[Xymon] BBWin failing

[Becker Christian]

Hello out there,

first of all - I have posted this to the Xymon mailing list and to the BBwin mailing list also.

I have an amount of Windows servers running various versions of Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008, 32 and 64 Bit, reporting using BBWin (0.12 and 0.13) to my Xymon 4.3.7 server.
On the Xymon server, I have created a directory bbwin under the Xymon installation directory, so that it reads /opt/xymon/server/etc/bbwin in our case. This directory contains update files for the BBWin on the Windows servers.
The default BBWin.cfg on the Windows servers have the update feature of bbwin enabled; thus by having the following entry in the upper bbwin section of BBWin.cfg:

<load name="bbwinupdate" value="bbwinupdate.dll" />

Further down, we are loading another .cfg file (%computername%.cfg) to merge it's content with the default BBWin.cfg on the Windows server. The entry to do this in the default BBWin.cfg looks like this:
<bbwinupdate>
<setting name="filename" value="bbwin/%computername%.cfg" />
</bbwinupdate>

This is fetching the appropriate file from the share on my Xymon server, and then this update file is being merged with the existing BBWin.cfg on the Windows server. So, after the update mechanism, the BBWin.cfg on a Windows server reads as a "normal" BBWin.cfg: it contains the values from the default BBWin.cfg and the additional / merged values coming from the %computername%.cfg.

This enables me to store and handle all of the update files on a central location and we do not need to login to a Windows server if there's a need to change values from the BBWin config of a server.

So far, so good.
Our problem is, that the BBWin is failing / crashing on a non-regular basis, but all the time with the same errors in the same order:


1.       The agent bbwinupdate generated this event message :  failed to open C:\Programme\BBWin\tmp\bbwin.cfg.work

2.       The agent bbwinupdate generated this event message :  failed to save C:\Programme\BBWin\tmp\bbwin.cfg.work

3.       Fehlgeschlagene Anwendung BBWin.exe, Version 0.12.0.100, fehlgeschlagenes Modul unknown, Version 0.0.0.0, Fehleradresse 0x00abd175.
Weitere Informationen über die Hilfe- und Supportdienste erhalten Sie unter http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

(The 3rd line is the common Microsoft line saying that the application has failed - we only have German installations of Windows.)
On some Windows 2008 servers there was a popup window saying that the Windows "Data Execution Prevention" has stopped the BBWin.exe from work.

As steps to troubleshoot I did the following:

1.       On those servers where I had the popup message, I selected the option "Turn on DEP for all programs and services except those I select:", and then I selected the BBWin.exe:
-> WITHOUT SUCCESS

2.       I have completely deactivated the DEP:
-> WITHOUT SUCCESS

3.       I have configured an exclusion in my real-time antivirus application:
-> WITHOUT SUCCESS

4.       I have have removed the BBWin 0.13 and changed it to BBWin 0.12:
-> WITHOUT SUCCESS

Does anybody of you folks out there have another idea of what could cause this "update enabled BBWin" to fail? For my understanding it might be caused by the update feature itself, or by the mechanism it does the update by storing temporary files in C:\Programme\BBWin\tmp\bbwin.cfg.work - probably Windows doesn't like this (?).

For my part, I'm finished with my ideas...

Regards
Christian


CHRISTIAN BECKER
System Engineer
CSC

August-Horch-Strasse 28, 56070 Koblenz, Germany
Global Outsourcing Services Central Region  |   cbecker4 at csc.com  |  www.csc.com


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