[sims] SOLUS3 - The remote machine cannot be contacted

[howartp]

Okay guys, anyone had any success with this?

 

I'm on my fourth attempt to get SOLUS3 up and running since it was first released. It all worked fine on the training course I went on last month (of course!).

 

Fresh Win2k8 server for SIMS with SQL2012, and fresh Win2k8 server for SOLUS (v3.5.20 Spring Release) with SQL2008. [Yes, I want to put SOLUS on the SIMS server but I missed the line in the roadmap which says SOLUS doesn't like SQL2012 until Summer - so for now I'm keeping it seperate; don't want to put two SQLs on SIMS server]

 

SOLUS3 installed fine, and the agent on itself is working fine.

 

Agents deployed to the SIMS server and two client PCs in my office (one vanilla Win7 machine, one RM CC4 Win7 machine) all failing with 'The remote machine cannot be contacted'.

 

We have no firewalls turned on in school (except the Smoothwall UTM).

 

I can see that SOLUS is putting the .msi and key file into c:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\NetworkService\AppData\Local\Temp ok, and according to the log file succeeds in installing the agent, but there's no sign of the agent anywhere or the msi logfile which its supposed to create, and the SOLUS GUI then says 'The remote machine cannot be contacted' even though it's just put the files there....

 

HELP!

 

Peter

[neilenormal]

Are all four machines in same domain please?

Absolutely check firewalls locally and on solus3 server....... Turn off to get working then add ports etc later as exceptions

On one of the local PCs (assumed win7 here) go to folder c:\programdata\microsoft\crypto\rsa (hidden by default as a system folder)

Right click Machine keys folder and choose properties, security, advanced, owner and ensure admin user has ownership, OK

On security tab give everyone full control of this folder and files

In c:\program files check for folder called solus3. If not there try creating manually (win7 doesn't seem to like very high permissions here!)

Try agent installer again from solus3 server UI

In c:\program files\Solus3\Agent service folder open in notepad file called Sims.Solus3.Agent.AgentService.exe.config check ports are listed as 52966 and 52965. If 8888 and 9999 they are wrong and correct them and restart solus3 agent services in services.msc

When sending agent from solus3 server it asks for username and twice password: put domainname\administrator in here rather than just administrator.

Some combination or all of above have usually worked for me.

Regards

Neilenormal

[howartp]

Absolutely check firewalls locally and on solus3 server.......

:'(

 

I'm going to crawl away and hide under a rock...

 

I've just followed your steps one by one thinking 'this is pointless, I've already done this'... and found I haven't turned off the &*(£$ firewall on the SOLUS server itself! :'( :'( :'(

 

Thanks Neil, both clients are now showing online.

 

Peter

[neilenormal]

Glad you sorted now. Thats why this forum is so good! God knows it's been a life saver to me in the past!

Do let us all know about solus3.5 please. My experience only up to version 118. It is supposed to correct some "little issues" but we wait with bated breath.........

[howartp]

Glad you sorted now. Thats why this forum is so good! God knows it's been a life saver to me in the past!

Do let us all know about solus3.5 please. My experience only up to version 118. It is supposed to correct some "little issues" but we wait with bated breath.........

Will do.

 

I've purposely withheld the Spring Release from my client PCs so I could see how SOLUS3 handled it - if all else fails, I've a fortnight to get it all deployed with SOLUS2.

 

Peter

[howartp]

Well, an update as promised:

 

Remarkably, it seems to be working pretty well.

 

I manually ran our WOL scripts yesterday to power-up most of the network - there's a number stayed off due to contractors working in areas with power off etc, buta good percentage turned on.

 

Of them, I think only four failed the agent install, three of which were because staff turned them off and went home midway through deploy. Yet to look at the fourth.

 

I then deployed the SIMS Spring Release which re-updated the SIMS server (I'd already installed Spring Release, but I wonder if Capita released a minor .01 version increase because it's now put 7.50.21 on whereas I'm sure it was 7.50.20 I put on?) then it sent it to the SIMS channel agents. All but one succeeded.

 

Now sending out agents to another hundred or so PCs which I forgot to WOL yesterday, most of which again seem to have taken it - I didn't note how many I sent it to so I can't say what success rate was/wasn't, but I don't have any concerns at this stage which I certainly have had previously.

 

One thing that isn't working is Discover deployment - when you install Discover server manually, it asks you to confirm the EULA for SQL Compact Edition, even though you are intending using full SQL that's already installed on the server. Whether it then installs SQL Compact Edition or not I'm not sure. However, when you go to deploy Discover via SOLUS, it first makes you download an update to SQL Compact Edition which was released last Autumn (hence it doesn't show up in the default 'available downloads' list cos it's filtered to 30 days or something) then tries to install it with the deployment. Unfortunately when it tries to update the SQL Compact Edition, the command line parameters it uses include 'database=MyDiscoverDBsName' or similar, but the installer then fails because it cannot find the MyDiscoverDBsName database installed on the SQL Compact Edition server (because it's on your full SQL server) and thus the whole Discover deployment fails. Google suggests that you need to not specify the database on the commandline, but obviously we can't adjust what SOLUS is doing.

 

I've got a call open with Capita about the Discover issue so I'll report back if we solve it.

 

Peter

[howartp]

ps - something we learnt on the training course...

 

If you've deployed say the Spring Release to all your machines, then you add new SIMS PCs to SOLUS, don't go through the normal deploy method as this will resend the release to all your machines.

 

Instead, go to the Deployment History and choose the relevant item in the top section. Go down to the 'Targets in this deployment' where you will see the 'Successful' (and 'Failed') columns which show how many PCs you (successfully or otherwise) sent it to previously. If you then look at the 'Defined' column, you will see this figure doesn't necessary match - the Defined column is 'live', ie how many of that Target type (SIMS) you currently have in SOLUS including the new PCs.

 

Alongside the 'Defined' column is a little blue/white arrow called 'Redeploy' - clicking this brings up a list of target PCs you can re-deploy to, but it also shows you (and selects by default) all SIMS PCs which are out of date, whether they've been deployed to previously or not. It's not technically 'redeploying' as they're new PCs to SOLUS, but if you choose which you want to 'redeploy' to then hit save, you will see the 'Redeploy' column shows you how many you've selected - you can then Deploy or Schedule the new PCs to update.

 

Peter

[Cache]

Instead, go to the Deployment History and choose the relevant item in the top section. Go down to the 'Targets in this deployment' where you will see the 'Successful' (and 'Failed') columns which show how many PCs you (successfully or otherwise) sent it to previously. If you then look at the 'Defined' column, you will see this figure doesn't necessary match - the Defined column is 'live', ie how many of that Target type (SIMS) you currently have in SOLUS including the new PCs.

 

Alongside the 'Defined' column is a little blue/white arrow called 'Redeploy' - clicking this brings up a list of target PCs you can re-deploy to, but it also shows you (and selects by default) all SIMS PCs which are out of date, whether they've been deployed to previously or not. It's not technically 'redeploying' as they're new PCs to SOLUS, but if you choose which you want to 'redeploy' to then hit save, you will see the 'Redeploy' column shows you how many you've selected - you can then Deploy or Schedule the new PCs to update.

 

Peter

 

On this point, if you add a new PC to your SIMS deployment environment, once an initial deployment has occured it will automatically download and install SIMS on the machine.

 

Don't know whether this is the case with FMS or not because we dropped that soon after we installed Solus3 so never did a deployment, but it doesn't occur with Discover (you need to follow your redeployment route as above) - This may have changed in the Solus Spring release, I'm not that far ahead yet.

[howartp]

On this point, if you add a new PC to your SIMS deployment environment, once an initial deployment has occured it will automatically download and install SIMS on the machine.

Hi Cache,

 

I've not come across any evidence of this in the notes or my environment, and it doesn't match what we were told at the training course?

 

However I wonder if you have auto-deployment turned on, in which case this might be doing the same as the manual redeploy method and causing the same result?

 

Peter

[Cache]

Hi Cache,

 

I've not come across any evidence of this in the notes or my environment, and it doesn't match what we were told at the training course?

 

However I wonder if you have auto-deployment turned on, in which case this might be doing the same as the manual redeploy method and causing the same result?

 

Peter

 

We definitely don't have Auto-Deployment turned on I'm positive about that, we do have the Auto-download to client enabled but that was recommended to make the actual upgrades go smoother by having the files on the agent ready to install when it's deployed. The behaviour of auto-installing SIMS on a new agent is as designed and according to the manual should also work for FMS. Check page 59 of the administration guide (Supportnet id: 19373).

 

I agree that it's odd it's contrary to what was delivered on your training course though, not been on one myself.

Edited April 4, 2013 by Cache

[ellisteph10]

I am in the midst of installing Solus 3 agents across our Academy and Im only getting the IT suite teacher PCs having problems bizarrely.

 

Ive tried suggestions of changing the machine keys folder security, but get a constant 'remote machine cannot be contacted' on a small bunch of PCs that have the same image as the rest of the site and they have been fine installing the agent after firewall is switched off.

 

Im assuming running the downloaded Agent installer is not recommended as after you install it on the clients the Solus Server doesn't recognise them?

 

Anyone have any more suggestions to try and get these random machines installed.

[howartp]

Im assuming running the downloaded Agent installer is not recommended as after you install it on the clients the Solus Server doesn't recognise them?

As long as you remove any existing entries in SOLUS, and removed any instances of the agent on the pc, for the machines in question, you can run the downloaded agent installer and it will suddenly popup in SOLUS - assuming everything such as firewalls is working correctly in the first place.

 

What you can't do is run the downloaded agent if that PC already has an entry in SOLUS, because it will say 'an unknown agent is trying to talk to me from this pc' - I tried adding the downloaded agent installer to our deployment package last night (as an installer, not pre-installed to an image) with the hope it would pick up the same Channel Targets as the existing agent such as when you rebuild a PC, but as I say it doesn't work.

 

Peter

 

Peter

[Rawns]

ps - something we learnt on the training course...

 

If you've deployed say the Spring Release to all your machines, then you add new SIMS PCs to SOLUS, don't go through the normal deploy method as this will resend the release to all your machines.

 

Instead, go to the Deployment History and choose the relevant item in the top section. Go down to the 'Targets in this deployment' where you will see the 'Successful' (and 'Failed') columns which show how many PCs you (successfully or otherwise) sent it to previously. If you then look at the 'Defined' column, you will see this figure doesn't necessary match - the Defined column is 'live', ie how many of that Target type (SIMS) you currently have in SOLUS including the new PCs.

 

Alongside the 'Defined' column is a little blue/white arrow called 'Redeploy' - clicking this brings up a list of target PCs you can re-deploy to, but it also shows you (and selects by default) all SIMS PCs which are out of date, whether they've been deployed to previously or not. It's not technically 'redeploying' as they're new PCs to SOLUS, but if you choose which you want to 'redeploy' to then hit save, you will see the 'Redeploy' column shows you how many you've selected - you can then Deploy or Schedule the new PCs to update.

 

Peter

 

This only applies to newly added devices that either have an old version of SIMS on them, or if they have had SIMS .net on them previously (think SOLUS3 looks for a SIMS.INI file). You will then need to follow the above to manually "redeploy" the latest SIMS Workstation version to your selected new devices.

 

If you add a brand new machine to the SIMS Workstation channel in SOLUS3 and it's never had a trace of SIMS on it before, SOLUS3 will automatically install SIMS .net it for you without you having to actually do anything providing you have successfully rolled out a SIMS upgrade.