Issue: Provisioning task failing after try 40 of 40

Issue

The provisioning task is failing to load. It will attempt to load the template and retry for 40 attempts and then the job hangs and the client stays in the WinPE screen or brings back the template section window.

Logs on the core may indicate a few different errors:

In prov_schedule.exe.log:

     This log is located in \\core\ldmain\log

Template is not flattened, will attempt to flatten.
Flattening  template failed.

In provisioning.log:

     This log is located in \\core\ldmain\log\provisioning. 

Unable to find the history task

or

Unable to find template for computer idn ###

Causes and Resolutions

First, make sure that the latest service pack and the latest component patches are applied to the core.

Scheduler service being stopped

• If the scheduler service is not running, provisioning jobs will not start.
• DCOM errors can cause the scheduler service to stop.

Resolution

• Change the service to run as a Domain Administrator and start the Scheduler service. Once this is done, the provisioning task should work.
• Reset the password for the admin account that was running the LANDesk and LANDesk1 COM+ objects. This prevents the scheduler service from failing which prevents the provisioning template from running.

Current Provisioning Task in Progress on Selected Machine

• If a provisioning task has already been assigned to the machine in question, the task will fail. If you review the provision.log file on the core you will see a line "Computer is Busy with another task {taskID}"

Resolution:

1. Determine the TaskID from the log, Go to your Core and delete that task.
2. Delete client from database
3. PXE boot client, or run a manual inventory scan from the device
   1. A Manual scan can be initiated from WinPE by running X:/Windows/System32/Startnet.cmd from a command prompt
4. Run the provisioning task

Corrupt Template

• A corrupt template can prevent correct scheduling. One cause if this is if a template is imported, the drop down boxes are not filled in as they were pointing to objects from the previous core. For example, Software Distribution actions do not have a package specified. Same with Configure Agent actions. Also any actions with scripts will have this issue.
• Another way to determine if your template is not configured properly is by reviewing the Provisioning.log on the core. If you see the following:

INFO    PROV_SCHEDULE        8/18/2011 5:06:50 PM     : Action LANDesk.Provisioning.Business.PAction_Distribute_software
INFO    PROV_SCHEDULE        8/18/2011 5:06:50 PM     : Got package ID 60, requesting snippet
INFO    PROV_SCHEDULE        8/18/2011 5:06:50 PM     : Requesting snippet for packageId 60
INFO    PROV_SCHEDULE        8/18/2011 5:06:50 PM     : Requesting SWD snippet with task IDN 2214, package ID 60
ERROR    PROV_SCHEDULE        8/18/2011 5:06:50 PM     : Exception encountered trying to get snippet (LANDesk.ManagementSuite.SoftwareDistribution.Business.PackageNotFoundException): This package has been deleted.
ERROR    PROV_SCHEDULE        8/18/2011 5:06:50 PM     : GetSoftwareSnippet failed

Resolution:

• Recreate the template, or make sure that all dropdown boxes and options are configured in the template and all included templates.
• If you are getting the error where you are unable to get the Software Snippet, you will need to go into your Provisioning Template and make sure that all software packages are available and working. Determine which package is failing and resolve the software package. Save your template and retry the provisioning task.

Template is trying to perform an invalid action

• Error when attempting to save template

• Cannot save changes to the template . Verify that the template name you have chosen is not already used by another template. Database Error.

• Resolution:
  • If you are adding included templates to a main template you will want to start with adding the included templates one at a time until you find the problem template. Then address the specifics of that template and what it is doing. Try to recreate a new template that duplicates the problem template and see if you get any errors while saving the template.

Example Customer Situation:

The problem template was one that used the Update Registry action item and the Registry Operation of Import File. Because the file that was being imported was a combination of different registry export files, and remarked out descriptions had been added to the file, the template would return error: "Cannot save changes to the template . Verify that the template name you have chosen is not already used by another template. Database Error." The initial problem came from the fact that the original template did save when maybe it should not have, which caused the provisioning task to fail and the Prov_Schedule.exe.log file to show "Flattening template failed". Once we isolated the issues with the remarked out lines in the reg file and removed them, the template saved and the provisioning task worked properly.

In the customers environment, having the remarked out comments failed, but in a test lab the customers reg file worked fine. After getting the reg file to import and save, we found that the script failed on the reg file when trying to run it. What we discovered is that in his situation, the header in the reg file that says: "Windows Registry Editor Version 5.0" was causing it to fail, but I was unable to duplicate any of his problems in my lab. This seems to be a unique situation and may or may not apply to other customers that are having the 40 of 40 retries issue.

• LANDesk is trying to find a provisioning task from a failed distribution

  • The provisioning log will show  "Unable to find the history task".
    
    Resolution:

1. Delete client from database
2. PXE boot client, or run a manual inventory scan from the device
3. Run the provisioning task