WWW publishing services (IIS) are unexpectedly restarting repeatedly.

Products

• IT Management Suite

Issue/Introduction

WWW publishing services (IIS) are being restarted by the AeXNSAgent.exe module. 

Other services affected: Altiris Object Host Service and Client Task Data Loader.

This will likely occur in conjunction with a task server configuration change which may be happening in unusually high frequency at times and may indicate additional issues not covered here.

There isn't a specific error message that is displayed. However there is an informational message that will be associated with this in the logs:

Severity: 4
Date: 8/2/2016 1:10:38 PM
Tick Count: 112015769
Host Name: XXXXX
Process: AeXNSAgent (8004)
Thread: 1
Module: AeXNSAgent.exe
Source: Altiris.ClientTask.Server.CTAgentInterop.CheckServiceRestart
Description: CTAgentInterop::CheckServiceRestart(): Restarting WWW Publishing Service

Environment

ITMS 7.0 

ITMS 7.1

ITMS 7.6

ITMS 8.0

Cause

This is caused by a setting that is checked in the task server settings: ('Settings\Notification Server\Site Server Settings\Task Service\Settings\Task Service Settings')

"Automatically restart services (Altiris Object Host Service, Client Task Data Loader, WWW Publishing) when configuration changes"

Resolution

It is important to determine if the configuration changes are legitimate or not. Solving this may be the desired solution. However, unchecking the box labeled: "Automatically restart services (Altiris Object Host Service, Client Task Data Loader, WWW Publishing) when configuration changes" will resolve the issue of the services restarting repeatedly.