NetOps Portal Data Source Synchronization Failures Due to Illegal Control Characters in Regex Rules

Products

• Network Observability
• CA Performance Management

Issue/Introduction

Synchronization between the NetOps Portal and Data Aggregator (DA) may fail with jakarta.xml.ws.WebServiceException: Unmarshalling Error: Illegal character if invalid control characters are present in metadata fields.

This would cause any Data Source (DS) configured in the NetOps Portal to show synchronization failure. It will begin with incremental synchronization cycles starting for the DS's directly after the offending value is entered into the NetOps Portal web UI.

We will see this error in the $PORTAL_HOME/PerformanceCenter/DM/logs/DMService.log. We'll see a version of it for each DS configured. This is an example for the DA DS.

ERROR | SyncPhaseExecutor-MTthread-4 | 2026-08-19 10:17:30,874 | com.ca.im.portal.dm.productsync.DataSourcePoller                 
      | 
Data source DS(3) Data Aggregator@<DAHostName> encountered an error while processing a sync request. Check the logs for that product to determine the cause of the problem within the data source.  The following stack trace shows the context of the sync request:
jakarta.xml.ws.WebServiceException: org.apache.cxf.binding.soap.SoapFault: Unmarshalling Error: Illegal character ((CTRL-CHAR, code 22))
 at [row,col {unknown-source}]: [1,2042] 
<<< java "at..." messages removed for brevity>>>
Caused by: org.apache.cxf.binding.soap.SoapFault: Unmarshalling Error: Illegal character ((CTRL-CHAR, code 22))
 at [row,col {unknown-source}]: [1,2042] 
<<< java "at..." messages removed for brevity>>>

Then we see the DA DS enter sync failure due to the bad value entered.

ERROR | SyncPhaseExecutor-MTthread-4 | 2026-08-19 10:17:30,904 | com.ca.im.portal.dm.productsync.SyncPhaseExecutor                
      | Aborting sync phase for DataSource Data Aggregator@<DAHostName> because an exception occurred: jakarta.xml.ws.WebServiceException: org.apache.cxf.binding.soap.SoapFault: Unmarshalling Error: Illegal character ((CTRL-CHAR, code 22))
 at [row,col {unknown-source}]: [1,2042] 

This tells us somewhere a bad text value was entered, likely via copy/paste, where the text inadvertently contained a control character. What was last being worked on before the issue began?

Environment

DX NetOps Performance Management (all versions).

Cause

Copying and pasting complex regex rules or descriptions into the UI can introduce hidden ASCII control characters. XML specifications strictly forbid most ASCII control characters.

In the instance where this problem was seen, it was determined through discussions with the NetOps administrators that a group was created using regex for a rule. This was done just prior to synchronization failures beginning.

It was determined that the group was set with the same regex expression used for the group membership rule in it's Description field. In this case the regex is like the following example.

• ABC.*|DEF.*|GHI.*|JKL.*|MNO.*|PQR.*|STU.*|VWX.*|YZ1.*

The problem found in the UI was a space entered near the end. It was seen as follows here where an errant space was introduced between the final pipe symbol and the letter Y.

• ABC.*|DEF.*|GHI.*|JKL.*|MNO.*|PQR.*|STU.*|VWX.*| YZ1.*

It was present in both group rule and description fields.

Resolution

To resolve the issue we edited the fields and saved the changes to the group. After a global sync completed as the DS incremental syncs were started and completed the DS's once again started to sync successfully with Portal.

1. Navigate to the group or rule configuration in the UI.
2. Manually rewrite the description and rule fields using standard alphanumeric characters and permitted operators.
3. Save changes.
4. Monitor the Administration -> Data Sources -> Data Sources page (the Manage Data Sources page).
   1. Watch for Global Sync to complete.
   2. Once Global Sync completes watch for DS syncs to start and complete

Once Global and DS syncs have completed after the bad value was corrected, they should start entering a successful sync state.

Additional Information

If the issue persists, collect DMService.log from the NetOps Portal and review the stack trace for the specific CTRL-CHAR code. Open a support case for further assistance.

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