Error: 2. HRESULT: -2147024894. Could not find file …

[doug]

Error: 2. HRESULT: -2147024894. Could not find file ‘\targetComputerC$Program FilesBatchPatchBatchPatchTempResult.log’

[doug]

We have seen this problem caused by an old psexec process still running/hanging. Once the old process is killed, the new BatchPatch action is able to complete successfully.

[twoj]

I’m getting this too;

Error: 233. HRESULT: -2147024894. Could not find file ‘\NTMQ1016C$Program FilesBatchPatchBatchPatchTempResult.log’. – 15:21:32

Any updates on this? seems to affecting mostly older servers

[doug]

Hi twoj – as mentioned in the previous posting, we have only seen this problem caused by an old psexec process still running/hanging on the target system. Once the old process is killed, the new BatchPatch action is able to complete successfully. Are you seeing that psexec is hanging? When you say “mostly older servers” what does that mean? How many servers is this happening on, and how many servers are things working properly on? Do all the problem servers have the same OS? What version of BatchPatch are you using? What version of PsExec are you using?

-Doug

[twoj]

Hi Doug

I’ve checked the processes, and rebooted the server(s) and still the same error

Mostly old servers means 2003 & 2003 R2, doesn’t seem to be affecting the 2008/2012 server, may be relevant, may not be.

I have this on 3 server right now.

working properly on over 75

1 server is 2003 and 2 are 2003 R2, but I have other 2003 that aren’t affected.

Batchpatch is latest version, so is psexec (2.11).

I do see the psexesvc.exe does hang on the server. re-launching the job and it hangs again.

hope that helps

[doug]

twoj – If psexesvc.exe is hanging on the server, unfortunately that’s not likely caused by BatchPatch but is instead something particular to the target server that is having the problem. It’s hard to say what the cause might be. A couple things to try:

1. Are you able to run psexec at the command line against the same target that is causing a problem in BatchPatch or does it hang too? So like for example something simple like “psexec \problematicTargetServer ipconfig /all”

2. Have you tried kiling psexesvc.exe on the target, and then going to the services console on the target and making sure there is no psexesvc listed there either? If it’s there, then please delete it. You can use the following commands to stop and then delete the service on the target:

sc.exe stop psexesvc

sc.exe delete psexesvc

3. What happens if you substitute paexec (http://www.poweradmin.com/paexec/) in place of psexec ? In order to perform this test you’ll need to put the copy of paexec in your system PATH and then in BatchPatch press ctrl-shift-p one time, which will tell it to use paexec instead of psexec. Note, this setting will “stick” so keep this in mind so that you know whether you are using psexec or paexec in general. PaExec should work as well as PsExec, though we are not officially supporting it at the moment. Also PsExec v2.11 is higher security if using alternate credentials since it fully encrypts credentials before sending to targets, whereas PaExec obfuscates without fully encrypting. However, that only applies to alternate credentials. It doesn’t apply to integrated security, in which both PaExec and PsExec behave the same, securely.

-Doug

[twoj]

I would agree that the issue seems to be on remote execution.

1) no, I tried issuing a simple command an I get the following error;

error communicating with psexec service…No Process on the other end of the pipe.

2) Most solutions to the above issue involve killing and deleting the service and the files, did that and still get the same issue as above.

3) using paexec I get the following error;

Error: -6. HRESULT: -2147024894. Could not find file ‘\NTMQ1016C$Program FilesBatchPatchBatchPatchTempResult.log’. – 11:12:08

I’m not using alternate credentials so it makes sense that they would both have errors.

I’ll see if I can psexec from the old wsus server and see if that version has better luck but i’m open to any ideas.

[doug]

twoj – I don’t think that you are likely to have success when trying from the old WSUS server since it seems like the problem is related specifically to the target computers and not the source computer. However, if you do have success with the old WSUS server, please let me know.

Given that both psexec and paexec are having what appears to be the same problem, I don’t really have a great suggestion for you. Both of those apps work in a very similar manner, and there is something going on with the target systems in question that are breaking the psexec/paexec functionality.

If I were you I would try to examine what, if anything, is different on those systems as compared to all of your systems that are working properly, whether it be a particular piece of software that’s installed or maybe even some type of strange corruption. You might start by examining any type of host intrusion prevention software or anti-virus software that is installed on those systems, because software like that could impede psexec/paexec, though in this case it feels like something is “broken” more than it feels like something is being explicitly blocked. If the problem didn’t exist in the past and only started happening recently, then perhaps you might want to examine any patches/updates/apps that have been installed on those systems very recently. Perhaps a recent OS update or software update is what caused the problem? I’m not sure.

Good luck. Please do report back here if you come to a resolution.

Thanks,

Doug

[twoj]

Finally got some time to look at this, as usual I try to go back to a working system. However my old wsus server had its psexec.exe (v1.98) file overwritten by the new WSUS psexec.exe (v2.11). Ok no problem – just go and download an old version – impossible to find old versions of pstools or psexec.exe, they all link back to Microsoft which only has the latest version. Had to go through my files to find the older version, 1.98.

I just tested doing a straight command: psexec \server cmd

This works fine with v1.98 but with 2.11 it locks up, the above command would result in “the system cannot find the file specified”, this is because it needs the full path to the file; ie, psexec \server C:Windowssystem32cmd.exe

Then even if you run that command you get the error “No process on the other end of the pipe”, as I understand psexec creates a service, psexesvc, that creates the pipe to pass the commands, so the error seems to be saying that the service isn’t responding. And on the remote machine you will find the service, psexesvc that is running. Normally this service and it’s file psexesvc.exe (in %windir%psexesvc.exe) is deleted on a normal execution, but in this case that service and file aren’t properly terminated and deleted.

Some of the information seems to indicate that it has something to do with sessions of the remote machine. I didn’t bother to investigate more since I found that v1.98 works where v2.11 has issues with certain servers.

As mentioned I don’t know why some servers were affected and others weren’t. My new wsus server is 2012R2 and the problem servers were all 2003 or 2003 R2, but I had other 2003 R2 servers that weren’t affected. None of the 2008 or newer seemed affected.

The paexec seems based on the psexec code so I suspect they implemented the same change that caused v2.11 to stop working properly with older OSs.

So I suspect that newer users to BP will run into this if they have older servers, you might want to make sure you keep a version of psexec 1.98 around!

thanks

[doug]

twoj – Thanks for reporting all of your findings. This is very helpful.

A couple of quick notes:

1. PaExec is not based on PsExec code. This doesn’t mean that they can’t have the same problems since they both accomplish the same task in the same or similar ways. However, PsExec source code is not available, and so PaExec code could not be based off of the PsExec code. However, PaExec was definitely written to mimic PsExec functionality, though the code itself is different.

2. We had one other report recently of the same “Error: 2. HRESULT: -2147024894” from a different user on a single Win 2012 (non-R2) target, while running BatchPatch on Win 8.1. Interestingly he switched from v2.11 to v1.98 and then the error disappeared. BUT… then he switched back to v2.11 right after that, and the problem never occurred again. Go figure. I do not know what to make of this behavior at the moment.

3. Unfortunately we are still not able to reproduce this error on any combination of source and target operating systems.

[Travis13]

I wondered about this error as well. I also have an old version of PsExec 1.98 and uploaded it to my onedrive public folder.

[Moderator deleted link: The PsExec EULA does not allow redistribution. As such, we are not able to allow such a link to be posted in this forum. We apologize for the inconvenience.]

[doug]

andydicken – Since the error you are seeing is not the same as the error in this topic thread, I moved our discussion to this topic thread.

[coffeysm]

My issue was resolved by upgrading BatchPatch to the latest version AND downgrading PSEXEC from V2.11 to V1.98. I don’t have the time or desire to figure out why PSEXEC version 2.11 doesn’t work on all servers. 99% of them are configured the same, however, I had issues on servers that offer file shares.

Thanks for your help.

[doug]

Thanks for reporting back. I’m glad you got it fixed. I would suggest that at some point you try v2.11 again. I wouldn’t be surprised if it started working, as we saw this happen with one other customer who was having the same problem.

-Doug

[Author]

Posts