APM: Unable to Start Data Importer Engine and Clarification on Post-Install Step Documentation For Oracle Environments

Products

• CA IT Asset Manager
• CA IT Asset Manager Asset Portfolio Management
• CA Software Asset Manager (CA SAM)
• ASSET PORTFOLIO MGMT- SERVER

Issue/Introduction

When manually starting the APM services, the Data Importer Engine Service Stops by itself suddenly.  This may occur when starting the Event Service right after the Data Importer Engine Service. 

The ITAMImportService.log may present with a message such as:

2020-05-13 12:30:57,613 UTC [ImportMgr] INFO  CA.Applications.DataImporterEngine.ImportServiceManager - ..Initializing Storage Manager Server [HTTP://APM-SERVER:99/SMService/Service.asmx] access for Import Service

2020-05-13 12:30:57,624 UTC [ImportMgr] ERROR CA.Applications.DataImporterEngine.ImportServiceManager - An error occurred while accessing the Storage Manager Server:{0}System.Net.WebException: The remote server returned an error: (500) Internal Server Error.
   at System.Net.HttpWebRequest.GetResponse()
   at CA.Applications.DataImporterEngine.ImportServiceManager.IsSMServiceUp(String serviceUrl)

2020-05-13 12:30:57,624 UTC [ImportMgr] FATAL CA.Applications.DataImporterEngine.ImportServiceManager - Import Service aborted due to errors.  Review previous error messages for details.

Note:  the above contains log content that was turned on at Debug levels.

Accessing HTTP://APM-SERVER:99/SMService/Service.asmx directly on a web browser should show Web Services content, a list of methods available. 

Instead, it will show error 500 content stating:
"Only one <configSections> element allowed. It must be the first child element of the root <configuration> element."

Environment

Release : 17.3

Component : CA Asset Portfolio Management, Oracle backend database 

Cause

The post install steps specific to Oracle implementations were not followed correctly.  Instructions of interest are:

https://techdocs.broadcom.com/content/broadcom/techdocs/us/en/ca-enterprise-software/business-management/ca-service-management/17-3/installing/post-installation-tasks/ca-asset-portfolio-management-post-installation-tasks/Post-Install-Tasks-After-Installing-CA-APM-on-Oracle-Database.html

Resolution

The requested code in the given documentation should be placed somewhere between the <configuration> tags in the associated web.config file but after the <configSections> tags.  In this case, <<INSTALL_DIR>>\ITAM\Storage Manager Service\web.config. 

The given error may present if the requested code is placed at the very top of the web.config file, immediately after the <configuration> tags and before <configSections>.

Incorrect placement of the suggested code block (placed before the <configSections> part of the web.config file at the start of the file):


Ideal placement of the code block, toward the end of the file:


One should review the placement of the code blocks across all of the config files mentioned in the post install steps:

<<INSTALL_DIR>>\ITAM\Storage Manager Service\web.config

 <<INSTALL_DIR>>\ITAM\WCF Service\web.config

<<INSTALL_DIR>>\ITAM\Import Processor\ImportProcessor.exe.config