SMS: System Management Server Jobs Continue to Retry and Not Fail (140374)

SYMPTOMS

Some Systems Management Server "Remove Package from Server" jobs, "Run command on Workstation" jobs and "Share Package on Server" Jobs may go into a state of retrying and not fail.

CAUSE

The SMS_Despooler attempts to process a job 100 times before changing the state of the job to "Failed". When a failure occurs, the job goes into a "Retrying" state.

If the SMS_Despooler is stopped and restarted before the 100th retry of the job, the SMS_Despooler retry-count is re-initialized to zero and the despooler retries again 100 times. Therefore, if you start and stop the SMS_Despooler you may prolong the retry status of such jobs.

MORE INFORMATION

To determine the number of pending retries (assuming SMS is installed in c:\sms and c:\temp exists):

Copy Snirdr.exe and Hdecomp.exe from the Systems Management Server 1.2 CD (Support\Debug\X86) folder to C:\Sms\Site.srv\X86.bin.
From the C:\Sms\Site.src\X786.bin folder run the following commands:

Retries in an .sni:
- snirdr c:\sms\site.srv\despoolr.box\receive\xxxxxxxx.SNI c:\temp\xxxxxxxx.txt
- type c:\temp\xxxxxxxx.txt
Retries in a .INS:
- hdecomp c:\sms\site.srv\despoolr.box\receive\xxxxxxxx.INS c:\temp\xxxxxxxx.sni
- snirdr c:\temp\xxxxxxxx.sni c:\temp\xxxxxxxx.txt
- type c:\temp\xxxxxxxx.txt

The output should start as below:

   The execution time is M/D/Y 2-19-1970
   The number of retries is N
   ...

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Systems Management Server versions 1.1 and 1.2. This problem has been corrected in the latest U.S. service pack for Systems Management Server version 1.2. For information on obtaining the service pack, query on the following word in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (without the spaces):

   S E R V P A C K