Package Servers were not receiving a list of packages, but instead throwing a short warning in the agent logs

Products

• Management Platform (Formerly known as Notification Server)

Issue/Introduction

Package Server warning: Failed to create object 'Altiris.AeXNSCPkgSvr': The object is not registered or is not present in the policy (0x8000401B)

Package Servers were not receiving a list of packages, but instead throwing a short warning in the agent logs (below)

The log entries from the SMP and PS that related to this problem are as follows:

SMP:

 Source: Altiris.NS.AgentManagement.PolicyRequest.BuildPolicyXml
Description: Unable to generate policy XML for item: 'Site Server Settings Client Policy' (9500a868-a21d-4d1c-acc0-0045873b1289), resource: 1e06f280-8e4c-4232-883e-8fd689b19054
Object reference not set to an instance of an object........

Source: Altiris.NS.StandardItems.PackageServer.PkgSvrEventPolicy.OnBuildClientConfigXml2
Description: Failed to generate package server config for: 1e06f280-8e4c-4232-883e-8fd689b19054
Object reference not set to an instance of an object..........

Source: Altiris.NS.AgentManagement.PolicyRequest.BuildPolicyXml
Description: Unable to generate policy XML for item: 'Package Server Status Event Capture Item' (f85fe5d9-005a-40ac-b213-944b496405fe), resource: 1e06f280-8e4c-4232-883e-8fd689b19054
Failed to get ClientConfigXml for Package Server.

PS:

Description:  Failed to create object 'Altiris.AeXNSCPkgSvr': The object is not registered or is not present in the policy (0x8000401B)

The error in the above PS logs means that the package server didn't get a "Package Server Status Event Capture Item" section in its client policy xml because the SMP couldn't generate that part of the policy list so it was omitted. The "Package Server Status Event Capture Item" section is what contains the list of packages each PS should be downloading and maintaining.

Cause

 The SMP was unable to generate the policy that provides package servers with their list of packages because the underlying item was missing in the database:

"Global Site Server Settings" GUID: 0da377d0-5159-4498-bb36-345e294f3791 

The root cause as to how this happened is unknown. Perhaps a recent upgrade may have had the transaction creating the object rolled back before it could be committed in the database, and the installation process did not receive notification that it had been.

DETECTION CHECK:  To determine if the condition exists, run the following SQL against the database. If no rows are returned then the problem is confirmed.

      EXECUTE spItemClassGet @Guid='0da377d0-5159-4498-bb36-345e294f3791'

Environment

Management Platform 8.1 RU7

Resolution

1. Download and copy the attached  "Global Site Server Settings.xml" file to a folder on the SMP server (C:\Temp)
2. Open a Command Prompt (as administrator) and change folders to ".\Program Files\Altiris\Notification Server\bin\Tools"    {the first part of path will depend on what volume it is installed to}
3. Run the following command:    ImportExportUtil /import "C:\Temp\Global Site Server Settings.xml"
4. Open Windows Task Scheduler and run "NS.Package Server Status Event Capture Item.{f85fe5d9-005a-40ac-b213-944b496405fe}"

After the package servers updated their configuration they received the "Package Server Status Event Capture Item" section