Error 1611: 3. Failure

[mtkabert]

Hello,

We are experiencing an issue with a specific server when attempting to run windows updates. Other operations besides windows update appear to work fine. The error receiving when running a windows update is : Error 1611: 3. Failure

Any idea what might be causing this issue? It just happens to a single client server.

Thank you!

[doug]

I can’t say for sure, but it sounds like PsExec is failing to execute properly on that target. This link should help you confirm if the failure is, in fact, with PsExec. Let me know what you determine after following the steps outlined in that link. Also I’d be interested to know how long it takes to fail from the time that it begins executing. The ‘All Messages’ column will have this information. Check the timestamp on ‘Windows Update: Executing BatchPatchRemoteAgent.exe…’ and compare it to the timestamp on ‘Windows Update: Error 1611: 3. Failure’. How many seconds pass before the failure?

Also one thing to check is to see if the services console on the target computer (start > run > services.msc) still lists the psexesvc service. Normally what should happen is psexec will automatically clean up after itself, and the psexesvc.exe process along with the psexesvc service will both disappear automatically from the target computer. However, if the issue is that it’s failing to clean up after itself, then we should see psexesvc service still exist in the services.msc console on the target. If that’s the case you can try manually removing the service from the target by running the following two commands in an administrator/elevated cmd prompt directly on the target computer:

sc.exe stop psexesvc

sc.exe delete psexesvc

It’s possible that this could completely resolve the issue. It’s also possible that this might only partially resolve the issue by allowing you to then run a single action that relies on PsExec before it stops working again, requiring you to manually remove the service after each successful run. And of course it’s also possible that it won’t do anything to resolve the issue at all.

Other things to try:

1. You could try the free paexec (it’s a psexec clone) instead of psexec. See if it produces any errors or if it works successfully. You can tell BP to use paexec by going to ‘Tools > Settings > Remote Execution > Use psexec.exe custom filepath’ and then enter the complete filepath to the paexec.exe. Alternatively you could just rename paexec.exe to psexec.exe as a test.

2. If you can find an older version of psexec (usually 1.98 or earlier) it’s possible that it could work if/when the latest version 2.11 does not work. We have seen a couple weird cases over the years where if there is a problem with v1.98 on a particular target, switching to v2.11 fixes the issue. And also vice versa where if there is a problem with v2.11 on a particular target, switching to v1.98 fixes the issue. We have also even seen a case where switching versions just for one run is enough to kickstart things such that you can then switch back to the other version and things continue to work. Odd, I know.

3. We have also seen a couple cases where even though there was only one target computer having problems with psexec, putting BatchPatch on a different computer solves it. That is to say that BP is running on computer X and having problems with only target Y (all other targets work fine). Putting BP on computer Z then works for all targets including target Y.

All that said, I actually don’t think we have ever seen 1611:3. 1611:2 is more what we would expect if psexec is having an issue, but I suspect that 1611:3 in your case is also related to psexec. To clarify, 1611 is a BatchPatch code that just indicates a generic failure during the attempt to remote execute. The number after the 1611 would normally be the remote process exit code, but in this case the 3 is not generated by the remote process (BatchPatchRemoteAgent.exe is the remote process but does not have any exit code 3 in it), so it’s either coming directly from PsExec or it’s coming from Windows. If it’s coming from Windows then it’s:

ERROR_PATH_NOT_FOUND

3 (0x3)

The system cannot find the path specified

However, this would still likely point to a problem with PsExec, though it’s unclear what the exact cause would be.

[mtkabert]

Thank you very much for the detailed reply and steps! Sure enough, I checked the client computer and there was a PSEXEC service listed (but not running). I used your provided command to remove the PSEXEC service and it worked , no issues at all.

I have now executed a few Windows Update commands from our BatchPatch server to the client and everything has completed without issue. Thanks again for the quick fix!

I did look at the All Messages log. There was a 5 second gap between BatchPatch Executing and the error message appearing.

[doug]

That’s great news! I’m glad it fixed things and appears to be working consistently now. Thanks for reporting back.

-Doug

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