Vcm Agent; Unix Agent; Report Server - VMware VCM 5.3 Troubleshooting Manual

VCM Agent

The VCM Agents are the mechanism by which VCM collects information from managed machines. If the
Agent is not functioning properly, collections from that machine may fail. The Running Jobs UI is the first
component to identify problems with an Agent. A typical error message for an Agent that is unable to
start collecting might be "There was a problem parsing the agent instructions document." This message
indicates there was some conflict in the instruction set sent to the Agent that it could not process, and failed
as a result. When troubleshooting Agent errors, a debug log and any available Agent ARS files is the best
information to send to VMware Customer Support when requesting assistance. Also, check the Event Log
for any application or system messages that may indicate why the Agent failed.

UNIX Agent

UNIX operates very differently from Windows. To accommodate the differences, VCM uses a separate
Agent for UNIX/Linux-based platforms. Troubleshooting UNIX Agent problems can be a little bit easier
than the standard Windows Agent because many operations available for Windows Agents are not yet
available on the UNIX side. Compliance enforcement is not yet available for the UNIX Agent, and
therefore should be eliminated from your troubleshooting process. For UNIX Agent errors a debug log,
UNIX Agent debug log, UNIX Agent ZRP files, and a system log are all helpful information to VMware
Customer Support technicians when troubleshooting UNIX Agent issues. Below is a typical UNIX error
shown in the debug log.

Report Server

The Report Server is responsible for the graphical displays of information in VCM and for the VCM
scheduled reports. Report error will normally appear in the UI.
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Types of Problems
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