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ASP.NET Error - anyone help please.

Created: 14 Jul 2010 | 10 comments
Eli Spitzer's picture
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Hello all,
In the BESR integration component I am unable to select the disk drives on servers to be backed-up. I get this error message:

An unhandled exception has occurred.
NullReferenceException.

How can I fix it?
Thanks

The complete event log is this:

----------------------------------------------------


Event Type: Warning
Event Source: ASP.NET 2.0.50727.0
Event Category: Web Event 
Event ID: 1309
Date: 14/07/2010
Time: 15:53:46
User: N/A
Computer: HOMEFILESERVER
Description:
Event code: 3005 
Event message: An unhandled exception has occurred. 
Event time: 7/14/2010 3:53:46 PM 
Event time (UTC): 7/14/2010 12:53:46 PM 
Event ID: db4e539a79ea46cc8f0dd25a64ed52a5 
Event sequence: 557 
Event occurrence: 2 
Event detail code: 0 
 
Application information: 
    Application domain: /LM/W3SVC/1298571824/Root/Altiris/Symantec.BackupSln.Web-6-129235838353189518 
    Trust level: Full 
    Application Virtual Path: /Altiris/Symantec.BackupSln.Web 
    Application Path: C:\Program Files\Altiris\Backup Exec System Recovery Management Solution\Web\ 
    Machine name: HOMEFILESERVER 
 
Process information: 
    Process ID: 4272 
    Process name: w3wp.exe 
    Account name: NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM 
 
Exception information: 
    Exception type: NullReferenceException 
    Exception message: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. 
 
Request information: 
    Request URL: http://192.168.1.163:3456/Altiris/Symantec.BackupSln.Web/BackupPolicy/PolicyDrivesDyn.aspx 
    Request path: /Altiris/Symantec.BackupSln.Web/BackupPolicy/PolicyDrivesDyn.aspx 
    User host address: 172.31.11.11 
    User: HOME_DMN\administrator 
    Is authenticated: True 
    Authentication Type: Negotiate 
    Thread account name: HOME_DMN\administrator 
 
Thread information: 
    Thread ID: 10 
    Thread account name: HOME_DMN\administrator 
    Is impersonating: False 
    Stack trace:    at Symantec.BackupSln.Web.PolicyDrivesDyn.Page_Load(Object sender, EventArgs e)
   at System.Web.Util.CalliHelper.EventArgFunctionCaller(IntPtr fp, Object o, Object t, EventArgs e)
   at System.Web.Util.CalliEventHandlerDelegateProxy.Callback(Object sender, EventArgs e)
   at System.Web.UI.Control.OnLoad(EventArgs e)
   at System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive()
   at System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint)
 
 
Custom event details: 
 
For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Comments

Andrew Bosch's picture
29
Jul
2010
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Repair

Have you tried running a repair of the BESR IC from the Symantec Installation Manager?  It looks like the solution didn't properly configure during install.

------------------------------------
Principal SQA Engineer
Symantec

Eli Spitzer's picture
30
Jul
2010
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Hello Andrew and thanks for your reply.
I tried repairing the BESR IC, the Notification Server installations and installed all of the latest patches - still the same error.
I don't have much understanding in SQL, but I think it might be related to some corruption in the database, since the log says "NullReferenceException" - maybe there's a missing value in one of the tables.
Is there a way of repairing the database itself without loosing any data?
Best regards,
Eli
jharings's picture
03
Aug
2010
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Is it possible for you to post some relevant

Altiris logs? It may pinpoint exactly what is missing or corrupted.

Jim Harings
HP Enterprise Services
1st Rule of Connect Club: Mark the post that helped you the most as a 'solution'. 2nd Rule of Connect Club:You must talk about Connect club.

Eli Spitzer's picture
05
Aug
2010
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Attached are the altiris log and the asp error again.
I tried the repair again, but the result is the same.

AttachmentSize
Altiris Log Error.txt 1.25 KB
ASP Error.txt 1.32 KB
jharings's picture
10
Aug
2010
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I took a look at the logs

and I don't see anything that will help. When you are repairing\reinstalling are you logged on with the application service account and either directly on the server or using ILO or terminal services with the /admin switch? Repairing the database is best done by following the course you have started, by fixing the recalcitrant solution.

Jim Harings
HP Enterprise Services
1st Rule of Connect Club: Mark the post that helped you the most as a 'solution'. 2nd Rule of Connect Club:You must talk about Connect club.

Bill HC's picture
29
Nov
2010
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I have this problem too.

I'm having the same issue with a BESR installation that was working fine until about a week ago.  Whenever I try to select drives when creating a new Backup Policy now, I get the exact error mentioned above.  This was working fine and I was able to create a dozen or so policies.

I think that something caused the software to not be able to look up drives for the selection box criteria.  I noticed that when it did work, it seemed to create a list based on actual volume information it gets from all the managed clients.  Perhaps something messed up the database.  I took a look at the Inv_BESR_Volume table in the Symantec_CMDB SQL database, and that seems to be where it gets the list of drives.  There are two rows where the GenericVolumeID column is NULL.  I was able to join the _ResourceGuid column to the corresponding key in the ResourceKey table to find out what machine created these faulty rows, so the next step is to figure out why those machines have faulty volume information.

 

Bill HC's picture
29
Nov
2010
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Update

After discovering the machine names that were producing the NULL value for the GenericVolumeID column (see post above), I decided to delete the two Resources from Altiris, which removed them from the BESR 2010 console.  I was then able to create a new Backup Policy and specify drives without the ASP.NET error!

Now the goal is to find out how I can get those machines back. The Altiris Agent on these machines has reconnected and the machine shows up in the BESR management console, albeit with a status of "Not Installed".  The machine still has the correct job assigned so perhaps it needs to run again before BESR status is sent again to the management server.

Bill HC's picture
30
Nov
2010
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Update #2

In order to get the machines I removed from Altiris to register correctly again, i needed to repair the BESR Plug-in installation.  I did this by running the install MSI from the plugin directory on the BESR Management Console server, by default it's in C:\Program Files\Altiris\Backup Exec System Recovery Management Solution\Web\BESRAgentSetup\.   Once I did this and triggered an Altiris Agent refresh, the machines showed correctly in the console.

Whew.  Tough "hack" but problem solved.  At least i didn't have to muck around with the SQL.

jharings's picture
30
Nov
2010
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Eli, since you started the thread

can you attempt Bill's solution?

Jim Harings
HP Enterprise Services
1st Rule of Connect Club: Mark the post that helped you the most as a 'solution'. 2nd Rule of Connect Club:You must talk about Connect club.

Bill HC's picture
21
Dec
2010
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UPDATE #3!

Well time to muck around with the SQL.  Here is a SQL query you can run on your Symantec_CMDB SQL Database to determine which machines are causing the problem:

 select * from Inv_BESR_Volume where GenericVolumeID is null

go

select * from ResourceKey where (KeyName='fqdn') and (ResourceGuid in (select _ResourceGuid from Inv_BESR_Volume where GenericVolumeID is null))

go

 

Rather than removing Altiris/BESR from the affected machines and reinstalling which is a complete PITA, you can simply update the GenericVolumeID in the Inv_BESR_Volume table to the correct drive letter designation.  To do this, you need to look at the results from the first query above...specifically the "_id" and "DisplayName" columns (which shows you what drive letter).  Then use a query like this to set the correct values:

 update Inv_BESR_Volume set GenericVolumeID='C:\' where _id=1350

go