Unable to replicate from Child to Parent SMP due to connection link issues

Products

• IT Management Suite

Issue/Introduction

Replication from the Child SMP to the Parent SMP was reported to have stopped working. The NS log showed:

... could not connect to the local server http://CHILD01.example.net/Altiris/NS/ 

Both the Child and Parent SMP servers should be using HTTPS links to connect and not HTTP.

In the SMP Console under Settings>Notification Server >Hierarchy>Topology tab, it showed that the proper HTTPS link references were configured correctly.

The NS logs on the Child SMP showed the following entry while trying to replicate up:

Unable to schedule replication to the specified server (Server: PARENT01.EXAMPLE.NET, Exception: Altiris.NS.Exceptions.AeXException: The local credential [username] could not connect to the local server http://CHILD01.example.net/Altiris/NS/ at Altiris.NS.Replication.ReplicationJobHelper.CreateReplicationJob(String jobId, String name, Guid serverGuid, String serverName, String serverUrl, WebServiceCredential destinationCredentials, WebServiceCredential sourceCredentials, ReplicationRuleCollection rules, ReplicationMode mode, ReplicationPriority priority, Boolean hierarchy)
at Altiris.NS.Replication.Hierarchy.HierarchyRuleManager.CreateReplicationJob(String jobId, String name, HierarchyNodeItem node, ReplicationRuleCollection rules, ReplicationMode mode, ReplicationPriority priority)
at Altiris.NS.Replication.Hierarchy.HierarchyRuleManager.ResolveRules(IItem item, HierarchyRuleScope scope, ReplicationMode mode, ReplicationPriority priority, HierarchyRuleCollection rules, HierarchyNodeItem node, Boolean isEvent, Guid hierarchyJobId)).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 4/17/2018 1:15:01 PM, Tick Count: 1035826687 (11.23:43:46.6870000), Size: 1.31 KB
Process: AeXSvc (1336), Thread ID: 79, Module: Altiris.NS.Replication.Hierarchy.dll
Priority: 1, Source: HierarchyRuleManager.ResolveRules

Environment

ITMS 8.x

Cause

Unknown

Resolution

1. Run the following queries against the affected child SMP:
   
   --Check if there is the proper reference under ForwardServer table for this child SMP
   select * from ForwardServer
   
   --If it shows the url as HTTP, run the following to update it
   update ForwardServer
   set Web = 'https://CHILD01.example.net/Altiris/NS/'
   where Web = 'http://CHILD01.example.net/Altiris/NS/'
   
   update ForwardServer
   set AgentWeb = 'https://CHILD01.example.net/Altiris/'
   where AgentWeb = 'http://CHILD01.example.net/Altiris/'
    
2. Check the Parent SMP database and see if there is a http reference in the following hierarchy table with this query:
   
   select i.name, cast (i.state as xml), i2.name, i3.name, hn.*
   from hierarchynode hn
   join item i on i.guid = hn.itemguid
   join vitem i2 on i2.guid = hn.parentguid
   join vitem i3 on i3.guid = hn.childguid
    
3. It is possible that an entry in the state column in the item table may be contributing to this issue. Adjust the reference with this query:

update item
set state = replace (cast (state as nvarchar (max)), 'http://CHILD01.example.net/Altiris/','https://ACHILD01.example.net/Altiris/')
where guid = 'F241DB2F-F30D-4C19-AC4E-A15DA7B5347A'