Service Tests Failing in HostMonitor 8.86

[jaustin]

UAC was set one notch down from "Always Notify" on the target 2008 R2 system. I turned it off completely.

I rebooted the server running HostMonitor again, and again all of the tests came back fine. I refreshed the tests, and that one test still goes to Unknown.

Even if it's a problem with the account, this doesn't make sense if, as you say, the service test only needs to successfully connect once and then won't need accurate credentials for subsequent tests.

[KS-Soft]

Yes, you are right, we cannot explain this bug
But this is not HostMonitor bug, we re-checked our code and we never have seen such behaviour on our systems and we cannot reproduce it (we are testing different systems and trying different UAC settings, everything works just fine so far)

Regards
Alex

[piet]

I also have this problem with a client of mine that is running some Windows 2008 R2 servers. For some uknown reason the status jumps to unknown or sometimes even bad even though all is running fine.

I have a feeling that if hostmonitor itself is installed on a Windows 2008R2 server you will get these weird problems. Most likely an installation of hostmonitor on a windows 2003 or < will fix the problem.

[jaustin]

[jaustin]

We've started using an account that is only a local admin on the target server rather than a domain admin account. That seems to be more reliable so far, but, as Alex says, there is clearly still a bug somewhere that causes HostMonitor to be unreliable in some of its testing.

[KS-Soft]

[florian]

I found this old post and i'm replying here because I have the same problems. After restarting dhe HM-Server (Win2008) all tests for the remote systems (Win2008R2) are OK -> authentication manager is turned on and set to connect as RemoteHostName\Administrator + Password (is set).
On all remote systems (Security-EventLog) I verify that HostMontor is trying to connect with the credentials of the local HM-Server logged-on user (HMUser-Account), with the Domain-Administrator credentials (set to another tests for our DCs) or take occasionally some other username+passords from another tests for some other set of servers.
Starting HostMonitor as Service (System Account or HMUser-Account) or by double-click of the HostMonitor-Shortcut (HMUser-Account) does not make any difference. HostMonitor is tryind to authenticate at remote systems with different accounts...!
Of course all tests for any of our Domain-Computers are OK because HostMonitor try different accounts and authenticate at the least as Domain-Administrator. The very big problem is that HostMonitor try the same authentication method (local, domain-admin, other ...) with non Domain-Computers that are out of our DMZ!!!
I think it is really something wrong with the HostMonitor-Code! Can you please check the HostMonitor-Code and repair it in the next release or give us a solution? Thank you very much!

[KS-Soft]

We checked our code many times and performed various tests - looks like its Windows problem, not HostMonitor's error. HostMonitor sends specified username/password to Windows API while Window may use current user credentials instead of explicitly specified account.
And we do not see how this can be fixed

That's why when you monitor single domain we recommend to specify account for Windows related tests for HostMonitor service itself (using options located on Service page in HostMonitor Options dialog).

If you need to monitor several domain, its better to use some Remote Monitoring Agent (RMA) located on some host within remote domain. This is good solution for various reasons.
I think you may use the same workaround for tests outside of your DMZ - install RMA on some system (it can be HostMonitor system or some remote system) using local system account and use this agent for "external" tests.

Regards
Alex

[florian]

Hi Alex, thank you for the reply and sorry for my english.
That HostMonitor pick the local current user credentials is not really a very big problem...

I never logged-on with the Domain-Administrator Account on the HostMonitor-Machine and there are no any credentials or network passwords stored on this HM-Server!

HostMonitor pick-up the Domain-Administrator (DomainName\Administrator+password) credentials from another tests for DCs and this is absolutely not acceptable and not OK.

Is there a way to avoid this please? Thanks

[KS-Soft]

Sorry, we don't know how to fix Windows. We will check Microsoft manuals once more, may be find some solution...

What abour RMA? Would you try this workaround?
Its pretty easy to setup agent on any system
http://www.ks-soft.net/hostmon.eng/rma-win/index.htm

Regards
Alex

[florian]

hi, I think you have to fix HostMonitor and I think that Windows had with this nothing to do! HostMonitor is picking the authentications accounts (connect as) from other tests! It must be a way to totally separate or isolate the authentications.

Example: on a remote - not on HM-Domain - Server I have to wach 30 services and in all tests HM is configured to connect as RemHostName
\ Administrator -> after I Refresh all tests, on the Security-EventLog of the remote server i see that HM-Server try to connect 11 times as HM-Server-logged-on-User, 9 times as RemHostName\Administrator and 40 times as HM-Domain\Administrator. When the error Win 32 error 5 occur, HM try to connect all the time (for a refresh more as 90 times) as Domain\Administrator and/or HM-Server-logged-on-user(Domain\HMUser)!.

Why it pick up another authentification account from another test? You have to reproduce and find a solution for this.


For security purposes I cannot install active RMAs. I cannot install passive RMAs because I have to many systems that does not are on a domain but different workgroups without any trust betwen and each with hundred of tests to watch.

Regards

[KS-Soft]

[florian]

Hi Alex, thanks for reply.
I'm trying to isolate/understand the problem that we have: on the remote system the HM-Server - through HostMonitor - is trying to authentificate as HM-logged-on-User and as DomainName\Administrator. This happens when the connection to the remote system is re-establisched (the wan-link was down or maybe after the remote system restarted).
We have the analysis for some situations :
1- If HostMonitor sends correct information to the Windows API, then Windows API send the wrong authentification information to the remote system -> the problem here could be on the HM-Server itself. But Windows or Windows API on the HM-Server have only the local administrator (HM-Server\Administrator) and the currently logged-on domain user (DomainName\HM-User) authentication information. Windows or Windows API cannot have and does not have domain administrator authentification informations (DomainName\Administrator) on the HM-Server.
Result: HostMonitor is pincking from another tests (for DCs) and sending to the Windows API the correct information for DomainName\HM-User and DomainName\Administrator -> this should not happen!

2- If HostMonitor sends the correct information to the Windows API and the Windows API send the correct authentification informations to the remote system -> then the problem here could be the remote system interpreting wrong the correct authentification informations from the HostMonitor on the HM-Server. But the remote server is on a workgroup and is not a domain computer. Of course this remote system does not have any authentification information for DomainName\HM-User or DomainName\Administrator -> therefore the problem remain to be on HostMonitor itself.

3- If HostMonitor pick-up the authentification informations for DomainName\Administrator from another test and DomainName\HM-User from Windows API -> then HostMontor remain to be the problem.

4- maybe there are some other situations.....

About RMAs:
A- I will not install active RMA/RMAs to remote system/s because I dont want to save authentication informations there
B- I will not install passive RMA/RMAs to remote system/s because the problem still persist and here is HostMonitor-Server that send authentification informations picked-up from other tests to the agent/s

Regards!
Florian

[KS-Soft]

[edel]

Hello,

Same problem here. In fact I have migrated my dedicated host monitor server from Windows Server 2003 to Windows Server 2008 R2. Only the OS changed, same IP and same location.

I had no problem on Windows 2003 (all tests had good status) but on Windows 2008 about 30 out of 1600 tests fail on Win32 error #5.

All fails are about service tests, especially Hyper-V Virtual Machine Management. When I choose a service, I see the complete list of services running and their state (running or not). But the test results in the unknown state.

I use a domain admin account to perform the test, same domain than the server HostMon is.

I have also a few tests returning no reply but in the unknown state, all of them are UNC checks.

Windows Firewall is off on every servers monitored (but remember on Windows 2003 HostMonitor performed very well so the bug can only be on the Host Monitor server side, which has also firewall fonctionnality off).

Thanks in advance for any help.