ConfigMgr Console Cannot Connect To The Site

Background:

I was recently working with a customer that kept getting running into an issue after installing the ConfigMgr 2012 R2 console where it would fail to connect to the site with the following error.

Error

This is obviously pretty generic error there could be many things. In my case, we where seeing some error in the SMSAdminUI.log as well as shown below.

Error1

[1, PID:4764][09/03/2014 15:01:12] :The performance counter '# images' was not found

[5, PID:4764][09/03/2014 15:01:18] :The performance counter '# result objects in memory' was not found

[5, PID:4764][09/03/2014 15:01:18] :The performance counter '# exceptions' was not found

Possible Fixes:

I’ve seen a few other post mention running a performance counter reset using LODCTR /R would fix this issue: https://thewindowsadmin.com/?p=56 & https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/a224764a-8a41-40c5-baa8-3c6e8c40fd80/configuration-manager-cannot-connect-to-the-configuration-manager-site?forum=configmanagergeneral

In my case, we tried this and it did not resolve this issue. It was actually happening on multiple machines so I figured it wasn’t a performance counter issue.

After some troubleshooting we took a look at the Antivirus logs (MacAfee) in our case.

In the AccessProtection.txt log, we saw the following entries.

9/3/2014    4:07:36 PM    Blocked by Access Protection rule     NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM    C:\windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\InstallUtil.exe    \REGISTRY\MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\services\ConfigMgr 2012 Console\Performance    Common Maximum Protection:Prevent programs registering as a service    Action blocked : Create

9/3/2014    4:07:36 PM    Blocked by Access Protection rule     NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM    C:\windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\InstallUtil.exe    \REGISTRY\MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\services\ConfigMgr 2012 Console    Common Maximum Protection:Prevent programs registering as a service    Action blocked : Create

9/3/2014    4:07:39 PM    Blocked by Access Protection rule     NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM    C:\windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\InstallUtil.exe    \REGISTRY\MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\services\ConfigMgr 2012 Console - WMI Query Engine\Performance    Common Maximum Protection:Prevent programs registering as a service    Action blocked : Create

9/3/2014    4:07:39 PM    Blocked by Access Protection rule     NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM    C:\windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\InstallUtil.exe    \REGISTRY\MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\services\ConfigMgr 2012 Console - WMI Query Engine    Common Maximum Protection:Prevent programs registering as a service    Action blocked : Create

9/3/2014    4:07:43 PM    Blocked by Access Protection rule     NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM    C:\windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\InstallUtil.exe    \REGISTRY\MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\services\ConfigMgr 2012 Console - WMI Query Engine\Performance    Common Maximum Protection:Prevent programs registering as a service    Action blocked : Create

9/3/2014    4:07:43 PM    Blocked by Access Protection rule     NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM    C:\windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\InstallUtil.exe    \REGISTRY\MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\services\ConfigMgr 2012 Console - WMI Query Engine    Common Maximum Protection:Prevent programs registering as a service    Action blocked : Create

The customer had a rule enabled to prevent programs from registering as a service. Apparently, during the installation of the console a .NET 4 component is used to register some services.

We added these machines into a staging group that didn’t block anything and the console installed and could connect just fine.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    September 10, 2014
    Thanks
  • Anonymous
    March 09, 2015
    has the client been able to access the site before? is it a windows 7 based machine? try running "lodctr /R" on the affected machine, then reinstall (if only admin console is required)
  • Anonymous
    January 21, 2016
    I faced this issue on SCCM 2012. I was getting this issue as I had renamed my SCCM primary machine. Renaming the primary SCCM server made it unhealthy and its communication with CAS server had gone bad as it was registered with its old name at SCCM CAS server. Renaming it back to its old name sorted out the issue. I hope this helps others just in case. To solve the issue if you open System center 2012 configuration manager on CAS machine then in left pane, go to Admininistration tab -> Site Configuration -> Sites. In the right pane go to properties window of primary machine record. In the properties window -> General tab, check the value of SMS Provider location. Is that a valid machine name? Does that machine exists? Check the connectivity of that machine from your SCCM Primary server. I hope it helps someone facing this issue on SCCM 2012. On the SCCM config manager UI it was saying that SCCM can't connect to its database even when the respective SQL Server instance was up and running. The error in event viewer was as below:

    Transport error; failed to connect, message: 'The RPC server is unavailable. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800706BA)'rnMicrosoft.ConfigurationManagement.ManagementProvider.SmsConnectionExceptionrnThe RPC server is unavailable. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800706BA)rn at Microsoft.ConfigurationManagement.ManagementProvider.WqlQueryEngine.WqlConnectionManager.Connect(String configMgrServerPath)
    at Microsoft.ConfigurationManagement.AdminConsole.SmsSiteConnectionNode.GetConnectionManagerInstance(String connectionManagerInstance)rnThe RPC server is unavailable. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800706BA)
    rnSystem.Runtime.InteropServices.COMExceptionrnThe RPC server is unavailable. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800706BA)rn at System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ThrowExceptionForHRInternal(Int32 errorCode, IntPtr errorInfo)
    at System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ThrowExceptionForHR(Int32 errorCode)
    at System.Management.ManagementScope.InitializeGuts(Object o)
    at System.Management.ManagementScope.Initialize()
    at System.Management.ManagementObjectSearcher.Initialize()
    at System.Management.ManagementObjectSearcher.Get()
    at Microsoft.ConfigurationManagement.ManagementProvider.WqlQueryEngine.WqlConnectionManager.Connect(String configMgrServerPath)rn
  • Anonymous
    January 30, 2017
    lodctr /R worked for me if run from syswow64. My console wouldn't load after the 1610 upgrade.