UNIXCMD leads to Critical issue, 'Invalid message, eye catcher invalid: '203A736C'' - Linux Agent

Products

• CA Automic Workload Automation - Automation Engine

Issue/Introduction

Jobs executed on a Linux agent intermittently become stuck in the 'ACTIVE' status despite having completed successfully on the OS level. The agent log displays a critical error followed by a required restart.

Symptoms:

• Jobs remain in ACTIVE status even when finished with Return Code 0.
• The Agent log contains the following error: 
U02000504 Critical issue, 'Invalid message, eye catcher invalid: '203A736C'' is aborted due to: '&02'. The Agent need to be restarted.
U00045014 Exception 'java.io.IOException: "Invalid message, eye catcher invalid: '203A736C'"' at 'com.automic.os.process.unix.userservice.UserServiceChannel.receiveMessage():131'.
• Issue often occurs when using PREP_PROCESS with UNIXCMD where the command fails (e.g., ls on a non-existent or unmounted directory).
• It could occur as well when invoking any EVENT.* for Unix that redirects the output (2>&1) 
• The issue did not occur when agent was on version 21.x (c-based Unix Agent)

Environment

Agent Unix 24.x and superior

Affected objects: Any EVENT.* for Unix that redirects the output (2>&1) defined either on client 0 or in a particular client

Cause

DE200941

Resolution

Workaround: 

For the impacted EVENT.* object:

1. Open the object in the Automic Web Interface on the client where is defined (normally on client 0, ie EVENT.UNIXCMD).
2. Navigate to the Unix tab.
3. Enable the flag Job Report - Store to Database.
4. Save the object.

Solution:

Update to a fix version listed below or a newer version if available.

Fix version:
Component(s): Agent Unix

Automation.Engine 24.4.4 HF3 - Available
Automation.Engine 24.4.5 - Planned release July 2026
Automation.Engine 26.1.0 - Planned release July 2026

 

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Additional Information

Public Title: UNIXCMD job stopping agent when command writes to stderr

Public Description: A problem has been fixed where the Unix Java agent stops processing jobs after a UNIXCMD job ran a command that produced stderr output (e.g., 'ls' on a non-existent path).