Some Package Servers are partially downloading a few packages

Products

IT Management Suite Client Management Suite

Issue/Introduction

You captured an initial deployment disk image on one of your site package servers. Some of the package servers have successfully been able to download the appropriate disk image files (under the Cache folder), the snapshot.xml, and the snapdata.xml files:

There are at least two package servers that have no content in the Cache folder, and the snapshot.xml and the snapdata.xml files do not match the package servers that were successful in downloading the packages:

Note: This issue may occur with other type of packages besides deployment disk image files.

Environment

ITMS 8.x.x

Cause

Unknown. This was likely a timing issue when the initial package reference was received and the actual hosting package server didn't have the files yet.

Resolution

The following steps are provided as a guidance of what to do in case resetting the affected package doesn't work (resetting means: making some sort of change to it to force to be seen as a new version and force download) or even restarting the package server services didn't make a difference.

For this example, the affected package will be called "Windows 10 LTSC 2021 0625 OTR".
The affected example package GUID is: 5E9233CB-032A-47A8-821C-B1A81D5DDD47

Try to add a dummy txt file to the affected package (to force it to be considered a new package version) and see if the issue still persists.
Make sure that the database has the right package version. Check that SWDPackage, SWDPackageCodebase, SWDPackageServer tables to verify if they have the right entries, especially the package version. This SQL query will help:

select * from SWDPackage
where packageid = '5E9233CB-032A-47A8-821C-B1A81D5DDD47' --GUID of affected package

select * from SWDPackageCodebase
where packageid = '5E9233CB-032A-47A8-821C-B1A81D5DDD47'

select * from SWDPackageServer
where packageid = '5E9233CB-032A-47A8-821C-B1A81D5DDD47'

Pre-ITMS 8.8 Release:

Clean up the package reference from the agent Secure Storage on your Package Server by doing the following:
1. In SMP console access Settings->Agents/Plug-ins->Symantec Management Agent->Settings->Global Agent Settings
2. Place checkmark on "Allow remote troubleshooting" and input password of your choice and click Save
3. Update agent configuration on the package server to receive the "remote troubleshooting" password.
1. Locate SMATool (...\Program Files\Altiris\Notification Server\Bin\Tools) and copy it to where your PsExec tool is located on the package server.
2. Start CMD with Admin privileges and navigate to PsExec tool directory
3. Start PsExec via the following command "psexec -i -s cmd.exe". A new CMD will open running under "nt authority\system" account (to check this is working type the "whoami" command). Go to the Properties of new CMD and in Layout tab modify the Screen buffer size Height to higher number (9999) to see all of the screen output
4. Navigate to the same directory as the PsExec tool and SMATool and issue the following commands:

In order to delete the package information from the Secure Storage, you'll need to be able to access the Secure Storage. For that you'll need to create and enable "Remote Troubleshooting Password" from within the SMP console:
Copy the SMATool.exe from the SMP server to the package server, as well as Microsoft's PsExec:

Now open the Symantec Management Agent (SMA) UI window on your package server and manually request "Update Configuration". In the "Package Server" tab, click on the "Refresh All Packages" link and after it is done, Click both "Check integrity" and "Resend status" for the affected package and after a few minutes you should see the package retrying to download. Make sure the package actually is ready on the package server where this package should be downloading from:
Then navigate back to the SMP console and disable "Allow remote troubleshooting":

Post-ITMS 8.8 Release:

The following steps are very similar to what we have for Pre-ITMS 8.8 Release. The main change is that smatool.exe is not longer available (it has been removed from the product) since our ITMS 8.8 release.

Clean up the package reference from the agent Secure Storage on your Package Server by doing the following:
1. Download PSExec tool (sysinternals tool) from Microsoft website.
1. Place PsExec tool on the package server.
2. Start CMD with Admin privileges and navigate to PsExec tool directory
3. Start PsExec via the following command "psexec -i -s cmd.exe". A new CMD will open running under "nt authority\system" account (to check this is working type the "whoami" command). Go to the Properties of new CMD and in Layout tab modify the Screen buffer size Height to higher number (9999) to see all of the screen output
4. Navigate to the same directory as the PsExec tool and issue the following commands:
  1. "net stop aexnsclient" to stop Symantec Management Agent service to unlock locking handles from the Secure Storage to be able to make necessary modifications
  2. "iisreset /stop" to stop IIS service
  3. Delete all .xml files for the {5E9233CB-032A-47A8-821C-B1A81D5DDD47} directory. While in the psexec window that you opened as System account, navigate to "Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Package Delivery\{5E9233CB-032A-47A8-821C-B1A81D5DDD47}" and from inside of that directory run the following:
    del snapshot.xml
    del snapdata.xml
    del log.xml
    rmdir cache
    
    Note: If you can't delete these files, you can also select the top folder, in this example {5E9233CB-032A-47A8-821C-B1A81D5DDD47}, and grant "Full Control" to the Administrators group (instead of just Read & execute and Read)
  4. Delete the {5E9233CB-032A-47A8-821C-B1A81D5DDD47} folder now that it is empty. While in the psexec window that you opened as System, navigate to "Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Package Delivery" and from inside this directory run the following:
    rmdir {5E9233CB-032A-47A8-821C-B1A81D5DDD47}
  5. net start aexnsclient <-- to start SMA service back
  6. iisreset /start <-- to start IIS
Now open the Symantec Management Agent (SMA) UI window on your package server and manually request "Update Configuration". In the "Package Server" tab, click on the "Refresh All Packages" link and after it is done, Click both "Check integrity" and "Resend status" for the affected package and after a few minutes you should see the package retrying to download. Make sure the package actually is ready on the package server where this package should be downloading from.
If the issue still persists after deleting the associated files for the affected package(s), then you will need to reach out to Broadcom Support in order to get a copy of smatool.exe so you can delete the references for this package from the secure storage as we used to do in the above section for Pre-ITMS 8.8 Release.

Additional Information

Package stuck in "Retrying Download", Cannot access file errors on Package Server: The version of the package on the server xxx is older than required xxx (0x80004005)