The Mobile Device Manager Support Team Blog : Error

Software Distribution 8041 warning

Rob Davies — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:39:00 GMT

Here’s a problem which we’ve seen a couple of times which can be caused by bad packages in software distribution. This problem can arise when Software Distribution is being used, and you notice that devices don’t seem to be getting packages, nor getting updated in the Software Distribution console. As well as this, the following message is logged in the MDM event log on the Device Management Server:

Event Type:        Warning
Event Source:    Device Manager
Event ID:              8041
Description:
Software Distribution service received insufficient query results from device {DeviceSID}.
Missing LocUri ./Vendor/MSFT/SwMgmt/Download?list=StructData.

You will also notice that in the Device History tab in the ‘./Vendor/MSFT/SwMgmt/Download?list=StructData’ URI will have returned a status of ‘Failed’.

Firstly, let’s look at what this means. ‘./Vendor/MSFT/SwMgmt/Download?list=StructData’ is part of the Download Configuration Service Provider, which you can find documented at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc563003.aspx. This is described as “Parent characteristic for the components that are ready to download or are in the process of downloading”. So this stores information about packages which are in the process of being distributed, before they have finished installing.

The Device management server is requesting this information, so it can know which packages are in the process of being downloaded. In this situation, the data returned is showing an error – so we know the problem occurs on the mobile device itself when we ask for this info.

This situation can typically occur in situations such as:
- A package is distributed which requires user interaction, for example to click a button or agree to some terms. If the user cancels this or ignores it, the install may fail.
- A package is distributed which restarts the mobile device forcefully, before the install process has completely finished.

When a scenario like these happens, the package distribution process doesn’t finish installing the software and cleaning up the download list. Therefore, the device gets left in a state where the software installer has finished, but the data at ‘./Vendor/MSFT/SwMgmt/Download?list=StructData’ hasn’t been cleared up. We then get left with some orphaned information left in the download list, which causes the error which you see on the Device Management Server.

How to fix it

To stop the error & to get software distributing again, you need to do two things. Firstly, you need to clear up that orphaned data, then check your software packages to see which is the culprit.
To clear up the download list, we can use some provisioning XML:
- Download the _Setup.xml file which is attached to this entry
- Use ‘makecab.exe’ to convert this into a .cab file. The easiest way to do this is to load up the Visual Studio 2008 Command Prompt and run:
o Makecab _setup.xml SWDist.cab
- Now you need to install this cab on the devices. The easiest way to do this is to import the cab into the SCMDM Software Distribution console.
- Once it’s imported, click on the ‘File Information’ button & copy out the ‘File URI’.
- Email this link out to the mobile devices, click it & run the file!

After this has been applied to the devices, you should see software distribution working again & ‘./Vendor/MSFT/SwMgmt/Download?list=StructData’ will start reporting success in the MDM console. Remember to go and test out your packages afterwards!

Please note: As this change removes information about packages which are downloading, this process shouldn’t be done at the same time a new software deployment is being pushed out.
Rob Davies | Senior Support Engineer

SCMDM Solution: Signed applications install but fail to run with a signature failure related error

jchornbe — Thu, 21 May 2009 19:12:59 GMT

Here’s an interesting issue that a one of our top Support Escalation engineers by the name of James Geater ran into a while back. It can be a tricky one to troubleshoot as the cause of the issue isn’t obvious so I thought it would be worth a quick post here:

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When using System Center Mobile Device Manager to distribute software, the installation may complete normally but the application fails to run with a signature failure of some kind. I say “some kind” because the exact error may vary depending on the application.

This can happen if the files used by the application are altered during the installation. For example, if the date/time stamp is changed at the time of install, possible from the file getting renamed, you can see this exact issue. This is because altering the file invalidates the digital signature.

To verify this look at the files in the source and compare them to the ones on the device. Look closely at the size and the Date/Time stamp. If there’s a discrepancy, copying the original files from the source onto the device may server as a workaround to the issue.

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Thanks James!

J.C. Hornbeck | Manageability Knowledge Engineer

Collecting large amount of device inventory information during OMA session causes MDM server to timeout

jchornbe — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 16:38:50 GMT

Here's an issue we run into every now and then so I thought it might be worth a mention here. If you're noticing GP and software distribution delivery failures then this may be your issue:

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Issue: Collecting large amount of device inventory information during an Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) session may cause the System Center Mobile Device Manager server to timeout.

Cause: During the first OMA session on some devices, if the device is instructed by the server to collect a large amount of inventory information it might result in the session taking up to 20 minutes to complete or it may timeout completely depending on the timeout settings on the server. This delay results from the time taken by the device to retrieve and process inventory information that the server requested.

Resolution: To resolve this problem, restore the default inventory collection set using the Restore-MDMInventoryDefaults cmdlet or remove items from the inventory collection using Set-MDMInventoryItem cmdlet.

Additional Information: In this scenario the device user will notice Group Policy and software distribution delivery failure. The server administrator may also notice two messages in system logs:

The management session with device xxx (device SID is displayed here not device ID) was not completed. The connection may have been lost, or the session timed out due to inactivity.

and

Erroneous OMA DM message received from device xxx (device SID is displayed here not device ID) during management session.

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J.C. Hornbeck | Manageability Knowledge Engineer

SCMDM: Enrollment fails with "Unknown error in Enrollment service: System.ArgumentNullException: Value cannot be null"

jchornbe — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:29:00 GMT

Here's another MDM enrollment failure issue we ran across recently that's caused by the CA not being available when the SCMDM Enrollment Service starts. Fortunately the solution to this one is pretty easy:

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Issue: Enrollment fails and the following event is logged on the Enrollment Server:

Unknown error in Enrollment service:
System.ArgumentNullException: Value cannot be null.
Parameter name: data
   at Microsoft.Mobile.ManagementServices.EnrollmentServer.CryptoService.ComputeHmac(Byte[] data, Byte[] sessionKey)
   at Microsoft.Mobile.ManagementServices.EnrollmentServer.Authentication.AuthenticateServer(BootstrappingRequest rc)
   at Microsoft.Mobile.ManagementServices.EnrollmentServer.Authentication.Authenticate(RequestContext rc)

Cause: This can occur if the Certificate Authority (CA) was not running when the SCMDM Enrollment Service started.

Resolution: Restart the SCMDM Enrollment Service.

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J.C. Hornbeck | Manageability Knowledge Engineer

SCMDM: Set-EnrollmentPermissions returns "Error encountered when delegating container..."

jchornbe — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 18:51:00 GMT

Here's another MDM SP1 issue for you. This one involves the Set-EnrollmentPermissions command and an error you can receive if SCMDMEnrollmentServers has full permissions on the specified OU:

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Issue: When running the Set-EnrollmentPermissions command you may receive the following error:

Set-EnrollmentPermissions : Error encountered when delegating container "OU=SCMDM Managed Devices (Instance1),DC=yonaloc,DC=nttest,DC=microsoft,DC=com" permission to Enrollment Server.
At line:1 char:26
+ Set-EnrollmentPermissions <<<< "SCMDM MAnaged Devices (Instance1)"

Cause: The Set-EnrollmentPermissions command verifies what permissions SCMDMEnrollmentServers has on the specified OU (i.e. the OU that is passed in the command). There is a known issue in this verification process where it will return false if Full Permissions are enabled.

Resolution: Do not enable full permission for SCMDMEnrollmentServers group on the device OU. To workaround this issue delete the SCMDMEnrollmentServers group from Security. To do this follow these steps:

Run DSA.MSC.
Find the OU where you were trying to set permissions.
Right click on the OU and select Properties.
On the Security tab, click on SCCMEnrollmentServers(<your instance name>) and remove it.

The last step is to run the Set-EnrollmentPermissions command again. This time it should succeed without error.

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J.C. Hornbeck | Manageability Knowledge Engineer