What are some basic troubleshooting steps for Workflow Enterprise Management validation issues.

Products

• Workflow Solution

Issue/Introduction

Validating an environment in Workflow Enterprise Management (Manager > Workflows > Workflow Enterprise Management) fails.

Resolution

1. Workflow Server installed on the separate Workflow server and SMP should be the same version (at least major and minor versions if not the exact build). Workflow Enterprise Management uses parts of the Workflow Server installed on SMP to communicate with separate Workflow Servers and larger version differences can cause problems there.
   When SMP is upgraded, the Workflow Server on it does not get automatically upgraded. The workflow Server installer should be run on SMP manually to upgrade it to the matching version. Workflow Server installer can be retrieved from SMP using either of these locations:
   • Symantec Management Console > Manage > Workflows > Download Workflow Server and Designer
   • %ProgramFiles%\Altiris\Workflow\Web\Agent\Symantec.Workflow.Setup.exe
2. Upgrading the Workflow Server on SMP should be as simple as running the installer with a user that has local administrator rights, selecting Upgrade, and providing appropriate responses to the installer prompts. That installation does not have a Process Manager Portal or Process Manager Database roles so no advanced components, prerequisites, or account issues.
3. On the Workflow server, start LocalMachineInfo Editor, in the Workflow Server section click '...' next to Workflow Server Configuration. Make sure 'Enable WAS Management Service' is checked in that dialog.
4. Validation checks for Workflow Server, Background Processing, and Process Manager Portal roles, because these three are expected from a fully fledged Workflow environment. When you try validating an empty Environment, these are exactly what you see validation claims to be missing.
   The only roles the Workflow Server on the SMP is expected to have are Workflow Server and Background Processing. Because of this, the Local SMP Environment is pretty much expected to have validation errors, usually NotAllRolesPresent (due to Portal/DB not being installed on the WF installed on SMP) and DefaultWorkflowPersistenceTypeIsNotSQL (again, due to no DB).
   Fortunately, validation errors have quite well-readable descriptions. Anything with Warning Only being True can be ignored, others need to be addressed. If you can publish projects, the rest of the validation errors can be ignored if you so choose.