SMS: Executive Service Hangs at Startup Waiting for User Response to Error Messages (281603)

SYMPTOMS

On a Systems Management server (SMS) site server, the SMS Executive service may appear to stop responding (hang) after startup. When this occurs, most of the threads of the SMS Executive service may not record anything in their respective logs (if logging is enabled). There are no error messages in either the Event Log or the SMS status system.

CAUSE

This issue can occur after another program that uses shared ODBC DLL files has updated those DLL files to a substantially newer version than the version that is included with the currently installed SMS service pack. This can cause the initialization of the License Metering thread of the SMS Executive service to fail, and can generate the following message in the service context:

ODBCINT.DLL - the version of this DLL is not valid.

Hit OK to continue or CANCEL to quit.

WORKAROUND

WARNING: The following workaround may cause interoperability or compatibility issues with the third-party program that updated the DLL files. Because of this, you should use caution if you decide to proceed with the following workaround.

To work around this issue, restore the following ODBC DLL files from the \SMS\Bin\i386\System32 folder on the SMS 2.0 service pack CD-ROM you are using to the %windir%\System32 folder on the SMS site server after you stop all SMS services:

Odbc16gt.dll
Odbc32.dll
Odbc32gt.dll
Odbccp32.dll
Odbccr32.dll
Odbcint.dll
Odbctrac.dll

For example, the SMS 2.0 Service Pack 2 (SP2) version of these DLL files should be 3.510.3002.13. Right-click a file, and then click Properties to view the file version information.

MORE INFORMATION

Cisco Secure version 2.4 (a RAS Access software), is known to update these shared ODBC DLL files.

You can start SMS Executive service as a console program by starting a command prompt on the site server, changing the current working directory to %windir%\System32, and then using the D:\sms\bin\i386\smsexec.exe /e command.

This generates messages about DLL version conflicts on the desktop that otherwise would be present in the service context.

The third-party products that are discussed in this article are manufactured by companies that are independent of Microsoft. Microsoft makes no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding the performance or reliability of these products.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.