Altiris Agent fails to upgrade on Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 Machines when the “Application Experience” Service is disabled

Article Id: 157499
Status: Published
Updated On: 11-07-2017 09:20
Legacy Id: TECH201068
Products:
Management Platform (Formerly known as Notification Server)
Issue/Introduction:

Altiris Agent fails to upgrade on Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 Machines when the “Application Experience” Service is disabled.  The agent upgrades fine on Windows XP, Server 2003 and all machines which have the "Application Experience” Service Enabled

 

 AeXNSC.log may contain the following entries:

(SMP 7.1 SP2 MP1.1 AeXNSC.log with the issue)
2012-11-17 11:32:22: + Running action: CopyAgentFilesTree 
2012-11-17 11:32:22: + Running action: InstallCoreAgentDll 
2012-11-17 11:32:23: + Running action: InstallCommonDll 
2012-11-17 11:32:24: + Running action: InstallSupportDll 
2012-11-17 11:32:24: + Running action: InstallCoreAgentExe 
2012-11-17 11:32:24: Action CopyFile: Operation on copy file from C:\windows\TEMP\apt1\x86\CoreExe\AeXAgentDesktop.exe to C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\AeXAgentDesktop.exe returned error Access is denied. 
2012-11-17 11:32:24: Upgrade failed. Error message: Failed to run action: InstallCoreAgentExe 
2012-11-17 11:32:24: Core Agent Re-Installation Ended 
2012-11-17 11:32:24: ================================== 
2012-11-17 11:32:24: Core Agent Installation Ended 
2012-11-17 11:32:24: =============================== 

 

(SMP 7.5 HF5 AeXNSC.log with the issue)
2014-04-01 10:21:31 *WARN Installer: Action DeleteFile: file C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\AeXNSInvCollector.exe does not exist.
2014-04-01 10:21:31 *WARN Installer: Action DeleteFile: file C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\AeXSWDUsr.exe does not exist.
2014-04-01 10:21:31 *WARN Installer: Action DeleteFile: file C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\AeXSWDUsrUIWin.exe does not exist.
2014-04-01 10:21:31 *WARN Installer: Action DeleteFile: file C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\View\AltirisAgentView.config does not exist.
2014-04-01 10:21:31 *WARN Installer: Action UnregisterTLB: file C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\x86\CENfySvrClient.tlb does not exist.
2014-04-01 10:21:31 *WARN Installer: Action UnregisterTLB: file C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\x86\AgentScheduler.tlb does not exist.
2014-04-01 10:21:31 *WARN Installer: Action DeleteFolder: folder C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Agents\InventoryRuleAgent does not exist.
2014-04-01 10:21:31 *WARN Installer: Action DeleteFolder: folder C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Languages does not exist.
2014-04-01 10:21:31 *WARN RemoveDirectoryTree: Cannot delete file: C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\x86\AeXAgentUIHostSurrogate32.exe: Access is denied (0x00000005)
2014-04-01 10:21:31 *WARN RemoveDirectoryTree: Cannot delete file: C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\x86\AeXNSAgentHostSurrogate32.exe: Access is denied (0x00000005)
2014-04-01 10:21:31 *ERRR Installer: Action DeleteFolder (C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\x86): error The directory is not empty.
2014-04-01 10:21:31  INFO Installer: + Running action: DeleteFilesForUpgrade
2014-04-01 10:21:31 *WARN Installer: Action UnRegAndDelete: file C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\AeXSWD.dll does not exist.
2014-04-01 10:21:31 *WARN Installer: Action UnRegAndDelete: file C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\AeXSWDAgent.dll does not exist.
2014-04-01 10:21:31 *WARN Installer: Action UnRegAndDelete: file C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\AeXNSClientCtl.dll does not exist.
2014-04-01 10:21:31 *WARN Installer: Action DeleteFile: file C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\AeXAgent.exe does not exist.
2014-04-01 10:21:31 *WARN Installer: Action DeleteFile: file C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\AeXInstallHelper.exe does not exist.
2014-04-01 10:21:31 *WARN Installer: Action DeleteFile: file C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\AeXClientStatusBody.htm does not exist.
2014-04-01 10:21:32 *WARN Installer: Action DeleteFile: file C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\AeXClientStatusHeader.htm does not exist.
2014-04-01 10:21:32 *WARN Installer: Action DeleteFile: file C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\AeXClientWizard.htm does not exist.
2014-04-01 10:21:32 *WARN Installer: Action DeleteFile: file C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\AeXNC.css does not exist.
2014-04-01 10:21:32 *WARN Installer: Action DeleteFile: file C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\AeXNCPropertiesTabs.xml does not exist.

 

(AeXNSC.log of a successful upgrade) 
2012-11-17 10:56:27: + Running action: CopyAgentFilesTree 
2012-11-17 10:56:29: + Running action: InstallCoreAgentDll 
2012-11-17 10:56:30: + Running action: InstallCommonDll 
2012-11-17 10:56:32: + Running action: InstallSupportDll 
2012-11-17 10:56:33: + Running action: InstallCoreAgentExe 
2012-11-17 10:56:33: Registering Core Agent service... 
2012-11-17 10:56:33: Registered AeXNSAgent.exe 

 

Cause:

Confirmed that the Microsoft service, "Application Experience", had been disabled.

 

Resolution:

This issue has been addressed by Symantec Development team. Changes were introduced under ITMS 8.1 RU2 to handle this issue in a better way.

Previously, the workaround was:
Enable the Microsoft service, "Application Experience", and the agents upgrade as expected.