Skip to main content

orchestrator: ftp integration pack error

i was recently assigned some work that required automating some ftp tasks. i thought what a perfect opportunity to try out the ftp integration pack (IP) in orchestrator! after configuring the ftp options, i tried to use one of the activities and hit a problem: failed to initialize configuration object.

image

 

YOU DON’T HAVE TO READ THIS PART

i don’t normally look at stack traces and know what the hell is going on so i immediately went to my crutch and starting searching the entire world of knowledge and finally landed on this post describing the exact same problem. in the end, the original poster (OP) fixed the issue by uninstalling all of his IPs and reinstalling them. that seemed like total crap to me so i dismissed it and forgot about it until yesterday when i found some time to really look at this problem.

 

(OR THIS) THE ANALYSIS

i had two environments to work with, both not working. the first thing i tried was the OP’s fix. i uninstalled everything and reinstalled the ftp IP. it worked. miraculous. well, now that i had one working environment, i ran some directory comparisons followed up by file version comparisons. everything matched up. nauseating.

after that came up empty, i took a comparison of the ftp installation log that gets generated when deploying the IP. after pouring over the working and broken deployment logs, i came across what appeared to be the most valid problem in the broken deployment.

MSI (s) (5C:80) [18:52:25:455]: skipping installation of assembly component: {E62B04EA-3903-4E06-B59E-D59C65E4E993} since the assembly already exists
MSI (s) (5C:80) [18:52:25:455]: skipping installation of assembly component: {EC4186F1-7361-4BDE-94CD-977F7423BD4C} since the assembly already exists
MSI (s) (5C:80) [18:52:25:455]: skipping installation of assembly component: {359797A9-050F-48EA-9E50-8B293510AB2D} since the assembly already exists

when compared to the working deployment, i couldn’t find these lines. that was the giveaway. i searched for the GUIDs in the broken deployment logs and was able to locate the lines that detailed the exact assembly components. here’s an example:

Line 853: MSI (s) (DC:44) [17:58:12:205]: Executing op: AssemblyCopy(SourceName=6zp65wgq.dll|Microsoft.SystemCenter.Orchestrator.Integration.Framework.Core.dll,SourceCabKey=OITFrameworkCore.B2E2426B_5261_46EB_A61F_C536FB02167D,DestName=Microsoft.SystemCenter.Orchestrator.Integration.Framework.Core.dll,Attributes=512,FileSize=51040,PerTick=65536,,VerifyMedia=1,,,,,ComponentId={E62B04EA-3903-4E06-B59E-D59C65E4E993},IsManifest=1,,,AssemblyMode=0,)

 

by the way, if you’re interested, here’s the log location and name:

location: <program files>\common files\microsoft system center 2012\orchestrator\management server\components\logs
filename: 20130912122320952_{F5D3B6E7-3286-487D-BE06-27A0D69AC367}.log

i was able to trace back the original installation stemming from the exchange mail IP available on codeplex. that doesn’t mean anything but did show up in all of the environments with the same thing.

 

THE FIX

the assembly components and filenames mapped as indicated below. the directories all start at <windir>\assembly\gac_msil.

guid assembly directory
E62B04EA-3903-4E06-B59E-D59C65E4E993 Microsoft.SystemCenter.Orchestrator.Integration.Framework.Core.dll

Microsoft.SystemCenter.Orchestrator.I
ntegration.Framework.Core\7.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35

EC4186F1-7361-4BDE-94CD-977F7423BD4C Microsoft.SystemCenter.Orchestrator.Integration.Framework.dll

Microsoft.SystemCenter.Orchestrator.I
ntegration.Framework\7.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35

359797A9-050F-48EA-9E50-8B293510AB2D Microsoft.SystemCenter.Orchestrator.Integration.dll

Microsoft.SystemCenter.Orchestrator.I
ntegration\7.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35

 

please exercise caution and test this in your own environment since this is completely unsupported. also, the safest method is to follow what the OP suggested and uninstall all IPs and reinstall them. this works because it removes the assemblies that the ftp IP installation will not overwrite.

  • uninstall the ftp integration pack. do this first to clear the path of the installation that will happen after dealing with the assemblies.
  • unregister the assemblies. this requires the use of regasm which is in your .net framework directory. i found mine under <windir>\microsoft.net\framework\v4.0.30319. with administrative credentials, run regasm. it should look pretty similar to the following:


    regasm /u "C:\windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Microsoft.SystemCenter.Orchestrator.Integration\7.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35\Microsoft.SystemCenter.Orchestrator.Integration.dll"


    regasm /u "C:\windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Microsoft.SystemCenter.Orchestrator.Integration.Framework\7.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35\Microsoft.SystemCenter.Orchestrator.Integration.Framework.dll"

    regasm /u "C:\windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Microsoft.SystemCenter.Orchestrator.Integration.Framework.Core\7.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35\Microsoft.SystemCenter.Orchestrator.Integration.Framework.Core.dll"
  • delete the assemblies. now that they are unregistered, delete the assemblies in the table above. trying to install over them after unregistering doesn’t seem to work since the installer still detects they exist.
  • reinstall the ftp integration pack. at this point, reinstall the IP. if you look at the deployment log, you should no longer see the “skipping installation” lines mentioned earlier.

and now… it works.

image

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

using preloadpkgonsite.exe to stage compressed copies to child site distribution points

UPDATE: john marcum sent me a kind email to let me know about a problem he ran into with preloadpkgonsite.exe in the new SCCM Toolkit V2 where under certain conditions, packages will not uncompress.  if you are using the v2 toolkit, PLEASE read this blog post before proceeding.   here’s a scenario that came up on the mssms@lists.myitforum.com mailing list. when confronted with a situation of large packages and wan links, it’s generally best to get the data to the other location without going over the wire. in this case, 75gb. :/ the “how” you get the files there is really not the most important thing to worry about. once they’re there and moved to the appropriate location, preloadpkgonsite.exe is required to install the compressed source files. once done, a status message goes back to the parent server which should stop the upstream server from copying the package source files over the wan to the child site. anyway, if it’s a relatively small amount of packages, you can

How to Identify Applications Using Your Domain Controller

Problem Everyone has been through it. We've all had to retire or replace a domain controller at some point in our checkered collective experiences. While AD provides very intelligent high availability, some applications are just plain dumb. They do not observe site awareness or participate in locating a domain controller. All they want is the name or IP of one domain controller which gets hardcoded in a configuration file somewhere, deeply embedded in some file folder or setting that you are never going to find. How do you look at a DC and decide which applications might be doing it? Packet trace? Logs? Shut it down and wait for screaming? It seems very tedious and nearly impossible. Potential Solution Obviously I wouldn't even bother posting this if I hadn't run across something interesting. :) I ran across something in draftcalled Domain Controller Isolation. Since it's in draft, I don't know that it's published yet. HOWEVER, the concept is based off

sccm: content hash fails to match

back in 2008, I wrote up a little thing about how distribution manager fails to send a package to a distribution point . even though a lot of what I wrote that for was the failure of packages to get delivered to child sites, the result was pretty much the same. when the client tries to run the advertisement with an old package, the result was a failure because of content mismatch. I went through an ordeal recently capturing these exact kinds of failures and corrected quite a number of problems with these packages. the resulting blog post is my effort to capture how these problems were resolved. if nothing else, it's a basic checklist of things you can use.   DETECTION status messages take a look at your status messages. this has to be the easiest way to determine where these problems exist. unfortunately, it requires that a client is already experiencing problems. there are client logs you can examine as well such as cas, but I wasn't even sure I was going to have enough m