SMS: Advertise Program Manager Unable to Launch Dependent Program When First Program Reports a Non-zero Exit Code (263700)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Systems Management Server 1.2
  • Microsoft Systems Management Server 2.0
  • Microsoft Systems Management Server 2.0 SP1
This article was previously published under Q263700

SYMPTOMS

An advertised program that uses the option "Run another program first" may fail to run if the program that it is dependent on returns a non-zero exit code.

CAUSE

The program specified in "Run another program first" executes correctly and requires that the user restart the computer. To indicate this requirement, it returns a non-zero exit code. The System Management Sever (SMS) Client interprets this non-zero exit code as an error condition, reports a status message indicating such, and removes the execution of the dependent program from the schedule because of this perceived failure.

WORKAROUND

To avoid this behavior, do not use programs that return a successful non-zero exit code as the program specified in a dependent program's "Run another program first" option.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article. This problem was first corrected in Systems Management Server version 2.0 Service Pack 2.

MORE INFORMATION

Special cases have been added for the following return codes:
  • 3010 - ERROR_SUCCESS_REBOOT_REQUIRED
  • 3011 - ERROR_SUCCESS_RESTART_REQUIRED
  • 1641 - ERROR_SUCCESS_REBOOT_INITIATED
  • 1604 - ERROR_INSTALL_SUSPEND
If a program returns one of these error codes, Smsapm32.exe generates a preliminary status message of 10022. Upon restart, Smsapm32.exe generates an additional standard 10008 success message to indicate completion of the program's requirements for a restart. At that time, a dependent program is also able to run. Other non-zero return codes, in the absence of a status Management Information Format (MIF), are still reported as a failure.

This change was implemented to accommodate programs such as the installation for the Windows Installer service, which may require a restart to replace in-use files.

Note: The 10022 status messages does not appear when choosing the option to Show Messages-->Program Success in the Advertisement Status summary. Use Show Messages-->All or a custom status message to view 10022 status messages.

Advertise Program Manager (APM) views the MSI return code of a dependant program as a failure.

For example:

Microsoft Office 2000 SR1 ships and installs MSI 1.1 that requires a restart. After the installation, the following informational message appears:

The requested operation is successful. Changes will not be effective until the system is rebooted.

Therefore, you may want to be selective in the type of programs you distribute with System Management Server 2.0. Any program you create with the following criteria may produce the same symptoms:
  • Create ProgramA that restarts the computer, which, prior to the restart, returns an exit code of 3010 (or any other MSI return code, as they are all handled the same)
  • Create ProgramB which depends on ProgramA
  • Advertise ProgramB to the clients
  • Run ProgramB on the clients
Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:1/14/2006
Keywords:kbBug kbfix kbsms200sp2fix KB263700
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