installed AutoSys Agent V24.0 on a windows server with OS version 2016 wont start

Products

• Autosys Workload Automation

Issue/Introduction

After installing a 24.x agent on a Windows 2016 server, the agent service will not start.
In the nohup.stderr we see the following message
Agent failed to initialize ...java.lang.IllegalStateException: cybermation.library.security.aa: Unable to read raw key material

In the cybagent_service.log the following messages are being seen
01/06/2026 09:22:15.246+0000: Running under: Windows Server 2016
01/06/2026 09:22:15.246+0000: Locale: English_United Kingdom.1252
01/06/2026 09:22:15.261+0000: Hardware: CPU = x86-64 x4, Physical memory = 16383MB
01/06/2026 09:22:15.261+0000: Jars found: "jars/agent.jar;jars/appservices.jar;jars/commonsvc_log.jar;jars/commonsvc_transport.jar;jars/commonsvc_utility.jar;jars/commonsvc_webservice.jar;jars/database.jar;jars/dataservices.jar;jars/informatica.jar;jars/installer.jar;jars/itpam.jar;jars/js.jar;jars/microfocus.jar;jars/oa.jar;jars/proxy.jar;jars/proxyjs.jar;jars/ps.jar;jars/sap.jar;jars/snmpagent.jar;jars/sql.jar;jars/webservice.jar;jars/ext/accessors-smart.jar;jars/ext/activation.jar;jars/ext/asm.jar;jars/ext/bcprov-jdk.jar;jars/ext/castor-core.jar;jars/ext/castor-xml-schema.jar;jars/ext/castor-xml.jar;jars/ext/commons-cli.jar;jars/ext/commons-codec.jar;jars/ext/commons-collections4.jar;jars/ext/commons-lang3.jar;jars/ext/commons-logging.jar;jars/ext/httpclient.jar;jars/ext/httpcore-h2.jar;jars/ext/httpcore.jar;jars/ext/jackson-annotations.jar;jars/ext/jackson-core.jar;jars/ext/jackson-databind.jar;jars/ext/java1x;jars/ext/json-path.jar;jars/ext/json-smart.jar;jars/ext/log4j-api.jar;jars/ext/log4j-core.jar;jars/ext/log4j-slf4j-impl.jar;jars/ext/mail.jar;jars/ext/qname.jar;jars/ext/resolver.jar;jars/ext/security;jars/ext/serializer.jar;jars/ext/sinetfactory.jar;jars/ext/slf4j-api.jar;jars/ext/wsdl4j.jar;jars/ext/wss4j-ws-security-common.jar;jars/ext/wss4j-ws-security-dom.jar;jars/ext/xercesImpl.jar;jars/ext/xml-apis.jar;jars/ext/xmlsec.jar;"
01/06/2026 09:22:16.593+0000: JVM finished with ExitCode: 97
01/06/2026 09:22:16.608+0000: CybAgentDriver has exited
01/06/2026 09:22:16.608+0000: Initiating shutdown sequence...
01/06/2026 09:22:16.608+0000: Shutdown sequence complete

from the defaultlog_agent.log the following is being seen
01/06/2026 09:22:16.082+0000 3 main.MainThread.CybTcpipControllerPlugin.initialize[:275] - Receiver/Transmitter initializing...
01/06/2026 09:22:16.097+0000 1 main.MainThread.CybTcpipControllerPlugin.initialize[:314] - cybermation.library.security.aa: Unable to read raw key material

                                                                                           Caused by: java.nio.file.NoSuchFileException: C:\Program Files\CA\WorkloadAutomationAE\SystemAgent\WA_AGENT\cryptkey.txt

01/06/2026 09:22:16.097+0000 1 main.MainThread.CybAgentDriver.runApplication[:413] - cybermation.library.plugins.CybPluginException: java.lang.IllegalStateException: cybermation.library.security.aa: Unable to read raw key material
                                                                                    Caused by: java.lang.IllegalStateException: cybermation.library.security.aa: Unable to read raw key material
 

Environment

AutoSys Agent 12.X, 24.x

Cause

The agent was missing a critical file cryptkey.txt required to start

Resolution

Option 1:
Copy a cryptkey.txt from a working agent to the agent directory and restart the agent

Option 2:
Uninstall the agent and reinstall the agent, making sure to disable any antivirus software