Working on "no status" computers

[jbruyet 0]

Hey all, I had my ERA 6 server working but then the server's HD died on me. ERA (ESET Remote Administrator (Server), Version 6.3.136.0) is now running on a VM and all of my computers (Windows 7) are showing up but about a third of them (23 out of 61) have no status; they just have a circle in that column. I've tried pushing the agent out and that fixed a couple of them but I'm left with the 23. I tried using a live installer, and the installer appears to run fine, but I'm still left with 23 computers that have no status. FWIW all of these computers were in my previous ERA 6 server and they all had status. I thought it might be an issue with them being on that previous ERA server but 38 of them are fine now. Any ideas on what the problem could be?

 

Thanks,

 

Joe B

[MartinK 378]

My guess is that they have problems connecting to new SERVER because of network or certificates change. Please check status.html on client machine, described in related ERA documentation article. It should give us reason why is AGENT not connecting to new SERVER.

[jbruyet 0]

Hi MartinK, I checked status.html on one of the computers and it shows the computer IS connecting (I did a screen shot of status.html but I can't figure out how to upload it). The "Last successful replication" was today at... right now. Last replication, Last successful replication, Peer certificate and Replication security are all green and they all happened today.

 

Thanks,

 

Joe B

[MartinK 378]

I would try to restart SERVER's service to be sure it is not related to one known issue with ERA 6.3 (mostly affecting MySQL database installations). In case it won't help, please check whether there are no duplicates in Webconsole, i.e. whether problematic client is not connecting as different entry in Webconsole. Also status.html on client should contain IP address of SERVER where this client is connecting - does it match you new SERVER's IP address?

[jbruyet 0]

Hi MartinK,

 

There were two ESET services that wouldn't allow me to restart them so I went ahead and power-cycled the server. No change in the statuses.

 

I checked in ERA for duplicate names and there aren't any.

 

I checked status.html for the IP address and I found the FQDN for the server so I'm guessing that's correct. Still no change in the statuses.

 

What else can I check?

 

Thanks,

 

Joe B

[MartinK 378]

Try to check whether there is any information collected from client in it's client view - maybe only main view stopped refreshing its content.

I would check SERVER's trace log (C:\ProgramData\ESET\RemoteAdministrator\Server\EraServerApplicationData\Logs\trace.log) for "Error:" entries - they may indicate some problem with database causing data loss.

 

When you were reinstalling SERVER, what were your steps? It is clean installation? Or you used some backup?

[jbruyet 0]

Hi MartinK,

 

 

Try to check whether there is any information collected from client in it's client view - maybe only main view stopped refreshing its content.

I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about here. Where do I go to check this and what am I looking for?

 

 

 

I would check SERVER's trace log (C:\ProgramData\ESET\RemoteAdministrator\Server\EraServerApplicationData\Logs\trace.log) for "Error:" entries - they may indicate some problem with database causing data loss.

The only errors I can find in the trace log are errors from when I tried to push the agent installs from ERA.

 

 

 

When you were reinstalling SERVER, what were your steps? It is clean installation? Or you used some backup?

I did a clean install and I didn't do any restoring from backup.

 

 

Thanks for hanging in there with me Martin. What are my next steps?

 

Thanks,

 

Joe B

[MartinK 378]

I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about here. Where do I go to check this and what am I looking for?

 

I meant to open specific client's detail view (click on client name -> details) and check whether there are any values available.

 

In case it is clean installation, how did you handled certificates .. you have restored them from previous installation? Otherwise old AGENT should not be able to connect to new SERVER - especially in case certificates were generated automatically during installation.

 

You mentioned that not connecting clients are present in Webconsole as not managed -> how did they get there? You used AD/LDAP synchronization? Or they were automatically created in Lost&Found group some time after SERVER installation?

[jbruyet 0]

Hi Martin, here are my latest responses:

 

 

I meant to open specific client's detail view (click on client name -> details) and check whether there are any values available.

No values are there. Everything has a n/a where the data would be.

 

 

 

In case it is clean installation, how did you handled certificates .. you have restored them from previous installation? Otherwise old AGENT should not be able to connect to new SERVER - especially in case certificates were generated automatically during installation.

I don't recall doing anything about certificates. After getting my new ERA running I was doing the agent deployment from the ERA console so I'm guessing that overwrote any certificate data on the workstations. When I do the live install I have seen a mention of inserting a cert but that's all I can say about this one.

 

 

 

You mentioned that not connecting clients are present in Webconsole as not managed -> how did they get there? You used AD/LDAP synchronization? Or they were automatically created in Lost&Found group some time after SERVER installation?

They just showed up in Lost & Found on their own.

 

 

Thanks,

 

Joe B

[MartinK 378]

In case it is clean installation, how did you handled certificates .. you have restored them from previous installation? Otherwise old AGENT should not be able to connect to new SERVER - especially in case certificates were generated automatically during installation.

I don't recall doing anything about certificates. After getting my new ERA running I was doing the agent deployment from the ERA console so I'm guessing that overwrote any certificate data on the workstations. When I do the live install I have seen a mention of inserting a cert but that's all I can say about this one.

 

That is correct and it has to be done for all AGENT - it will "repair" them to use correct certificates.

I am running out of ideas what could possibly be wrong - could you please try to delete those un-managed computers from Webconsole? In case they are connecting, they should be re-created.

In case it won't help, we will most probably have to check database content - what database type (MS SQL / MySQL) are you using?

[jbruyet 0]

Hello Martin, I just deleted the unmanaged computers. I'll check later and see if I can get them communicating with ERA.

 

As to the database, I believe I used SQL Express for this installation. Is there there a way to see what database ERA is actually using?

 

Thanks,

 

Joe B

[jbruyet 0]

Hmmm... As of 9:30 my time none of the computers I deleted yesterday have shown up in ERA. I was just looking and my ERA is set to synchronize every time the server starts. I was going to change it to once a week but the drop down option is greyed out. Is there a setting somewhere else that needs to be tweaked in order to change the trigger for the synchronization?

 

I'm going to look into my DNS issue later this morning.

 

Thanks,

 

Joe B

[jbruyet 0]

I've power-cycled the ERA server but those unknown workstations still haven't shown up. Again, any idea on how I can gain access to that setting and change it to weekly?

 

Disregard the comment about DNS; that was for a Linux problem with a different program.

 

Thanks,

 

Joe B

[MartinK 378]

I've power-cycled the ERA server but those unknown workstations still haven't shown up. Again, any idea on how I can gain access to that setting and change it to weekly?

 

Disregard the comment about DNS; that was for a Linux problem with a different program.

 

Thanks,

 

Joe B

 

You will most probably have to create new server task trigger with specific time interval as described in documentation.

 

Regarding your original issue: in case computers did not show again (they won't show up in Lost&Found group, but in group they were before you removed them) there will be most probably connection problem. Please check one of computers missing in ERA for status.html and focus on last replication time. Make sure it is computer missing from ERA as names of computers may be misleading - they may not reflect current hostname of computer.

[jbruyet 0]

Hi MartinK,

 

All of my computers are back in ERA but I'm still unable to get the agent to install on my problem children. I ran the Agent Deployment task three times for two of them and three times it finished successfully, but they still have no status.

 

I checked status.html for those two computers with an unknown status and they're current with their updating so is the agent installed??? Is there anything I may have missed that would be a default for some computers but not for others?

 

Thanks,

 

Joe B

[jbruyet 0]

Can anyone else suggest anything? I just discovered that EEA 6.4 is out so I'm installing that to see if it helps but it hasn't so far.

 

Thanks,

 

Joe B

[MichalJ 434]

Please note, that repository for ERA 6.4 is not yet updated. It will be updated on Monday, approx noon CET. So till then remote agent deployment / agent live installer generation / package generation won´t work. We are sorry for inconvenience. Also, the component upgrade task will be enabled next week, together with the repository update.

[jbruyet 0]

Ok, thanks. I'll check my ERA next week to see how things are looking.

 

Thanks,

 

Joe B