Knowledge Base

SMS: Advertisement Does Not Run After Distribution Point Is Unavailable

Article ID: 302674

Article Last Modified on 10/25/2006

APPLIES TO

Microsoft Systems Management Server 2.0 Standard Edition
Microsoft Systems Management Server 2.0 Service Pack 1
Microsoft Systems Management Server 2.0 Service Pack 2
Microsoft Systems Management Server 2.0 Service Pack 3

This article was previously published under Q302674

SYMPTOMS

After an advertised program does not run because of a network problem in reaching the distribution point, Smsapm32.exe initially schedules and attempts a retry of the program, but later unschedules the program after the Offer Data provider's next polling cycle.

This is a brief summary of events that describes how the problem occurs:

The System Offer Data provider (Odpsys32.exe) notifies Smsapm32.exe that an advertisement is ready to run.
Smsapm32.exe attempts to run the advertisement but cannot because of a network error in reaching the distribution point.
Smsapm32.exe reschedules the advertisement to run again in 10 minutes.
The next time that Odpsys32.exe performs its work cycle, the Smsapm32.exe thread that it creates unschedules the pending advertisement. You can see this in the Smsapm32.log file by searching on "Unscheduling program."

The number of times that the program attempts to retry the advertisement depends on the Offer Data provider polling interval. If the interval is set to 15 minutes, Smsapm32.exe has time to attempt the retry twice. If the interval is set to the default value of 60 minutes, it retries approximately 6 times.

CAUSE

When Smsapm32.exe finds pending programs, they are correctly unscheduled. In this situation, the problem occurs if the program does not meet enough of the criteria required to be rescheduled.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Systems Management Server version 2.0. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

236325 How to Obtain the Latest Systems Management Server 2.0 Service Pack

WORKAROUND

Because the problem occurs after the next polling cycle by the Offer Data provider, the longer this interval is, the more times the program will be attempted by Advertised Program Monitor (APM).

You adjust this interval in the site settings or on each individual client computer. The site-wide setting is the Check for new programs every x minutes value, which is defined on the General tab of the Advertised Program Client agent. If the site-wide settings are allowed to be overridden, you can set the individual client setting in the Advertised Programs Monitor tool in Control Panel. Click System, and then Options to define a custom polling interval that applies to this computer only.

Because APM waits 10 minutes before another attempt, adding 10 minutes to the polling interval equates to another retry attempt by Smsapm32.exe.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article. This problem was first corrected in Systems Management Server 2.0 Service Pack 4.

MORE INFORMATION

A variety of network conditions and errors can cause this behavior. However, defining User Connection limits on the distribution point shares (SMSPKGx$) also results in this behavior.

The following entries from the Smsapm32.log file show some of the Smsapm32.exe behavior that is associated with this problem:

SCHED DATA  : Return code = 0x35; The network path was not found.~~; IsExecutePossible returned error 53 for program 'testapp.exe'~ 
SCHED DATA  : Reporting status : APA_JOB_STATUS_NETWORK_DOWN~  
SCHED DATA  : Setting job status to 0xc.~  
SCHED DATA  : Handling an error condition (0x35) for program Run TestApp in package Test Application.~ 
SCHED DATA  : Beginning with a job run status set to APA_RUNSTATUS_NOT_RUNNING.~ 
SCHED DATA  : *** UNRECOGNISED JOB COMPLETION RETURN CODE. ASSUMING UNSUCCESSFUL EXECUTION~ 
SCHED DATA  : The error requires that some type of reschedule action be taken.~ 

--Later--

SCHED DATA  : For program Run TestApp in package Test Application compiling all offers in order to get its schedule time and attributes.~  
SCHEDULER   : Determining whether to unschedule or schedule the next time the program will run ...~ 
SCHEDULER   : Unscheduling program Run TestApp in package Test Application for DOMAINTEST\USER1.~

The problem that is described in this article and the problem that is described in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article are very similar:

302535 SMS: Problems with Smsapm32.exe When No Distribution Points Are Available

If the Assignments are not mandatory over slow links check box is not selected for a mandatory advertisement, the symptoms that are described in this article occur. If the check box is selected, the systems that are described in article Q302535 occur. The hotfix for the problem that is described in this article also contains the hotfix for the problem that is described in article Q302535.

How to Install the Hotfix

Install this fix on all of the primary sites and secondary sites in the SMS hierarchy. Install the hotfix only on the site servers; the clients will receive the updated client files automatically. To install the fix, use one of the following methods.

How to Use the Hotfix Installer

NOTE: You can use this method only for Intel-based computers.

Copy the hotfix folder structure to a local folder on your site server or to a share on your network. The I386 and Alpha subfolders are required and must also be downloaded from the Microsoft FTP site. It is important to keep the folder structure intact. The Q302674.exe file is a Microsoft SMS Installer file that updates specific files on your site server.
Log on to your site server by using an account with administrative privileges.
On the site server, quit the SMS Administrator console.
Run the Q302674.exe file and follow the instructions in the wizard. You can run this file in Quiet mode by using the /s switch. The SMS services are stopped and restarted as part of the installation process.

How to Manually Install the Hotfix

You can use this method for both Intel-based and Alpha-based site servers. Substitute I386 or Alpha for your platform type where Platform is used in the following steps:

Copy the hotfix folder structure to a local folder on your site server or to a share on your network. The I386 and Alpha subfolders are required and must also be downloaded from the Microsoft FTP site. It is important to keep the folder structure intact.
Quit the SMS Administrator console and stop all SMS services in Control Panel. If the SMS_SITE_BACKUP service is running, stop it also.
Copy the Apasetup.exe file from the hotfix Platform folder to the Drive:\Sms\Inboxes\Clicomp.src\Smsapm32\Platform folder on the SMS site server.
Replace the Compver.ini file in the Drive:\Sms\Inboxes\Clicomp.src\Smsapm32 folder with the Compversmsapm32.ini file from the hotfix I386 or Alpha (both files are the same) source folder after renaming the file to Compver.ini.
Copy the Smsapm32.exe file from the hotfix Platform folder to the Drive:\Sms\Bin\Platform folder.
Restart the SMS_SITE_COMPONENT_MANAGER service on the site server. This automatically restarts the SMS_EXECUTIVE service.

Additional query words: prodsms

Keywords: kbhotfixserver kbqfe kbadvertisement kbbug kbfix kbqfe kbsms200presp4fix kbsoftwaredist KB302674

Microsoft KB Archive/302674

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