Strange characters (Â, ÿ) in Windows Agent Report

Products

• CA Automic Workload Automation - Automation Engine

Issue/Introduction

When running Windows jobs, strange characters like  and ÿ appear in the job report (REP).

Depending on the setting of 'Digit grouping symbol' (Windows Region settings > Format tab > Additional settings...), the 'ÿ' appears instead of a comma (","), while the the  appears instead of a space (" ")

For example:

In the Windows command line the following command works as expected:

c:\>tasklist /S <local_server> /FI "IMAGENAME eq tomcat9.exe" /NH 
Tomcat9.exe                   7548 Services                   0    2,184,648 K

or

c:\>tasklist /S <local_server> /FI "IMAGENAME eq tomcat9.exe" /NH 
Tomcat9.exe                   7548 Services                   0    2 184 648 K

 

While in the Automic Windows job report (REP) the following is displayed (comma):

c:\>tasklist /S <local_server> /FI "IMAGENAME eq tomcat9.exe" /NH 
Tomcat9.exe                   7548 Services                   0    2ÿ184ÿ648 K

or (space):

c:\>tasklist /S <local_server> /FI "IMAGENAME eq tomcat9.exe" /NH 
Tomcat9.exe                   7548 Services                   0    2Â 184Â 648 K

(Note that an invisible character appears after the "Â", which looks like a space but is something else)

Environment

Windows Agent v12.x or v21.0

Cause

This issue occurs when using the following Windows Region settings:

• Region > United States
• Regional format > German

(Possibly other Regional formats have the same issue)

 

Resolution

Upgrade the Windows Agent to v24.x; in this version the issue does not occur on anymore.

As a workaround the UC4-command SUB_STR may be used to replace the strange character.