On a Service Desk Primary/Secondary server, the pdm_ver.exe process is unable to start, which prevents the SDM daemons from starting properly

Products

• CA Service Management - Service Desk Manager
• CA Service Desk Manager

Issue/Introduction

Occasionally the pdm_ver.exe process does not start properly.  In the Windows OS Event Viewer, the following Application Error is seen:

Description:

Faulting application name: pdm_ver.exe, version: 12.6.0.165, time stamp: 0x4da7578c
Faulting module name: pdm_ver.exe, version: 12.6.0.165, time stamp: 0x4da7578c \
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Faulting process id: 0x86c
Faulting application start time: 0x01cea031f24a0cb3
Faulting application path: D:\PROGRA~1\CA\SERVIC~1\bin\pdm_ver.exe
Faulting module path: D:\PROGRA~1\CA\SERVIC~1\bin\pdm_ver.exe

The pdm_ver.exe process creates a DMP file and the following call stack is found to be common:

pdm_ver!I18n_msgNX::get_msg_from_shm
pdm_ver!I18n_msgNX::findi18nMsg
pdm_ver!I18n_msgNX::findMsg
pdm_ver!Client::decode_status
pdm_ver!main
pdm_ver!mainCRTStartup
kernel32!BaseThreadInitThunk
ntdll!__RtlUserThreadStart
ntdll!_RtlUserThreadStart

Environment

Service Desk Manager 14.x and 17.x

All Supported Windows Operating Systems

Resolution

The DMP file indicates that the pdm_ver.exe process is crashing because it is trying to access invalid memory at the time of the crash.

To correct this problem, there is an NX.ENV setting, NX_USE_PDM_DLL=YES, that can be added. With this setting enabled, the pdm_ver.exe process will lookup information in the pdm.dll file instead of shared memory.

You can use the following commands to add/modify the NX_USE_PDM_DLL variable to the NX.ENV file:

pdm_options_mgr -c -s USE_PDM_DLL -v YES -a pdm_option.inst
pdm_options_mgr -c -s USE_PDM_DLL -v YES -a pdm_option.inst -t

After making this change, you are required to recycle the SDM service in order to make this setting active.