Removed Dell Client Manager, Now Cannot import Software Resources

[Migration User]

 

I removed Dell CM in preparation for an NS 7 SP5 upgrade, and it has wreaked havoc with our system- we cannot import software resources now. We are getting an error which says "There was a problem parsing the submitted installation file."  How do I know this is related to uninstalling Dell CM?  The NS log says this:

 

Description: Failed to find file hash: An unexpected exception has occured during CreateInstance. (Assembely:Altiris.DellCM.Patch, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=5826ffdd0bcbd7fb Type:Altiris.DellCM.Patch.Resources.DellSoftwareInstallationFileResource) 

 

There is a direct correlation between this error and when we try to import software.

 

 

Has anyone else seen this?

 

Bryan

 

[Migration User]

I have.

It looks like DCM is going to be a major problem.  I actually spent about 2 hours on the line with Symantec support with this exact same error.  It turns out that DCM DOES NOT uninstall properly and leaves portions of itself installed.  The "solution" offered by Symantec support is to reinstall it.  the problem is that once you have upgraded to the latest Altiris version you CANNOT reinstall DCM as it is incompatible!  not only can you not reinstall it from SIM, but you can't run the MSI directy either as the MSI requires SIM to run it.

In our case we had this set up in a virtual environment and so we attempted a revert back to the old system.  Unfortunately the upgrade process made permanent changes to the Altiris Database which caused the problems to continue.  I am attempting to make repairs but it's looking like we are going to have to export as many of the resources and policies as we can and then completely blow away and reinstall Altiris.

This will be the fifth time I have had to start over from scratch with Altiris.  If not for the fact that I have already rolled out the new unified client to all of our machines already I would revert back to 6.9.  Ugh.

[Migration User]

Last night I tried repairing Software Management as well as using MyUninstaller to completely remove the DCM.  Neither worked, so I was forced to Reisnatll DCM in order to be able to import software resources.

Of course, now I cannot upgrade to SMP SP5.  This is highly frustrating, to say the least.

[Dmitri Gornev]

Hi Bryan,

I believe we have reproduced your problem with software resources import after Dell Client Manager uninstall. May you clarify - what setup you have at the moment? Is it one upgraded to SP5/MR2 and DCM uninstalled or you already re-built the system?

Thank you!

[Migration User]

Hi Dmitri,

The NS is currently at SP4 and some MR1 (Asset, CMDB, Inventory, and Software Management are MR1, the rest of CMS is base SP2 installs).  None have been upgraded to MR2 yet.

When I discovered the problem, we decided that the ability to import software was paramount, so instead of upgrading to SMP5 (which may or may not have fixed the problem) I decided to put Dell Client Manager back on as that seems more likly to fix it.  As I noted before it did restore our ability to import software resources.

Thanks for reaching out.  If you need anything else regarding this, please let me know.

 

Bryan

[Migration User]

Hey Dmitri,

Any other info on this issue?  Or, do you know if a compatible version of Dell CM is coming soon for NS 7 SP5?

Bryan

[Dmitri Gornev]

Hi Bryan,

sorry for delay - we came up with a solution for non-working software resources import after DCM uninstallation and testing it at the moment.

We also tried to reproduce all other issues that you met after SP5 update but none of them were reproduced on our setups so far. Do you have them reproducible on some system that we may have a look at?

SP5 support will be added to the next version of DCM (to be available in Q1 2011) - you may check this KB for more information.

Thank you!

[Migration User]

Dmitri,

Is there any known workaround for this?  If I uninstall DCM and then upgrade the NS and software mangement, will it resolve the package import issue?

Bryan

[Migration User]

Can I have some guidance on the exact procedure please as I’ll probably have to dump DCM, next week, as well because of this? Wouldn’t it make sense to uninstall the Dell Client Manager agent on all the endpoints as well at the same time?

By the way, OMCI and DCM, even on SP4, are effectively unsupported (source)  for any new models introduced this month onwards until this is resolved:

 Q: OK, so when will I need to upgrade to OMCI 8.x?

A: Any new Dell models introduced after October 2010 will not be officially supported by OMCI 7.x. So, for official support and to take advantage of any new system features exposed by OMCI, you will need to upgrade to 8.x. 

[Dmitri Gornev]

Hi Bryan,

problem with package import happens because of Software Management Framework ignoring that DCM is uninstalled so uninstalling and upgrading NS/SWM will not resolve it.

we came up with set of SQL updates to work around this problem by removing DCM resources from database after it uninstall:

delete from ResourceType where [Guid]='263A71A1-8967-4006-97C5-08224767F8DF'
delete from ResourceTypeHierarchy where ResourceTypeGuid='263A71A1-8967-4006-97C5-08224767F8DF'

and another set for Dell Management Console:

delete from ResourceType where [Guid]='6ECC0BCA-691F-413c-A7E3-104C0D8B4A5C'
delete from ResourceTypeHierarchy where ResourceTypeGuid='6ECC0BCA-691F-413c-A7E3-104C0D8B4A5C'

delete from ResourceType where [Guid]='6C0D56A7-462C-4413-9C6C-8FC96EAB446C'
delete from ResourceTypeHierarchy where ResourceTypeGuid='6C0D56A7-462C-4413-9C6C-8FC96EAB446C'

Please note that you should run them BEFORE upgrading to SP5.

Would it be possible for you to contact support with your problems so we may have a WebEx session to your system?

Thank you, Dmitri.

[Dmitri Gornev]

Yes, we're working on checklist for "upgrade to SP5 with DCM uninstall" and plan to provide it in few days from now.

P.S. OMCI 8 with support for new models will be included into the next DCM version planned to be released in Q1 2011.

[Migration User]

Thanks for the info Dmitri.

 

If you send me a private message, I can give you my phone number so we can set up a webex session.

[Migration User]

Dmitri, just wanted to drop a line to say that those SQL queries did in fact fix my issue after removing DCM.  Many thanks!  If someone would like to peek at our system , please send me a message to arrange it.

Now I just need to plan my SP5 upgrade. :)

[Migration User]

Any idea on when this checklist will be available?

That tech article has been advising people to uninstall DCM for weeks, despite the issues discussed in this thread.

[Dmitri Gornev]

Hi pro.gti,

I apologise for delay with final resolution of this problem - it was found that SQL based resources deletion script doesn't resolve all the issues and new clean-up procedure was developed that is being tested at the moment - expecting to finish with this in few days from now.

[Migration User]

Thanks for the info, however it’s been so long now, it could be academic, since we are so close to the end of the year, the earliest I could implement anything is next year, at which point DCM 3.2 is due sometime in that quarter anyway.

I am still very interested in seeing the checklist though, so I can make an informed decision on whether it’s worth the hassle.