Monitor Solution Import Monitor Pack Fails to Load and Import Policies

Products

• Monitor Solution
• Monitor Pack for Servers
• Monitor Solution for Servers

Issue/Introduction

In the Altiris Console under Home > Monitoring and Alerting > Monitor > Policies > Import Monitor Pack the page does not load completley and fails to import any new monitor packs. 

In the server logs (a.log) located at C:\ProgramData\Symantec\SMP\Logs\a.log

An error occurred while parsing EntityName. Line 2, position 74.
[System.Xml.XmlException @ System.Xml]
at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Throw(Exception e)
at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseEntityName()
at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseEntityReference()
at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Read()
at System.Xml.XmlLoader.LoadNode(Boolean skipOverWhitespace)
at System.Xml.XmlLoader.LoadDocSequence(XmlDocument parentDoc)
at System.Xml.XmlDocument.Load(XmlReader reader)
at System.Xml.XmlDocument.LoadXml(String xml)
at Altiris.Monitor.UI.PortalWebParts.ImportMonitorPack.CheckFileExists(FileInfo
fileInfo, MonitorPackDAL MonitorPack, FileInfo[] fileColl, DirectoryInfo
dir, List 1 MonitorPacks)

Environment

ITMS 7.x
ITMS 8.x

Cause

The root cause of this issue is special characters such as the ampersand (&) character in the name or description of the monitor policy that was imported.

Resolution

To resolve this problem it is first necessary to try and identify the monitor policy that caused the problem initially. If a monitor policy was recently imported and the issue just started occouring then the last policy imported is likely causing the issue. Either way the last monitor policy imported will be the one that caused the issue because after this issue occours all other monitor policies will fail to import. Here is an example of a query that might help to find the problematic monitor policy:

select * from [dbo].[Item] where Name like '%&%'

The above query assumes that there is an ampersand (&) in the name.  This can be adjusted for any other special character by simply removing the ampersand and inserting whatever special character might be causing the issue. Once the problematic monitor policy is identified grab the associated guid from the guid column and insert that guid into the following query:

UPDATE [dbo].[Item]
   SET [State] =
'<item>
  <name throttle="False" upgrade="False" deleted="False">Event ID 30021 and 30027</name>
  <guid>28250899-3100-48e8-a4db-0253ca85ae98</guid>
  <schedule activated="False">-</schedule>
  <status>NotScheduled</status>
  <file>
    <location>C:\Give the policy a new name without special characters.xml</location>
  </file>
</item>'
WHERE [Guid]='Guid of problematic monitor policy'

This will resolve the issue.  Please note that the file location in the query will need to be updated with a
new policy name without special characters. The Guid portion will also need updated with the guid from the problematic monitor policy.