Deployment Solution

Notification server name: dept-deploy

Site server: dept-deployss, running Task Service and Package Service

Starting about a week ago, clients are refusing to register with the task server.

Altiris Log Viewer:

Error loading document: The element 'html' is used but not declared in the DTD/Schema.
 (-1072898035)

Could not register using "https://dept-deployss.dept.example.edu:443/Altiris/ClientTaskServer/Register.aspx"

Thoughts?

Thanks!

Addendum: when I go to the register.aspx URL listed in the Altiris log, I get this in the browser:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<response description="The handler 'Register' is failed to process request. Called without 'resourceGuid' parameter or with invalid." code="7" result="failure">The handler 'Register' is failed to process request. Called without 'resourceGuid' parameter or with invalid.Request: source=128.186.181.156, version=<legacy>, size=0, page=Register.aspx</response>

Try http://dept-deployss.dept.example.edu/Altiris/ClientTaskServer/GetComputerCount.asp to see if the task server is responding. 

There are various troubleshooting steps here:

https://support.symantec.com/en_US/article.TECH191234.html

I just looked further into it, and it got weirder. The following three lines in a row appear in the Altiris log:

HTTP request redirected from https://dept.example.edu:443/Altiris/ClientTaskServer/Register.aspx?lastResort=true&resourceGuid=f4be7789-f973-4e8f-9d25-790f914e388b&crc=0008000000000D44 to HTTPS://dept.example.edu/php/people/people.php/Register.aspx?_tr=1_1

Error loading document: The element 'html' is used but not declared in the DTD/Schema.
 (-1072898035)

Could not register using "https://dept-deployss.dept.example.edu:443/Altiris/ClientTaskServer/Register.aspx"

This is weird. Somehow, something is trying to reach, rather than the site server at dept-deployss.dept.example.fsu, skip the first part of that and just go to dept.example.edu. In this case, that's my department Web server, which did a redirect to our employee directory when a 404 request is made.

How on earth did this happen? :-)

I fixed the problem.

On my department web server (http://dept.example.edu/), previously, a 404 went to an error.html written by the Webmaster--that had a 5-second countdown followed by a redirect to the department website.

My Webmaster recently asked me to change the httpd.conf file to where a 404 would go straight to the department faculty and staff listing. This is at the same moment my clients started to be unable to register with the site server. I never drew the line because:

1. We recently had a power failure in the server room that caused some odd problems, and
2. I would not, in my wildest dreams, have thought that something on a completely different server (running Linux to boot) would do something like this.

Why on earth is anything on the department Web server contacting the NS in any way, shape, or form? Could it have something to do with SSL? I'm using all https and no http in my DS environment, using the same wildcard certificate (dept.example.edu) as the department Web server.

I fixed the problem by making the redirects relative instead of absolute. So instead of a 404 redirect being http://dept.example.edu/something, I just made it "/something", and it solves the problem altogether. I'm still puzzled by this.

This takes the cake for the oddest thing I have ever seen.