1. Troubleshooting Collector
1.1. Introduction
NEXThink puts as much efforts as possible for providing stable and efficient software components. However, because of its low-level nature, Collector is a very sensitive element of the whole NEXThink solution. Therefore, should you encounter any problem, we ask you to submit a bug report. This section first gives instructions on the behavior to adopt if one faces one of the major issues that can be encountered when using Collector. It also details the procedure for generating a bug report that will help us solve any issue that you may suffer of in a short time interval.
1.2. Collector MSI Package Usage Troubleshooting
If the Collector MSI package returns an error hindering the ability to perform some task, logs can be enabled: msiexec.exe /l*v log.txt …
Logs inspection can reveal the source of the experienced issue. Examples follow:
- MSI package is not accessible by the running machine because the network share when the MSI package is being stored does not grant read access to the said machine.
- User has insufficient privileges for installing Collector MSI package.
- Etc.
1.3. Connectivity Issue
If you are unable to view a machine activity in NEXThink Finder after installation of Collector, the following steps should be performed:
- Reboot the concerned machine.
- Open the NEXThink Collector Control Panel extension. Check that the driver is running in CPL. Is the driver status “Running”?
- If no, try reinstalling Collector 3. If after successful installation the same problem still remains, report a bug to NEXThink.
- If yes, continue the present procedure.
- Launch an application (e.g. command prompt). Wait for 2 minutes. Did the number of sent packets increase?
- IF no, try again. If the number of sent packets still remains stable, report a bug to NEXThink.
- If yes, continue the present procedure.
- In NEXThink Finder, do you see any activity from the concerned machine after having waited for N minutes?
- If yes, there is no connectivity issue. Rebooting the concerned machine was sufficient. Any installation, upgrade or uninstallation requires machines to be rebooted.
- If no, there is a connectivity issue. Machines should be allowed to send UDP packets to the Engine on the port that has been configured at installation-time. Report the issue to the network administrator that will help you identify and resolve the problem.
1.4. Emergency Removal
Uninstallation of Collector should, whenever possible, be performed by removing the associated MSI package (Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs). However, it may happen that it is not possible to boot the system anymore, because the Collector driver is a Windows driver (a kernel-mode software). One should follow the instructions given in this section for uninstalling Collector 3. Emergency removal is a 4 steps procedure:
- Reboot in Safe mode: hit F8 at computer boot-time and choose “Windows Safe-mode with networking”. In safe mode, the Collector driver is not loaded.
Disable the driver: open the registry editor (“regedit”) and locate the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\nxtdrv\ registry key. Edit the Start DWORD value and set it to 4 (Disabled).
- Reboot in normal mode: let your computer boot in normal mode.
- Uninstall the product: the Collector driver will not be loaded, letting you run your computer as usual. You can then remove the product by going into the Add/Remove Programs Control Panel applet.
If a machine cannot boot because of Collector, NEXThink must be advised. A bug report can be submitted. Its creation is the subject of the next section.
1.5. Bug Report Generation
1.5.1. Bug symptoms
While using Collector, either in testing or deployment phase, a bug report must if one of the following symptoms is experienced:
- STOP messages (blue screens) or spontaneous reboots;
- computer freezing (no more screen, keyboard and mouse activity);
- inaccuracy of information gathered by Collector 3;
- any other problem that may be caused by Collector 3.
1.5.2. Requirements
- The bug reporting tool must be run by a user with Administrator privileges;
- Kernel minidumps must be generated in case of crash:
go in the Control Panel > System > Advanced > Startup and Recovery > Settings
- verify that displayed settings are matching the ones depicted in the following screenshot:
- The .NET 2.0 framework must be installed. If it is not, launching the bug reporting tool will raise an error similar to the one depicted hereafter. The .NET framework version 2.0 redistributable package can be downloaded from Microsoft’s website .
1.6. Bug reporting procedure
For generating a bug report, please perform the following steps:
Download the bug reporting tool from http://support.nexthink.com/, Collector Software section. The binary name is nxtdrvBugReport.exe;
- Reproduce the problem you want to report;
If the problem you want to report systematically causes computer crashes (STOP messages or spontaneous reboots), do reproduce the problem as many times as it is necessary for the CrashGuard feature (automatic disabling of Collector after cyclic computer crashes) to become active (max. 4 times);
- Execute the bug reporting tool nxtdrvBugReport.exe, which is depicted in the screenshot below;
- Fill the different fields:
- Give a description as detailed as possible;
- If your problem concerns a specific binary (e.g. the Product Name of a binary is not correctly reported), do include this file by clicking the “browse” button. Please do include the file from its original location (i.e. do not include a copy of the binary that you may have stored in a temporary folder for convenience); o Make sure that you agree with NEXThink bug reports usage policy by clicking the intended checkbox.
- Click the “Generate” button. You will be asked for a destination folder where the bug report will be stored. It will be named “BUG_REPORT.zip”. The bug report generation will then start. It may take a while (typically 30 seconds).
- A message box will eventually inform you of the success of the operation, recalling the location where the “BUG_REPORT.zip” file has been stored.
Open a case on http://support.nexthink.com/ and attach the bug report to your case.