9.0 Troubleshooting the ZENworks Agent

The following section provides solutions to the problems you might encounter while working with the ZENworks Agent:

Desktop Icons are Rearranged after the Reboot

Source: ZENworks Agent
Explanation: Due to Microsoft technical limitations, the NAL icons and default shortcut icons are placed in unexpected locations on the desktop.
Action: None

ZENworks icon display issue on Linux devices

Source: ZENworks, ZENworks Agent
Explanation: The ZENworks icon is not displayed on the desktop menu bar of Linux distributions like SLES, SLED, OES and RHEL managed devices or Primary Servers. However, when the ZENworks icon is run manually, a message Another instance of ZENworks icon is running is displayed.
Action: You need to download and enable the supported gnome extension based on the version of the gnome environment installed. You can perform any one of the following methods.

Method 1

Perform the following steps to install the extension:

  1. Find the gnome environment version installed by running the following command in the terminal:

    gnome-shell --version

  2. Go to https://extensions.gnome.org

  3. Find the compatible version of the TopIcons Fix plugin based on your gnome environment version.

  4. Click the link Click here to install browser extension.

  5. Specify https://extensions.gnome.org/local/ that will list the installed extensions.

  6. Search for the TopIcons Fix extension and enable it.

  7. Verify whether the ZENworks icon is displayed in the system tray.

Method 2

On SLES/SLED devices:

To install and enable a GNOME Shell extension from a zip file on an SLES/SLED device, perform the following steps:

  1. Find the gnome environment version installed by running the following command in the terminal:

    gnome-shell --version

  2. Go to https://extensions.gnome.org

  3. Find and download the compatible version of the TopIcons Fix plugin based on your gnome environment version.

  4. Install the required packages by running the following command:

    sudo zypper install gnome-shell gnome-tweak-tool unzip

  5. Download the zip file of the GNOME Shell extension you want to install.

  6. Add the downloaded extension to the gnome-shell path.

    mkdir ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/

    unzip <Extension_path>/extension.zip -d ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions

  7. Open the GNOME Tweak tool by searching for Tweaks in the application launcher or by running the gnome-tweak-tool command in the terminal.

  8. In the GNOME Tweak Tool, click the Extensions tab on the left sidebar.

  9. Find the extension you installed in the list and toggle the switch to enable it.

  10. Logout of the session and login again.

    After login, the newly installed extension will be active and zicon (ZENworks icon) will be visible on the taskbar.

On RHEL Devices:

To install and enable a GNOME Shell extension from a zip file on an RHEL device, perform the following steps:

  1. Find the gnome environment version installed by running the following command in the terminal:

    gnome-shell --version

  2. Go to https://extensions.gnome.org

  3. Find the compatible version of the TopIcons Fix plugin based on your gnome environment version.

  4. Install the required packages by running the following command:

    sudo yum install unzip gnome-tweaks gnome-shell-extension-prefs

  5. Download the zip file of the TopiconsFix GNOME Shell extension based on your GNOME environment version.

  6. Add the downloaded extension to the gnome-shell path.

    mkdir ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/

    unzip <Extension_path>/extension.zip -d ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions

  7. Open the GNOME Tweak Tool by searching for Tweaks in the application launcher or by running the gnome-tweaks command in the terminal.

  8. In GNOME Tweaks, go to the Extensions section on the left sidebar.

  9. Find the extension you installed in the list and toggle the switch to enable it.

  10. Logout of the session and login again.

    After login, the newly installed extension will be active and zicon (ZENworks icon) will be visible on the taskbar.

Satellite menu is not displayed in the left navigation pane of the ZENworks Agent page

Source: ZENworks; ZENworks Agent.
Explanation: When you promote a device to Satellite through ZENworks Control Center, the configured Satellite role is added to the device. However, when you double-click the icon, the Satellite menu is not displayed in the left navigation pane of the ZENworks Agent page.
Action: Refresh the managed device (In the notification area of the device, right-click the icon, then click Refresh).

Unable to use rights-based authentication to remotely manage a device

Source: ZENworks; ZENworks Agent.
Explanation: When you use rights-based authentication to remotely manage a device, the following error is logged on the device: 
Rights Authentication failed. An internal error occurred while communicating to ZENworks Management Daemon. Contact Micro Focus Customer Support.
Possible Cause: ZENworks Agent is not installed on the device. Only Remote Management service is installed on the device.
Action: Install ZENworks Agent on the device. For more information on installing the ZENworks Agent, see in ZENworks Quick Start Reference.

Unable to launch a terminal session with a Citrix Server that has ZENworks Agent installed

Source: ZENworks; ZENworks Agent.
Explanation: After deploying the ZENworks Agent on a Citrix server, you might encounter any of the following ICA login session issues:

  • The ICA login session that is launched from Citrix agent terminates after some time.

  • The ICA login session displays the following exception:

    winlogon.exe ..Application Error

    If you try to close the exception window, the session hangs displaying the following message:

    Running login scripts
Action: Before launching a terminal session with the Citrix server, do any of the following on the server:

  • Rename NWGina.dll.

    1. In the c:\windows\system32 directory, rename NWGina.dll.

    2. In the Registry Editor, go to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon, and change the value of the CtxGinaDLL key to the new name for NWGina.dll.

    3. Reboot the server.

  • Install Novell Client.

NOTE:This needs to be done only once.

The ZENworks Agent Policies page does not display the correct status for the DLU policy

Source: ZENworks; ZENworks Agent.
Explanation: If the User Management Agent Feature is disabled or uninstalled in ZENworks Control Center (Agent Features panel on the ZENworks Agent page), the status for the DLU policy on the ZENworks Agent Policies page is displayed as Success, even though the policy is not effective on the device
Action: None.

The partial or the general refresh of a terminal server might cause high usage of system resources and take considerable time to refresh the server

Source: ZENworks; ZENworks Agent.
Explanation: During a partial or general refresh of a terminal server, the ZENworks agent on the server simultaneously refreshes the sessions of all the users logged into the terminal server. If too many users are logged in to the terminal server, the ZENworks agent might take substantial time to refresh the terminal server and the usage of the system resources on the server might also be high.
Action: Perform the following steps to refresh the user sessions in batches:

  1. Open the Registry Editor.

  2. Go to HKLM\Software\Novell\ZCM\.

  3. To enable batch refreshes, create a string called EnableBatchRefresh and set the value to 1.

    By default, there are 5 sessions in a batch.

  4. (Optional) To change the number of user sessions in a batch, create a string called maxUserRefreshThreads and set the desired value.

The status or collection data upload by the agent times out because of slow links or because the server is busy managing other device requests in the zone

Source: ZENworks 10 Configuration Management; ZENworks Agent.
Explanation: The agent periodically uploads the status and collection data to the Primary or Satellite Servers in the zone. On slow links or when the server is too busy managing other device requests in the zone, this attempt to upload the data might time out. To address this, the upload-timeout setting must be increased to a suitable value above the default value of 100 seconds.
Action: To change the default upload timeout value of the ZENworks Agent on a Windows managed device, perform the following steps:

  1. Open the Registry Editor.

  2. Go to HKLM\Software\Novell\ZCM\.

  3. Add the upload-timeout parameter as upload-timeout=200 seconds.

Action: To change the default upload timeout value of the ZENworks Agent on a Linux managed device, perform the following steps:

  1. Open /etc/opt/novell/zenworks/conf/xplatzmd.properties in a text editor.

  2. Add the upload-timeout parameter as upload-timeout=200 seconds.

Agents may fail to connect to the Servers on slow links

Source: ZENworks; ZENworks Agent
Explanation: On slow links, agents may fail to connect to the servers. This can be observed by the connection timeout errors in the agent log file. To address this, the connection-timeout and socket-timeout settings must be increased to a suitable value above the default value of 100000. This value is in milliseconds.
Action: To change the default values for connection-timeout and socket-timeout on a Linux or a Macintosh managed device:.

  1. Open /etc/opt/novell/zenworks/conf/xplatzmd.properties in a text editor.

  2. Add the connection-timeout parameter as connection-timeout=200000, and socket-timeout parameter as socket-timeout=200000.

An agent refresh might take a considerable amount of time because of slow links or because the server is too busy managing other device requests in the zone

Source: ZENworks Configuration Management; ZENworks Agent.
Explanation: In the debug mode, the administrator observes a read timeout error in the agent log file. To address this, the read-timeout setting must be increased to a suitable value above the default value of 30000. This value is in milliseconds.
Action: To change the default read timeout value of the ZENworks Agent on a Windows managed device, perform the following steps:

  1. Open the Registry Editor.

  2. Go to HKLM\Software\Novell\ZCM\.

  3. Add the read-timeout parameter as read-timeout=100000.

Action: To change the default read timeout value of the ZENworks Agent on a Linux managed device, perform the following steps:

  1. Open /etc/opt/novell/zenworks/conf/xplatzmd.properties in a text editor.

  2. Add the read-timeout parameter as read-timeout=100000.

By default, the general refresh on a Windows device refreshes both the device and user sessions.

Source: ZENworks; ZENworks Agent.
Explanation: The general refresh on a Windows device from the ZENworks icon or the zac command utility refreshes both the device and user sessions. You can disable the general refresh for the device session by setting the value of the ManualDeviceRefresh registry key to Disabled.
Action: To disable the general refresh for the device session, perform the following steps:

  1. Open the Registry Editor.

  2. Go to HKLM\Software\Novell\ZCM\.

  3. Set the ManualDeviceRefresh registry key value to Disabled.

The quick-task execution fails when a policy is assigned to a device.

Source: ZENworks; ZENworks Agent.
Explanation: The quick-task execution fails when a policy is assigned to a device because the primary server is unable to communicate to the Agent on the Quick Task port.
Possible Causes: The possible causes for this issue could be:

  • The Agent is switched off.

  • The Firewall of the Agent or router prevents communication with the Quick Task port.

  • Any security software, such as an antivirus, blocks the communication with the Quick Task port.

If you perform a Remote Desktop access to a Windows 2008 device and keep the console idle, the Remote Desktop connection gets disconnected after 20 seconds.

Source: ZEN works; ZENworks Agent.
Explanation: When you perform a Remote Desktop access to a Windows 2008 device by using the mstsc command and keep the console idle, the Remote Desktop connection gets disconnected after 20 seconds.
Action: After connecting to a Remote Desktop, keep the console active until the desktop screen appears.

The zislnx functionality does not work when the agent is installed through YUM on RHEL6.1 devices and the agent does not read or write the Device GUID and Device Data from or to the Image-safe data on the device.

Source: ZENworks; ZENworks Agent.
Actions: Manually download the ZENworks Agent deployment package from the server and install the Agent. For more information on installing an Agent, see Deploying the ZENworks Agent in the ZENworks Discovery, Deployment, and Retirement Reference.

Unable to restart a Windows 7 device when using the Reboot quicktask in the ZENworks Control Center.

Source: ZENworks; ZENworks Agent.
Action: Manually restart the Windows 7 device for the Reboot quicktask to work.

Some garbage characters are displayed on the Mac console, while uninstalling agent from a Mac device.

Source: ZENworks; ZENworks Agent.
Explanation: While uninstalling the ZENworks Agent from a Mac device, some garbage characters are displayed on the Mac console. This is observed in some localized languages such as Chinese.
Action: Uninstallation is done by a root user. Hence, the root user’s locale needs to be set. The terminal settings, which include the user locale settings needs to be done along with the Operating System settings to support localization.

User tracking displays different values for user login name

Source: ZENworks; ZENworks Agent.
Explanation: According to the user account configuration, online Active Directory login, or cached Active Directory login, you can see the User login Id or Active Directory Full Name of the user for usage tracking.
Action: To have a consistent display of user identity, you can switch the usage tracking from Full Name mode to User-Id mode:

  1. Stop the Novell ZENworks Agent Service.

  2. In the Task Manager, terminate the TSUsage32.exe, TSUsage64.exe, and ZCMUMHelpr.exe programs.

  3. Open the Registry Editor.

  4. Go to HKLM\Software\Novell\ZCM\Usage.

  5. Create a string called UMUserFullName and set the value to 0.

  6. Start the Novell ZENworks Agent Service.

To change the settings from User-Id to Full Name mode, set the UMUserFullName value to 1.

Agent Package with the Microsoft .NET Framework Fails to Install on the Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012

Source: ZENworks; ZENworks Agent.
Explanation: An agent package with Microsoft .NET Framework fails to install on Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 device.
Action: You must enable the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 before deploying the agent on Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 devices.

If your computer is connected to the internet, perform the following steps:

On Windows 8

  1. Go to Control Panel > Programs and Features > Turn Windows features on and off.

  2. Select Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 and click OK.

On Windows Server 2012

  1. Go to Control Panel > Programs and Features > Turn Windows features on and off.

  2. Click Server Management and click Features.

  3. Select Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 and click OK.

NOTE:Installing a Windows language pack on Windows 8 before installing the .NET Framework 3.5 will cause the .NET Framework 3.5 installation to fail. Install the .NET Framework 3.5 before installing any Windows language packs.

ZENworks Agent service crashes

Source: ZENworks; ZENworks Agent.
Explanation: Sometimes ZENworks Agent service crashes due to an internal error in the .NET Runtime with exit code 80131506 and unable to recover automatically.
Action: You must apply the hotfix (KB2640103) provided by Microsoft support. For more information, see Microsoft support.

A Mac workstation having ZENworks Agent installed on it is shown as a workstation even after installing a Mac Server App on it

Source: ZENworks; ZENworks Agent
Action: Un-register and re-register the device for it to be listed under Servers.

ZENworks icon is not displaying or rendering content correctly

Source: ZENworks; ZENworks Agent
Action: If zicon (ZENworks icon) is not displaying content properly or it is not working correctly, you need to restart the zicon services:

  • On Windows: Stop and then start the ZenNotifyIconService from the Windows services panel, or from C:\Program Files (x86)\Novell\ZENworks\bin\ZenNotifyIcon.exe

  • On Linux: Stop the zicon process by using the kill <pid> command and then start the zicon process from /opt/novell/zenworks/bin with the ./zicon command.