Failed to install product. [Object reference not set to an instance of an object.] on UNIXAgent.config

Products

• Management Platform (Formerly known as Notification Server)

Issue/Introduction

During the installation or reconfiguration of SMP 7.1 or 7.5 the process fails.

  The following three entries (excerpts) are found in the installation logs:

 

Severity 1, Critical
Source: Altiris.NS.StandardItems.Product.ProductInstallation.InstallProduct
Description: Failed to install product. [Object reference not set to an instance of an object.]
System.NullReferenceException (Altiris.NS.StandardItems): Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
   at Altiris.NS.StandardItems.SoftwareDelivery.SWDSupport.SetupDirectoriesLocal(PackageItem pkgItem, String nsCapBinPath, String installPath, StringCollection codebaseUrls, String pkgAccessUserName)
   at Altiris.NS.StandardItems.SoftwareDelivery.SWDSupport.ManageDistributionPoints(PackageItem pkgItem)
   at Altiris.NS.StandardItems.SoftwareDelivery.SWDSupport.ManageDistributionPoints(Guid pkgGuid)
   at Altiris.Agent.Unix.UnixAltirisAgentInstallation.UpdateDistributionPoints()
   at Altiris.Agent.Unix.UnixAltirisAgentInstallation.OnUpgradeProduct(XmlNode updateNode)
   at Altiris.NS.StandardItems.Product.ProductInstallation.InstallProduct()

Severity 1
Source: Altiris.NS.Installation.ProductConfigurationWorker.ConfigureProductInternal
Description: Failed to install the product from the file: E:\Program Files\Altiris\UNIX Agent\Config\UNIXAgent.config
System.NullReferenceException (Altiris.NS.StandardItems): Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
   at Altiris.NS.StandardItems.SoftwareDelivery.SWDSupport.SetupDirectoriesLocal(PackageItem pkgItem, String nsCapBinPath, String installPath, StringCollection codebaseUrls, String pkgAccessUserName)
   at Altiris.NS.StandardItems.SoftwareDelivery.SWDSupport.ManageDistributionPoints(PackageItem pkgItem)
   at Altiris.NS.StandardItems.SoftwareDelivery.SWDSupport.ManageDistributionPoints(Guid pkgGuid)
   at Altiris.Agent.Unix.UnixAltirisAgentInstallation.UpdateDistributionPoints()
   at Altiris.Agent.Unix.UnixAltirisAgentInstallation.OnUpgradeProduct(XmlNode updateNode)
   at Altiris.NS.StandardItems.Product.ProductInstallation.InstallProduct()
   at Altiris.NS.Installation.ProductConfigurationWorker.ConfigureProductInternal(String configFile, Boolean ownsProgressContext, SerializationMode serializationMode)

Cause

During the installation process the package objects need to be imported and or configured with proper download codebases, which the process runs through the “SWDSupport\ManageDistributionPoints” routine. During this process there are requests made to http and https but a useful response does not come back from one of them—which results in a NULL response.

 

Resolution

See TECH212801 for details on how the problem was resolved.

Applies To

Symantec Management Platform 7.1, 7.5