Quick Note: RunbookService might fail to start after applying System Center Orchestrator 2016 UR4

UPDATE 15.11.2017: KB article is now updated and contains native SQL client as a pre-requisite for UR4!

Today I ran into an issue at a customer site while updating a SCORCH 2016 UR1 installation with UR4:

CAUTION:
After applying the UR4 patch for the management server and the runbook service you need to re-configure the Database Connection with the DataStore Utility (DBSETUP.EXE). This is described in the corresponding KB article here, but not very prominent. I missed it the first time :)
If you do not run the DataStore Configuration tool to re-configure the database, your Runbook Service will not start!

Issue

In the case of my customer, we could start the DataStore Configuration tool, enter the SQL Server but when we wanted to select the existing database, the tool produced an empty error message and an empty database list box. The Runbook Service failed to start and produced an error like "Unknown database type" in the corresponding log file.
I traced the DBSETUP.EXE process with Procmon on an UR1 and UR4 box and noticed, that the UR4 version did not create any network connectivity at all.

It turned out that the UR4 version of DBSETUP.EXE and the RunbookService is linked against some newer SQL libraries that were not installed on this customer machine. Thanks to my Support colleague Omar AlOmari  for figuring this out!

Solution

Installing the SQL 2012 SP4 native client (ENU\x64\sqlncli.msi) from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=56041 did the trick. After installing this client, the UR4 version of DBSETUP.EXE runs smoothly as well as the Runbook Service.

If your server already has a newer version of the native SQL client installed, you will most probably not run into this issue.

Comments

• Anonymous
  November 15, 2017
  Doesn't fix the fact that after the updates the console and web services no longer work!
• Anonymous
  November 15, 2017
  Fixed it, you need to run the commands in this article after the updatehttps://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2919041/the-orchestration-console-cannot-be-opened-after-upgrading-to-system-c
  • Anonymous
    November 15, 2017
    Hi Alex, thanks for mentioning that.Dirk
• Anonymous
  November 21, 2017
  We also updated to UR4 on 15.11.2017 and got the same errors. After updateing SQL Client to 11.4 most of the Orchestrator apps are working. RunbookService.exe, RunbookDesigner.exe, ManagementService.exe, ,..But we still have troubles with aspt.exe and RunbookServerMonitorService.exe. Both are creating Errorlogs not beeing able to connect to DB.With aspt.exe you can change the number of Runbooks running at the same time on a Server.
  • Anonymous
    November 21, 2017
    Hi Robert, I haven't seen an issue with RunbookServerMonitorService.exe yet. I suggest you open up a support case regarding this issue and would appreciate it if you leave a comment here once the issue is fixed.Dirk
    • Anonymous
      December 01, 2017
      We opened a Incident and today i got the confirmation from MS that they created a bug record.
      • Anonymous
        December 13, 2017
        Hi Robert,we ran exaclty into the same issue. With Dirks solution I was able to fix the issue with the DBSETUP.EXE, otherwise I was not able to start the Orchestrator Runbook Service.But I still not figured out why the aspt.exe is not working and I'm not able to increase the number of parallel runbooks.I get the following error:Setting the limit to 250 Runbooks for all Runbook Servers...Error!Details:Opalis::Exception_com_errorunsigned int __thiscall CODBDataStore::setMaxRunningPoliciesForAllActionServers(unsigned int)ODBDataStore.cpp(14631)_com_errorThis computer was unable to communicate with the computer providing the server.-2147467235The Update Rollup includes only updates for the following files:DBDataStore.dll DBSetup.exe RunbookDesigner.exe Runbookservice.exe ManagementService.exeRunbookTester.exe But the aspt.exe is missing and hope you will get soon feedback from MS and can send me an update.Or is there a workaround to change the setting without the aspt.exe?
        • Anonymous
          December 18, 2017
          no news untill now. on 12.12 MS got some logs. i'll keep you informed
        • Anonymous
          December 18, 2017
          Thanks Robert!
        • Anonymous
          January 11, 2018
          The KB4058492 contains a Hotfix for Microsoft System Center Orchestrator 2016 UR4 and includes the aspt.exe + RunbookServerMonitorService.exe files.I didn't test it yet, but hopefully it will fix all the problems.
• Anonymous
  January 08, 2018
  Hi Dirk!We got a new aspt and RunbookServerMonitorService both Version 7.3.185 UR4 is 7.3.149 .(SCO2016_Bug113643_HotFix)With the new files the error logs keep clean and we are able to adjust the slots.Seems to be solved