The Notification Server logs are filling up with errors: Error Parsing XML

Products

• IT Management Suite

Issue/Introduction

The EvtQueue is getting multiple bad NSEs. Most of those errors are related to "Error Parsing XML - System.Xml.XmlException: The '6' character, hexadecimal value 0x36, cannot begin with a name. Line 8, position 29." These are some of the errors that may be seen:

Priority: 1
Date: 2/8/2007 1:28:49 PM
Tick Count: 1811381562
Host Name: ALTIRISNS
Process: aexsvc.exe (16040)
Thread ID: 14504
Module: AltirisNativeHelper.dll
Source: Altiris.NS.LegacyInterop.ItemMessageDispatcherService.Dispatch
Description: Error Parsing XML - System.Xml.XmlException: The '6' character, hexadecimal value 0x36, cannot begin with a name. Line 8, position 29.
   at System.Xml.XmlScanner.ScanName()
   at System.Xml.XmlScanner.ScanMarkup()
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReader.ParseTag()
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReader.ParseBeginTagExpandCharEntities()
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReader.Read()
   at Altiris.NS.LegacyInterop.ItemMessageDispatcherService.Dispatch(String message, Boolean useFilename) Stack trace:    at System.Xml.XmlScanner.ScanName()
   at System.Xml.XmlScanner.ScanMarkup()
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReader.ParseTag()
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReader.ParseBeginTagExpandCharEntities()
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReader.Read()
   at Altiris.NS.LegacyInterop.ItemMessageDispatcherService.Dispatch(String message, Boolean useFilename)

Priority: 1
Date: 2/8/2007 1:28:49 PM
Tick Count: 1811381562
Host Name: ALTIRISNS
Process: aexsvc.exe (16040)
Thread ID: 14504
Module: AltirisNativeHelper.dll
Source: Altiris.NS.ClientMessaging.FileDispatcher.ProcessFileCallback
Description: Unable to process the file "E:\Program Files\Altiris\Notification Server\NSCap\EvtQueue\Process\nse6CD7.tmp" Moving to "E:\Program Files\Altiris\Notification Server\NSCap\EvtQueue\Bad\AeXException\nse6CD8.tmp". Reason: Error Parsing XML - System.Xml.XmlException: The '6' character, hexadecimal value 0x36, cannot begin with a name. Line 8, position 29.
   at System.Xml.XmlScanner.ScanName()
   at System.Xml.XmlScanner.ScanMarkup()
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReader.ParseTag()
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReader.ParseBeginTagExpandCharEntities()
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReader.Read()
   at Altiris.NS.LegacyInterop.ItemMessageDispatcherService.Dispatch(String message, Boolean useFilename)

Priority: 1
Date: 2/8/2007 1:28:54 PM
Tick Count: 1811386187
Host Name: ALTIRISNS
Process: aexsvc.exe (16040)
Thread ID: 11572
Module: AltirisNativeHelper.dll
Source: Altiris.NS.LegacyInterop.ItemMessageDispatcherService.Dispatch
Description: Error Parsing XML - System.Xml.XmlException: '?', hexadecimal value 0x03, is an invalid character. Line 6, position 5.
   at System.Xml.XmlScanner.ScanContent()
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReader.ParseBeginTagExpandCharEntities()
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReader.Read()
   at Altiris.NS.LegacyInterop.ItemMessageDispatcherService.Dispatch(String message, Boolean useFilename) Stack trace:    at System.Xml.XmlScanner.ScanContent()
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReader.ParseBeginTagExpandCharEntities()
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReader.Read()
   at Altiris.NS.LegacyInterop.ItemMessageDispatcherService.Dispatch(String message, Boolean useFilename)

Priority: 2
Date: 2/8/2007 1:28:54 PM
Tick Count: 1811386234
Host Name: ALTIRISNS
Process: aexsvc.exe (16040)
Thread ID: 11572
Module: AltirisNativeHelper.dll
Source: Altiris.NS.ClientMessaging.FileDispatcher.ProcessFileCallback
Description: An XmlException occured while processing the message E:\Program Files\Altiris\Notification Server\NSCap\EvtQueue\Process\nse6CE6.tmp. Replacing invalid characters and re-processing.

Priority: 2
Date: 2/8/2007 1:28:54 PM
Tick Count: 1811386250
Host Name: ALTIRISNS
Process: aexsvc.exe (16040)
Thread ID: 11572
Module: AltirisNativeHelper.dll
Source: Altiris.NS.ClientMessaging.FileDispatcher.ProcessFileCallback
Description: 30205 invalid characters were replaced with the ? character

Cause

A corruption of NSEs from one specific computer. As well, it can be associated to corruption with the Altiris Agent or any other subagent. The XML in the bad NSEs is not valid because it contains an invalid character. The invalid characters are generally found on the client computer and added to the inventory XML.

Resolution

First, identify that bad NSEs that are coming into the EvTQueue folder. Then try to determine if all the bad NSEs are coming from the same computer. Check the headers of the some of the bad NSEs. The computer name usually appears under the attibute 'Name'. The bad NSEs usually looks like this:

<?xml version='1.0' ?>
<XmlData>
<WbemEventObject class='CE_NfySvrRemoteEvent'>
<MessageID></MessageID>
<Resource guid='{C73B11D1-CF9E-42AF-B7AB-F2E64C910FB2}' typeGuid='493435F7-3B17-4C4C-B07F-C23E7AB7781F'><Attribute name='Domain' value='MyDomain'/><Attribute name='Name' value='CO-CBERRY2'/><Attribute name='Altkey1' value=''/><Attribute name='Altkey2' value='00-B0-D0-A1-1F-C0'/></Resource>
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When you have identified the offending computers (usually that information can be found in the headers of the NSE under <Attribute name='Name' value='COMPUTERNAME'/>), delete all the NSE files located in the C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Queue folder in that computer and either reboot the computer or restart the Altiris Agent Service. If after doing this you still get bad NSEs from this computer in the Notification Server, remove the Altiris Agent with all the Subagents. To do this, see article 1995, "Instructions for the complete manual uninstall of the Altiris agent."

Applies To
Notification Server 6.0.xxxx