception occurred while executing the request ---> System.Exception: System.Data.SQLite.SQLiteException: The database file is locked
database is locked
   at System.Data.SQLite.SQLite3.Step(SQLiteStatement stmt)
   at System.Data.SQLite.SQLiteDataReader.NextResult()
   at System.Data.SQLite.SQLiteDataReader..ctor(SQLiteCommand cmd, CommandBehavior behave)
   at System.Data.SQLite.SQLiteCommand.ExecuteReader(CommandBehavior behavior)
   at System.Data.SQLite.SQLiteCommand.ExecuteNonQuery()
   at Altiris.TaskManagement.Common.Storage.EventStorage.AddTaskEventRow(TaskEventLocalStorage row)
   at Altiris.TaskManagement.Common.Storage.EventStorage.CreateCacheTaskEvent(TaskEventLocalStorage row)
   at Altiris.TaskManagement.Common.Storage.EventStorage.CreateCacheTaskEvent(Object data, EventSourceTag tag)
   at Altiris.TaskManagement.ClientTask.Data.LocalClientTaskReporting.AddEvents(IEnumerable`1 listEvents, Boolean bSetNewDataEvent)
   at Altiris.TaskManagement.ClientTask.Data.LocalClientTaskReporting.ProcessTaskStatus(String eventList)
   at CTDataLoad.DataLoaderThread.OnReportStatusXml(Hashtable input, Hashtable& output)
   at Altiris.DotNetLib.Sockets.SecureRemoting.SecureRemotingServer.ProcessRequestObject(Object work)

Cause

Post MR4, rollups have introduced a SQLite database for Task Management. (taskserver.db3)  This file has an initial size of 3KB, but will grow with task usage.

There is no automated purging or monitoring on the file size growth with time.  Therefore this file will grow to a very large size.  It has been observed on the SMP itself with size of ~7GB.

Such large database file size will cause significant delay in processing, thus error messages appearing in the logs and no status updates on console.

Resolution

1. Stop the Task Server services via services.msc

a. Altiris Client Task Data Loader (CTDataloader.exe)

b. Altiris Object Host Services (AtrsHost.exe)

2. Rename or remove the file \Program Files\Altiris\TaskManagement\taskserver.db3

3. Restart Task Server services stopped from step 1.

Applies To

SMP7.0 MR4 Rollup (v7.0.8900) or SMP 7.1 SP2 Rollup 2.