Task Server Services are Restarting on Site Servers Randomly

Products

• IT Management Suite

Issue/Introduction

After upgrading to ITMS 8.7.2 (this can happen as well from 8.8.0 to 8.8.1), the task server services are restarting every hour causing disconnections and job failures.

Some of the Symptoms:
All managed endpoints failed to execute tasks with the error:

Task Server Connection: Task Server failed request, server error description: The handler 'GetTasks' is failed to process request. The agent needs to register., error: Client Task Agent is not registered on Task Server (0x8FA7000D) 

Environment

ITMS 8.7.2 release

Cause

The "Automatically restart services" option in Task Server settings was enabled, causing instability in agent registration and task processing following configuration changes.

The setting Automatically restart services (Altiris Object Host Service, Client Task Data Loader, WWW Publishing) when configuration changes are enabled.  By default this is disabled.

With this setting enabled, the task server services can restart every time it makes configuration request.

Resolution

Improvements were done in our ITMS 8.7.3

Revert to the default setting of unchecking the option Automatically restart services (Altiris Object Host Service, Client Task Data Loader, WWW Publishing) when configuration changes are enabled:

1. Navigate to Settings > Notification Server > Site Server Settings > Task Service > Settings.
2. Locate the Task Server settings section.
3. Verify the state of the option: “Automatically restart services (Altiris Object Host Service, Client Task Data Loader, WWW Publishing Service) when configuration changes”.
4. Uncheck this option (it is disabled by default).
5. Monitor managed endpoints to ensure the "Client Task Agent is not registered" errors cease and tasks begin executing.

Expected Outcome: 
Task Server services will remain stable, allowing Client Task Agents to successfully register and process task requests.