Agent not checking in - Indepth troubleshooting.
Will the Agent still check-in even if the IP Address of the machine changes?
What causes the Amp.Conf file Host information to be wipped?
I've read all the internet, Dell and this site has about the Agent not checking in but my question revolves around Why it stopped checking in to begin with. The reason - this is an educational institution with 3K computers and if we set an MIA policy for machines that have not checked in in 2,3,6 months, we need to be SURE the computer is no good anymore and it didn't just stop checking in.
Just so happens the agent I'm troubleshooting is on the CIO's computer and he's not a happy camper since we can't explain WHY it stopped (this is a new KACE installation they just spent $$$ on).
The agent (version 6.2.1025) was installed on his computer two months ago and checked in as usual for about a month - then stopped. One month & 7 days later it is still not checking in. Without pushing the new agent to his machine to fix I've been troubleshooting to try and figure what made it stop.
I checked the computer and this is what I found:
- The IP address has changed to a different V-Lan. (this is normal in this environment since every floor of every building is a separate V-Lan and some floors have multiple V-Lans)
- The amp.conf file on the machine was blank.
- The AMP service was running.
- The machine has been rebooted, the AMP services restarted.
What causes the Amp.Conf file Host information to be wipped?
I've read all the internet, Dell and this site has about the Agent not checking in but my question revolves around Why it stopped checking in to begin with. The reason - this is an educational institution with 3K computers and if we set an MIA policy for machines that have not checked in in 2,3,6 months, we need to be SURE the computer is no good anymore and it didn't just stop checking in.
Just so happens the agent I'm troubleshooting is on the CIO's computer and he's not a happy camper since we can't explain WHY it stopped (this is a new KACE installation they just spent $$$ on).
The agent (version 6.2.1025) was installed on his computer two months ago and checked in as usual for about a month - then stopped. One month & 7 days later it is still not checking in. Without pushing the new agent to his machine to fix I've been troubleshooting to try and figure what made it stop.
I checked the computer and this is what I found:
- The IP address has changed to a different V-Lan. (this is normal in this environment since every floor of every building is a separate V-Lan and some floors have multiple V-Lans)
- The amp.conf file on the machine was blank.
- The AMP service was running.
- The machine has been rebooted, the AMP services restarted.
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Answers (3)
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Posted by:
chucksteel
9 years ago
I have seen this issue of the amp.conf file getting wiped on our campus, also. I cannot replicate the issue so I have not submitted it to technical support as a bug but now that you are having the same issue maybe I will.
In order to help trouble shoot this type of issue I created a report that identifies machines that have not checked in for 30 days.
SELECT M.NAME, M.IP, M.OS_NAME, M.LAST_SYNC,
concat('https://kace/adminui/machine.php?ID=', M.ID) as LINK
FROM ORG1.MACHINE M
LEFT JOIN MACHINE_LABEL_JT ON (MACHINE_LABEL_JT.MACHINE_ID = M.ID)
WHERE LAST_SYNC < DATE_SUB(NOW(), INTERVAL 30 DAY)
GROUP BY M.ID
ORDER BY LAST_SYNC
I have a more complicated version of this report that uses location labels to identify their location and separate reports are generated for the technicians that support each location (we provide support by building). That report runs on the first of the month and each technician is responsible for figuring out why their machines aren't checking into KACE. We have SSH enabled on our MacOS computers which helps us to trouble shoot those agents not checking in remotely.
Comments:
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Chuck, thanks for the information. Is it possible I can email you offline to pick your brain on how you have setup your campus with KACE? They have nothing here so I'm starting on a clean plate.
Thanks. Russ - rjobe 9 years ago-
Sure thing, Russ. You can email either my work address (steelc@dickinson.edu) or personal (chuck.steel@gmail.com). - chucksteel 9 years ago
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Hi Chuck, Would you be willing to share the 'more complicated version of this report that uses location labels'? I would like to see if I can use it for the very same reason. - jparkins 8 years ago
Posted by:
jknox
9 years ago
I'd suggest submitting a ticket to support so that it can be investigated.
Typically, antivirus is the culprit of the amp.conf file ending up blank from what I have seen. That said, the 6.3 agent has some mechanisms built into it that are supposed to minimize this happening, so I would also recommend upgrading your K1000 and clients to the latest 6.3 version.
Typically, antivirus is the culprit of the amp.conf file ending up blank from what I have seen. That said, the 6.3 agent has some mechanisms built into it that are supposed to minimize this happening, so I would also recommend upgrading your K1000 and clients to the latest 6.3 version.
Posted by:
chucksteel
8 years ago
Here is the more complicated version of the report that we use to find machines that haven't checked in for 30 days per liaison. There are a few things that this report relies on:
We have a location label per building on our campus. These labels are all in a label group called locations that has an ID of 439. To replicate this report you will need the ID of the label group that contains your locations.
We have an asset type called Location that includes a column for the liaison for that building. The label names and asset names need to match. This is asset_type_id 1 and I think it was on the appliance already and I just added the Liaison column.
The liaison is stored in ASSET_DATA_1.FIELD_40. To replicate this report you will need to find the column that contains your data for your this field.
Here is the query:
SELECT M.NAME, M.IP, M.OS_NAME, M.LAST_SYNC,
ASSET_DATA_1.FIELD_40 AS LIAISON,
LABEL.NAME as LOCATION,
concat('https://kaceserver/adminui/machine.php?ID=', M.ID) as LINK
FROM ORG1.MACHINE M
LEFT JOIN MACHINE_LABEL_JT ON (MACHINE_LABEL_JT.MACHINE_ID = M.ID)
LEFT JOIN LABEL ON (LABEL.ID = MACHINE_LABEL_JT.LABEL_ID AND LABEL.TYPE <> 'hidden')
LEFT JOIN LABEL_LABEL_JT ON (LABEL.ID = LABEL_LABEL_JT.CHILD_LABEL_ID AND LABEL_LABEL_JT.LABEL_ID = 439)
JOIN ASSET on LABEL.NAME = ASSET.NAME
JOIN ASSET_DATA_1 ON ASSET_DATA_1.ID = ASSET.ASSET_DATA_ID
WHERE LAST_SYNC < DATE_SUB(NOW(), INTERVAL 1 MONTH)
AND LABEL_LABEL_JT.LABEL_ID = 439
AND ASSET_DATA_1.FIELD_40 = "Chuck Steel"
ORDER BY LIAISON, LOCATION, LAST_SYNC, NAME
You will need to update the statement to use the correct column names and values for your specific database.
Here is another version which just includes the location label of the machine. If you don't want to use the Location asset this could be used with a select statement to only include specific buildings.
SELECT M.NAME, M.IP, M.OS_NAME, M.LAST_SYNC,
LABEL.NAME as LOCATION,
concat('https://kaceserver/adminui/machine.php?ID=', M.ID) as LINK
FROM ORG1.MACHINE M
LEFT JOIN MACHINE_LABEL_JT ON (MACHINE_LABEL_JT.MACHINE_ID = M.ID)
LEFT JOIN LABEL ON (LABEL.ID = MACHINE_LABEL_JT.LABEL_ID AND LABEL.TYPE <> 'hidden')
LEFT JOIN LABEL_LABEL_JT ON (LABEL.ID = LABEL_LABEL_JT.CHILD_LABEL_ID AND LABEL_LABEL_JT.LABEL_ID = 439)
WHERE LAST_SYNC < DATE_SUB(NOW(), INTERVAL 30 DAY)
AND LABEL_LABEL_JT.LABEL_ID = 439
ORDER BY LOCATION, LAST_SYNC
Again you will need to update the 439 value to match the ID of your location label group.
Comments:
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This is great! Thank you. - jparkins 8 years ago
