Altiris Agent displays: 'Checking for new tasks'

Products

• Patch Management Solution for Windows
• Management Platform (Formerly known as Notification Server)

Issue/Introduction

When looking at the Task Status tab on the Altiris Agent displays: 'Checking for new tasks'.

"Failed to create object Altiris.SoftwareUpdateAgent: The object is not registered or is not present in the policy (-2147467237)".

Cause

Possibly due to missing or corrupt registry key in the Altiris Agent hive:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Plugin Objects\Agents\Altiris Software Update Agent

Resolution

Re-installing the Altiris Agent may resolve the issue.

Note: Reinstalling the Altiris Agent will cause the other plug-ins to be reinstalled as well. However, this is not recommended on a site server or the SMP server.

If the above step is not feasible, you may perform the following steps:

1. On a working system, browse to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Plugin Objects\Agents\Altiris Software Update Agent

2. Right click on ‘Altiris Software Update Agent’ and export the key.

3. Stop the ‘Symantec Management Agent’ on the affected system, from the Windows Services.

4. Import the registry key which was earlier exported, in the affected system.

5. Verify that the value for 'Install Path' for the above registry key is C:\Program Files\Altiris\ALTIRIS AGENT\Agents\PatchMgmtAgent\ PatchMgmtAgents.dll  (considering that the agent is installed on the C:\ drive). If the path is different  then,  modify it to the above path.

6. Open the command prompt and register the ‘PatchMgmtAgents.dll’ by running the command:

     regsvr32.exe C:\Program Files\Altiris\ALTIRIS AGENT\Agents\PatchMgmtAgent\ PatchMgmtAgents.dll

7.  Start the ‘Symantec Management Agent’ from the Windows Services.

Applies To

Notification Server 7.x

Patch Management 7.x