To Repair or not to Repair, that is= the question?

I have recently seen many different uses of the agent "Repair…&quo= t; action when it comes to agent install and upgrade. I have put together the following information with the help of the setup team to guide you on the uses of the repair action.

Summary:

When running agent repair the system basically does a reinstall of the agent usi= ng the default action account that was specified during initial install (local system in most cases). Also, = if the agent was removed manually from the server, but still present on the consol= e in a "Grayed out" state, using agent repair will cause the agent's health service not to start because it does not know the default action acc= ount to use due to being previously uninstalled.

If you were using the AD Integration feature, the agent behavior will be changed back to being managed via the R= MS, no longer using AD Integration.

Agent Repair Scenarios	Run Repair?
Agent is showing as "grayed out" in "Agent Managed" view and the agent software is still installed on the server. You are not using AD Integration= to manage this agent.	Yes, run repair to see if that corrects the issue.
Agent is showing as "grayed out" in "Agent Managed" view, b= ut the agent software is not installed on the server anymore. You are not using AD Integration= to manage this agent.	No, delete that agent from the console and push install a new agent
Agent is being managed using OM AD Integration feature	No, running repair will change agent management from AD Integration to Remote= ly Manageable*.
Agent is in a failed state in Pending Management	Yes, as long as you are not using AD Integration for this agent, correct the issue** and run repair again.
MG was upgraded to newer version of OM but the agent is not showing up in "Pending Management". Note: In R2 RC and above, agents that were manually installed (not installed using agent pushed or agents that have never had a repair action run on them) will not show up in "Pending Management". You will need to manually run up= grade on these agents. (See R2 Up= grade guide for more info or script include in this blog)	Depends, If this agent has been manually installed and is being managed using AD Integration, in this case do not run repair. If you do not plan to us AD Integration on this agent then go ahead and try a repair action.

*You can determine if your agent is remotely manageable or manually installed to= use AD integration by personalizing your Agent Managed view. On the Actions pane click on "Personalize view…" and select "Remotely Manageable". This = column will be say "Yes" if the agent was push installed or had the repa= ir action run on it. (Note= : We corrected an issue in SP1 with this view, R2 now displays correct informati= on)

**Kevin Holman has a great blog post on common errors while pushing agents (= http:= //blogs.technet.com/kevinholman/archive/2009/01/27/console-based-agent-depl= oyment-troubleshooting-table.aspx)

FAQ's:

Q1: I ra= n a repair on my AD Integrated agents. How do I get them back to being managed using AD Integration?

A1:

You must make sure the following registry key is present on each agent and = set to “1”:
"\HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\HealthService\Parameters\Conn= ectorManager", "EnableADIntegration REG_DWO= RD 1"

And delete the agent push regkeys. (See attached vbscript )

or=

Run t= he attached script "FixADIntegration.vbs" from a machine that has ac= cess to each server you list in the servers.txt file and from an account that has local admin rights on the server. (See attached zip file for script and instructions)

Q2: I in= stalled my agents manually but do not use AD Integration to manage them. I have upgraded to R2 but do not s= ee my agents in pending management. How do I upgrade all these agents to R2?

A2:

You c= an create an upgrade package using one of your deployment tools with the follo= wing command line to upgrade:

"= ;msiexec /i MOMAgent.msi SET_ACTIONS_ACCOUNT=3D0 /qn /l*v D:\logs\AgentUpgrade.log"

= ;

or=

= ;

Run t= he attached powershell script to upgrade your agen= ts using the “repair” command. (See attached zip file for script a= nd instructions)

= ;

Q3: After upgrade, I approved my pending agents in "Pending Management". Now the agent is showing up "= grayed out" in the console and the agent health service will not start, what = do I do?

A3:

The m= ost common cause is due to the OM Agent software being manually uninstalled from the server before the agent was approved in pending, the server was still m= oved to pending because it was present in the OM DB. Take the following action to corre= ct this issue:

1.&n= bsp; Delete the Agent from OM=

2.&n= bsp; Reinstall the Agent using agent pus= h

= ;

Note:= You can validate that you are experiencing this issue be checking for the prese= nce of the following regkey. If this key is missing you are run= ning into this issue.

"= ;HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\HealthService\Paramet= ers\Management Groups\NameOfYourManagementGroup", "<= span class=3DSpellE>WindowsAccountLockDownSD"

= ;

Q4: After upgrade, I used repair to upgrade my agents. The repair task is saying successf= ul, now the agent is showing up "grayed" out in the console and the a= gent health service will not start, what do I do?

A4:

The m= ost common cause is due to the OM Agent software being manually uninstalled from the server before the agent was repaired, the Take the following action to correct this issue:

1.&n= bsp; Delete the Agent from OM=

2.&n= bsp; Reinstall the Agent using agent pus= h

= ;

Note:= You can validate that you are experiencing this issue be checking for the prese= nce of the following regkey. If this key is missing you are run= ning into this issue.

"= ;HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\HealthService\Paramet= ers\Management Groups\NameOfYourManagementGroup", "<= span class=3DSpellE>WindowsAccountLockDownSD"