Altiris Agent is unable to download Client Policies XML or becomes unstable and freezes

Products

• IT Management Suite

Issue/Introduction

The NS 7 Agent is unable to download its configuration xml files. It becomes (generally) unresponsive in the UI and stops responding to Task Server events.

The following error messages may be seen in the logs:

Request policies failed: Invalid XML response from URL http://servername/Altiris/NS/Agent/GetClientPolicies.aspx (-2147467259)

or

Not enough storage is available to complete this operation

or

Unable to get the client policies

Cause

Currently under investigation.

NOTE: This issue can look similar to the issue described in KB 48612, but it is a different issue. This issue can be worked-around by restarting the NS Agent whereas KB 48612 requires a different treatment.

Resolution

At this time, there are several identified cases where testing is currently underway to isolate the core issue. In the interim, the work around is to create a scheduled task that reboots the NS Agent several times a day.  NOTE:: At least one person was able to resolve this by setting up the task to run only on the Notification Server itself. Others have had to deploy a scheduled task to all of their managed workstations.

To accomplish this work-around:

1) Create a new batch file that contains the following lines:

NET STOP "Altiris Agent"
NET START "Altiris Agent"

2) Create the windows scheduled task by navigating to Start -> Settings -> Control panel -> Scheduled Tasks -> Add Scheduled Task and following the wizard. Select the batch file you created in step 1

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At least one customer has found resolution to this problem by updating to the NS 7 SP2 HF2 agent.

In other environments, the issue has gone away after GPO's were updated. The issue does not manifest itself on systems that are not on the domain, making this appear to be more of an environmental issue.

Applies To
Notification Server 7.0

Machines affected are running both Windows XP and Windows Server 2003

Affected machines have at least 4GB RAM installed

Affected machines have at least 10GB of free hard drive space