Error, "Could not start the Altiris Agent service on Local Computer. Error 1067: The Process Terminated Unexpectedly"

Products

IT Management Suite

Issue/Introduction

Altiris Agent is installed on a client computer. Most of the subfolders under C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent are created.

The Altiris Agent Service is also installed. However, the Altiris Agent Service starts for few seconds and then stops. If you try to start it manually, the following error appears:

Could not start the Altiris Agent service on Local Computer
Error 1067: The Process Terminated Unexpectedly

Even though I remove and reinstall the Altiris Agent, it doesn't make a difference.

Looking under the Agent log, you can see the following:

"10/25/2007 12:13:50 PM","Client Thread thread 0xCAC beginning"
"10/25/2007 12:13:50 PM","Error reading policy from file C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Client Policies\ServerName.Domain.com.xml: Error loading policy file: The system cannot find the path specified. (-2147024893). This is normal the first time the agent runs after being installed."
"10/25/2007 12:05:50 PM","Starting version 6.0.2386 on Microsoft Windows Server 2003 5.2 Service Pack 2 Build 3790..."
"10/25/2007 12:05:50 PM","Loading client object: Altiris.AeXClientSessionManager"
"10/25/2007 12:05:50 PM","Loading client object: Altiris.AeXNotificationManager"
"10/25/2007 12:05:50 PM","Loading client object: Altiris.AeXTaskScheduler"
"10/25/2007 12:05:50 PM","Creating CAeXTaskSchedulerThread"
"10/25/2007 12:05:50 PM","Loading client object: Altiris.AeXNetwork.Receiver"
"10/25/2007 12:05:50 PM","Object Altiris.AeXNetwork.Receiver is not installed: Class not registered (-2147221164). This situation should be resolved once the agent rollout has been completed."
"10/25/2007 12:05:50 PM","Loading client object: Altiris.SWD"

The Log will stop suddenly after the above line (Altiris.SWD). New entries will be a repeat of the startup process.

Looking under AeXNSC.log, the following is noticed:

2007-10-25 12:05:43: ==========================
2007-10-25 12:05:43: AeXInstallPreCheck started
2007-10-25 12:05:43: Current dir: C:\DOCUME~1\Admin\LOCALS~1\Temp\apt0
2007-10-25 12:05:43: AeXInstallPreCheck Finished
2007-10-25 12:05:43: ===========================
2007-10-25 12:05:43:
2007-10-25 12:05:43: Passing control to AeXNSAgent
2007-10-25 12:05:43: Commandline: AeXNSAgent.exe ns="ServerName.Domain.com" nsweb="http://ServerName.Domain.com/ALTIRIS/"
2007-10-25 12:05:43: ===============================
2007-10-25 12:05:43: Core Agent Installation started
2007-10-25 12:05:43: GetInstallPath didnt find installDir in the 6.x key, trying the old key.
2007-10-25 12:05:43: GetInstallPath could not get installDir from the old key, the agent may not be installed.
2007-10-25 12:05:43: Checking minimum requirements.
2007-10-25 12:05:43: Detected NT based Platform.
2007-10-25 12:05:43: RegisterMSXML: MSXML is installed
2007-10-25 12:05:45: Server and web set to ServerName.Domain.com and http://ServerName.Domain.com/ALTIRIS/
2007-10-25 12:05:45: Product version set to 6.0.0.2386
2007-10-25 12:05:45: RegisterDLL, C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\AeXAgentPages.dll has been registered.
2007-10-25 12:05:46: RegisterDLL, C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\AeXAgentUI.dll has been registered.
2007-10-25 12:05:46: RegisterDLL, C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\AeXBasicInventory.dll has been registered.
2007-10-25 12:05:46: RegisterDLL, C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\AeXSWDAgent.dll has been registered.
2007-10-25 12:05:48: RegisterDLL, C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\AeXTaskSchedulerLib.dll has been registered.
2007-10-25 12:05:49: RegisterDLL, T:\Program Files\Common Files\Altiris\AexPackageDelivery.dll has been registered.
2007-10-25 12:05:49: RegisterDLL, T:\Program Files\Common Files\Altiris\AeXNetComms.dll has been registered.
2007-10-25 12:05:49: RegisterDLL, T:\Program Files\Common Files\Altiris\AtrsMCast.dll has been registered.
2007-10-25 12:05:50: StartAgent, starting core agent.
2007-10-25 12:05:55: StartAgent, starting core agent.
2007-10-25 12:05:55: Core Agent Installation Ended
2007-10-25 12:05:55: ===============================

Cause

The "Common Files" path wrongly points to a network drive. This is a dangerous practice, as locally installed applications may not have access rights and or permanent access to a network drive. The Altiris Agent (running as Local System) does not have access to the user's network drive (T:) and thus failed when trying to load dependent dlls.

2007-10-25 12:05:45: RegisterDLL, C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\AeXAgentPages.dll has been registered.
2007-10-25 12:05:46: RegisterDLL, C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\AeXAgentUI.dll has been registered.
2007-10-25 12:05:46: RegisterDLL, C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\AeXBasicInventory.dll has been registered.
2007-10-25 12:05:46: RegisterDLL, C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\AeXSWDAgent.dll has been registered.
2007-10-25 12:05:48: RegisterDLL, C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\AeXTaskSchedulerLib.dll has been registered.
2007-10-25 12:05:49: RegisterDLL, T:\Program Files\Common Files\Altiris\AexPackageDelivery.dll has been registered.
2007-10-25 12:05:49: RegisterDLL, T:\Program Files\Common Files\Altiris\AeXNetComms.dll has been registered.
2007-10-25 12:05:49: RegisterDLL, T:\Program Files\Common Files\Altiris\AtrsMCast.dll has been registered

Resolution

Note: For this article, the mapped drive has the drive letter "T".

Uninstall the Altiris Agent. You can use the following command from the RUN prompt (see article 1995 "Instructions for the complete manual uninstall of the Altiris agent" for more details):

"C:\Program Files\Altiris\ALTIRIS AGENT\AeXAgentUtil.exe" /clean
Modify the following registry value:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\CommonFilesDir

from:

T:\Program Files\Common Files

to the default:

C:\Program Files\Common Files
Reinstall the Altiris Agent.

Applies To
Altiris Agent 6.x