Media Master Greyed Out

[rhindle2k2]

I know, I know... this topic has been discussed to death here, but before I open a TAC case I wanted to post my problem here as it is quite odd and I cannot explain it.

We have 7 Unity servers total in the US and EU (one domain) and the last server was upgraded from 3.1.3 to 4.0.4SR1 Friday night. I've never had any problems accessing the MMC from my PC until I upgraded the last server to 4.0.4SR1 Friday night. Monday morning I was getting complaints from those that update our network notification call handler that the MMC was greyed out. Sure enough I connect to Unity and it is greyed out for me as well. Actually, first I was getting the annoying authentication dialog that you can never get past no matter what creditials you put in. This is very odd since I never had the problem until I upgrade the last Unity server to 4.0. Suddenly on every server I try to access I get prompted. After reading in these forums most of the day yesterday and the troubleshooting MMC docs on CCO I realized that NONE of the Unity servers have DCOM enabled. I enabled DCOM and then I didn't get the authentication box anymore, nor did I get any more DCOM errors on the PC's event log. But that didn't resolve the problem of the MMC being greyed out.

In PCA the MMC is fine. It was greyed out until I enabled DCOM on the Unity server. But the MMC is still greyed out in the SA. If I log on locally to Unity the MMC is fine. If I log on to my PC with the unityadmin account it is greyed out. The strangest thing is the fact that everyone in the US and EU that normally updates the notification call handler suddenly were getting the authenitcation box (not any more since enabling DCOM on Unity) and the MMC is greyed out the first business day after upgrading the last Unity server to 4.0. Since we are running 4.0.4SR1 I was not expecting to have any MMC problems as I see in post after post that 4.0.4 resolves a bunch of these problems.

Using the portqry command from the Unity server to my PC I see that it is listening, but the RPC query fails (10.48.24.115 is my PC):

Querying target system called:

10.48.24.115

Attempting to resolve IP address to a name...

IP address resolved to 99db219.rpp.local

querying...

TCP port 135 (epmap service): LISTENING

Using ephemeral source port

Querying Endpoint Mapper Database...

Server's response:

RPC query failed (5).

portqry.exe -n 10.48.24.115 -e 135 -p TCP exits with return code 0x00000000.

I've disabled virus scanners, the vpn client and anything else that I can think of with no love. Again, I had no problems seeing the MMC on any server from my PC until I upgraded the LAST server to 4.0.4 and then I got the authentication box on every server while accessing a page with the MMC and then after enabling DCOM on the Unity server I do not get the authentication problem anymore, but the MMC is still greyed out.

One other interesting thing.. I did a sniffer trace from my PC while browsing to a page with the MMC and noticed an error from Unity back to my PC:

DCERPC Fault: call_id: 2 ctx_id: 1 status: unknown (0x80010001)

Under DCE RPC in the trace I see:

packet type: Fault (3)

Any insight on this?

Thanks for your time!

Keith

[vharsha]

Keith,

I guess one of the MS hotfixes you installed with Unity 4.04 SR1 must have disabled DCOM on all your Unity servers. This is not something that Unity does. DCOM is essential for the MMC to work.

I have a few questions for you:

- Do you see this problem only with that one Unity server? I mean, if you launched the SA of another Unity server, does the MM work ok?

- Do you use integrated windows authentication for the SA?

- Have you tried logging on to your PC using any other account other than unityadmin?

- Anything in the event logs of the your PC or Unity server? Look in the security log too.

Harsha

[rhindle2k2]

Harsha,

I see this problem with every Unity server now. That is, when I launch the SA from my workstation. From the server itself there is no problem, the MMC is fine. From what I can tell they have all been fine until the last Unity server was upgraded as I was never prompted with the authentication box previous to upgrading the last server (from my workstation).

I tried login on with the unityadmin account on my workstation to see if it worked since it works locally on the server, but it does not work from my workstation. Same problem.

We use integrated Windows authentication for the SA.

I've tried logging on with my own account and unityadmin with the same results. Everyone now appears to have the problem that prior to the last upgrade didn't have an issue before. There are a handful of users that update a call handler on Unity via the SA and that Monday morning after the Friday night upgrade it no longer worked. The call handler is on that last server I upgraded.

There were DCOM errors on the PC before enabling DCOM on the Unity server. After that there are no more DCOM errors in the PC event log nor are there any errors on the Unity servers event logs. No errors in the security log either since enabling DCOM on the Unity server.

It sure sounds like some type of DCOM problem somewhere considering what the sniffer trace shows and the symtoms all seem to point to DCOM. I'm just at a loss as there is no fw in between Unity and the PC, name resolution is working along with reverse lookups, DCOM is enabled on both sides, and there are no errors in the event logs anywhere. The only error I see is in the sniffer trace.

Let me know what you think or of there are some micro traces I can check out.

Thanks!

Keith

[vharsha]

Is the MMC disabled on all SA pages or just the Call Handler page?

Would it be possible to turn off integrated windows authentication for SA on one of the Unity servers and see if it makes a difference? And try logging into SA with both user and unityadmin accounts? This would make the SA somewhat similar to PCA.

Could you email me the following?

- Sniffer trace

- HTML source of an SA page on which the MMC is disabled

[rhindle2k2]

Harsha,

The MMC is disabled on all pages, not just call handlers.

I turned off integrated windows authentication and it works logging in with my user account! The MMC was functioning and not greyed out. Interesting...

I'm emailing you the sniffer trace of anonymous (working) and windows authen (not working) and the source code of a page with the mmc greyed out.

Looks like we are getting somewhere!

Keith

[a63548]

I would like to see those traces, thus i have the same problem.

Regards Tonny

[tim.giles]

Have you tried re-running the permissions wizard?

If you upgrade to the newest version of the permissions wizard from the Unity Tool website you should get an additional check box at the end of everything, just before you execute the permissions.

“Grant DCOM Rights and Enable the Media Master Control”.

Tick this and then try? I just had a similar (not same though) problem and this fixed it (it was for v4.0(5))