Altiris Installation and Configuration Manager fails during step 1 of 40 during Dell Client Management Suite or any other Solution

Products

• IT Management Suite

Issue/Introduction

Issues installing the Dell Client Management Suite using Altiris Installation and Configuration Manager (AICM). The Altiris Installation and Configuration Manager process seems to pass all the requirements but during step 1 of 40 for example, it just stops and give a message about exiting the installation. The AICMlog.xml doesn't provide enough details of what the issue is besides saying that the AexConfig.exe was running and then failed.

The NS logs created during the installation don't have a clear reason why it failed. Errors like this one were seen:

Priority: 1
Date: 5/17/2007 3:31:05 PM
Tick Count: 723929000
Host Name: AltirisServer
Process: AeXConfig.exe (2892)
Thread ID: 3236
Module: AltirisNativeHelper.dll
Source: Altiris.NS.AeXConfig.Main
Description: First web service call failed, possibly due to out-of-date Altiris app identity details in the registry. Trying to set the details manually... ( Unhandled exception.  Type=System.Net.WebException Msg=The underlying connection was closed: An unexpected error occurred on a receive. Src=System.Web.Services
StackTrace=
   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.WebClientProtocol.GetWebResponse(WebRequest request)
   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.HttpWebClientProtocol.GetWebResponse(WebRequest request)
   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHttpClientProtocol.Invoke(String methodName, Object[] parameters)
   at Altiris.NS.Installation.InstallationWebServiceProxy.ConfigureServices(String username, String encryptedUserPassword)
   at Altiris.NS.AeXConfig.Main(String[] args) )

Priority: 1
Date: 5/17/2007 3:31:15 PM
Tick Count: 723939015
Host Name: AltirisServer
Process: AeXConfig.exe (2892)
Thread ID: 3236
Module: AltirisNativeHelper.dll
Source: Altiris.NS.AeXConfig.Main
Description:  ( Unhandled exception.  Type=System.Net.WebException Msg=The underlying connection was closed: An unexpected error occurred on a receive. Src=System.Web.Services
StackTrace=
   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.WebClientProtocol.GetWebResponse(WebRequest request)
   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.HttpWebClientProtocol.GetWebResponse(WebRequest request)
   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHttpClientProtocol.Invoke(String methodName, Object[] parameters)
   at Altiris.NS.Installation.InstallationWebServiceProxy.ConfigureServices(String username, String encryptedUserPassword)
   at Altiris.NS.AeXConfig.Main(String[] args) )

As well, this other error was seem in another failed installation:

Priority: 1
Date: 5/18/2007 11:39:08 AM
Tick Count: 329024109
Host Name: AltirisServer
Process: AeXConfig.exe (3396)
Thread ID: 2688
Module: AltirisNativeHelper.dll
Source: Altiris.NS.AeXConfig.Main
Description: First web service call failed, possibly due to out-of-date Altiris app identity details in the registry. Trying to set the details manually... ( Unhandled exception.  Type=System.Net.WebException Msg=The request failed with HTTP status 404: Not Found. Src=System.Web.Services
StackTrace=
   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHttpClientProtocol.ReadResponse(SoapClientMessage message, WebResponse response, Stream responseStream, Boolean asyncCall)
   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHttpClientProtocol.Invoke(String methodName, Object[] parameters)
   at Altiris.NS.Installation.InstallationWebServiceProxy.ConfigureServices(String username, String encryptedUserPassword)
   at Altiris.NS.AeXConfig.Main(String[] args) )

The Notification Server seems to be partially installed at this point. If you check the Virtual Directories in IIS Manager, the Altiris Virtual Directories were partially installed.

Cause

Permissions missing on the installation drive. Network Service was not set as part of the Security Roles in the installation drive. As well, .NET 2.0 was installed and .NET 1.1 was not registered properly.

This issue also can occur in any other Solution or Suite been installed by Altiris Installation and Configuration Manager.

Resolution

Every environment is different so the following steps may be too generic, but these should give you an idea of what to check if a similar issue occurs:

1. Verify the version of .NET installed. .NET 2.0 can be installed on the server, but you need to verify that .NET 1.1 is properly registered. See steps on article 27432, "What are the most common commands for registering .NET 1.1.4322?"
2. Verify the properties for the Default Website in IIS Manager and ensure that the NSRedirect.dll ISAPI filter is running. If it has a red arrow pointing down and a status of unknown, see steps on article 2122, "NS 6.0 installation error 'Page cannot be displayed.'" In this case the Network Service was not added to the root of the installation drive. Add it, restart IIS and run Altiris Installation and Configuration Manager installation again.

Applies To
Fresh install of Notification Server 6.0.6074 SP3
Dell OCM Client Manager 3.0
Dell Client Management Suite 2.1
Altiris Installation and Configuration Manager 6.1