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What does 'Error (Signature Download Failed)' on the current phase of the patching schedule mean?

Title

What does "Error (Signature Download Failed)" on the current phase of the patching schedule mean?

Description

This article shows you how to troubleshoot errors with patch signature downloads on the K1000 that are related to:

  • Firewall settings
  • Network settings
  • Network bandwidth
Symptom During patching the error message "Signature Download Failed" on the phase status
Cause

The client machine is unable to download specific patching files in order for patching to resume. On a client with debugging enabled the error message contains "Error cURL".

Solution

To trouble shoot the issue, perform the following steps:

Find the error message related to the download issue

  1. Enable debugging on the client.
  2. Rerun the deployment schedule on that target machine.
  3. Check  PluginPatching.log to see which file is failing to download from the Agent:

 

Example error message:

[Wed Apr 03 13:48:36 2013] DownloadFile: 'C:\ProgramData\Dell\KACE\patches\x86_64-apps.lst.zip' error occurred: 'transfer closed with 17788 bytes remaining to read' Error Code (18:Transferred a partial file), url: http://kace.corp.com/patches/windows/x86_64-apps.lst.zip
[Wed Apr 03 13:48:36 2013] Error (cURL) copying files from 'http://Kace.corp.com/patches/windows/x86_64-apps.lst.zip' to 'C:\ProgramData\Dell\KACE\patches\x86_64-apps.lst.zip': (18) Transferred a partial file

 

If you receive this error:

'C:\Program Files\Dell\KACE\KPATCH.EXE ' ' -getlst -debug -patchDir="C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Dell\KACE\patches" -outputDir="C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Dell\KACE"', System Error Code:(183) Cannot create a file when that file already exists.

Perform the following:

  1. Disconnect all RDP sessions on those machines. 
    1. To see if what sessions are opened, run the following command:
      1. qwinsta / server:servername
      2. Where "servername" is the remote machine's hostname or IP address. 

Known Issue - AGENT-3781 - System Error 183 During Patch Schedule with RDP Sessions on Client.


How to test outside of k1000 agent:

The follow instructions will show what you would do to see why files are not able to be downloaded by:

  1. Testing the signature file download using a browser
  2. Testing the download using Curl.
    1. Curl is a command-line utility that is used for downloading and uploading files that is native to most Unix and Linux based OS's, but we will be using a Windows version.

Test 1: Use a browser (IE, Firefox, Chrome) to see if the file gets downloaded completely

 

Let's use this URL as an example on the same machine these logs came from:  http://Kace.corp.com/patches/windows/x86_64-apps.lst.zip

  1. From IE and Firefox of that client machine try to download this file:  http://Kace.corp.com/patches/windows/x86_64-apps.lst.zip
    1.   Does the file download completely?  Repeat a few tries to be sure no network connectivity issue is involved.
    2. Does the file seem to hang at a certain point every time? This can indicate the file is being scanned by a firewall device such as Sonicwall and could be affecting the download of the file.  

Test 2: Use curl libraries to download the files to mimic how the agent is getting it

 

Step 1 - Download the files for Curl

 

  1. Download the curl libraries files from  http://ftp.kace.com/agent  directory
    1. username: supportdownloads
    2. password: supportdownloads
  2. Download the following file to the windows client machine:
    1. libcurl.dll
    2. libeay32.dll
    3. libssl32.dll
    4. curl.exe
  3. Download those four files into a directory for example:  C:\curl
  4. Proceed to Step 2 - Test download of file with Curl.

Step 2 - Test download of file with Curl

Two test can be done with the curl libraries:

  • As a logged in user. 
  • As the local system user.
       
A. As a logged in user:
  1. Open a command prompt and change directory where the files are downloaded and type the following command:
    1. curl -v -i http://Kace.corp.com/patches/windows/x86_64-apps.lst.zip  > x86_64-apps.lst.zip
      1. Does the file download completely? 
        1. Repeat a few times to make sure there is no connectivity issue is involved.

 

B. As the local system user.
  1. Change the user to the local system (user) context by doing the following first: 
    1. http://www.kace.com/support/resources/kb/article/How-to-mimic-running-a-script-as-Local-System-User-Scripting
  2. Execute the line in the new window of where the curl libraries are downloaded:
    1. curl -v -i http://Kace.corp.com/patches/windows/x86_64-apps.lst.zip  > x86_64-apps.lst.zip

 

Test 3 - Using KCopy to download the file:

  1. On the client machine, open a command prompt and type the following commands:
    1. type: cd c:\Program Files\Dell\Kace  (32-bit) directory or  c:\Program files (x86)\Dell\Kace  (x64-bit) directory
    2. type:  kcopy http://Kace.corp.com/patches/windows/x86_64-apps.lst.zip  c:\Windows\Temp\x86_64-apps.lst.zip
  2. Check if the file gets downloaded to the  c:\windows\temp  directory?
  3. Repeat a few times to make sure there is no network connectivity issue.


What to send to Dell Kace Technical Support

If you can not resolve the issue, please contact support and provide the following information:

  • Run the Kace Kapture State Utility.

  • What time and date the patch schedule ran that incurred the error

  • Server Troubleshooting logs

    • Click Settings > Support > Troubleshooting Tools > K1000 Troubleshooting Logs
    • NOTE: These logs might be too large for email, but can be uploaded to the support site ticket at http://support.kace.com.


Known Issues AGENT-3781 - System Error 183 During Patch Schedule with RDP Sessions on Client