Windows uninstall "Cannot restore XCOM Data Transport system files"

Products

• XCOM Data Transport
• XCOM Data Transport - Windows

Issue/Introduction

Trying to uninstall XCOM Data Transport r12.0 and Maintenance from a Windows Server 2016 server.

The first required step is to uninstall the Maintenance which fails with:
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Maintenance Uninstallation Error

Cannot restore XCOM Data Transport system files

An error occurred copying one or more of the CA XCOM Data Transport system files. Please refer to C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Temp\2\xcompatchinstaller.log for details on the error(s)

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XCOM is installed in directory E:\Program Files\CA\XCOM

Environment

Release : 11.6, 12.0
XCOM™ Data Transport® for Windows

Cause

Looking at the xcompatchinstaller.log file it shows both XCOM service process xcomd.exe and XCOM listener process caxcgsvr.exe are not running i.e.:

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{08/15/2024-19:08:47}======================================== Starting Uninstallation =========================================

{08/15/2024-19:08:47}Check whether user has admin permissions 

{08/15/2024-19:08:47}User has admin group permissions

{08/15/2024-19:08:47}Check whether XCOM service or XCOM listener is running 

{08/15/2024-19:08:48}XCOM service or XCOM listener is not running 
***

However after searching for string "0 file(s) copied" see occurrences of  :
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Line #23:cmd /c copy "E:\Program Files\CA\XCOM\Maint64\Backup\\caxcgsvr.exe" "E:\Program Files\CA\XCOM\caxcgsvr.exe" /y
        0 file(s) copied.
The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.
....
Line #23:cmd /c copy "E:\Program Files\CA\XCOM\Maint64\Work\\caxcgsvr.exe" "E:\Program Files\CA\XCOM\caxcgsvr.exe" /y
        0 file(s) copied.
The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.
***

It therefore looks like the XCOM listener process caxcgsvr.exe might still be running or the file may be locked by another process.

Resolution

In this case because it was a test server the XCOM service could be stopped, the startup type set to Manual, and the server restarted without the XCOM service being started.
That allowed the uninstall of the XCOM maintenance and the XCOM product itself to complete successfully.

Additional Information

The Windows Event Logging service may continue to hold a handle on XCOM service and keeps the caxcgsvr process active even after XCOM service is stopped.

For a scenario when caxcgsvr.exe is not running (not visible in Task Manager etc) but the file is locked by some other process that is also covered in this article: Patch install error copying & caxcgsvr.exe "cannot access the file" XCOM for Windows where the file was renamed to workaround the problem.

XCOM™ Data Transport® for Windows 12.0 > Installing > Uninstall or Roll Back