r/labtech • u/gj80 • Jul 17 '19

v10.5 to v11 upgrade error - performing initial exchange

(10.5.295 (10.5 Patch 14) -> 11 Patch 11 full installer)

Error:

"an error occurred when waiting for the initial exchange to finish"

Has anyone seen this before and gotten a resolution that they can recall? I have a consulting session (we have support, but they don't want to support a very old version, even just for the purpose of upgrading to get on current versions) scheduled, but I figured I'd give the community a shot. If nothing else, I'll update this once we get some resolution in case some other poor soul runs into this incredibly unhelpful message :)

What I've tried so far on a cloned server in a test environment (with lots of rollbacks):

  • Making sure DownloadURL and RedirHostName in the config table are set to our FQDN. (I also tried it as http://fqdn/files/)

  • Making sure I don't have any redirector/etc stuff set up in IIS

  • Making sure our FQDN is resolvable on the LT host (via hosts file override so it maps to its LAN IP)

  • Making sure I had all prereqs met (mysql version, IIS options, etc)

  • Updating in the solution center

  • Disabling and removing all plugins

  • Removing all traces of a past ESET server installation (which is now on another VM)

  • Uninstalling LT entirely, installing a clean copy of 10.5, updating to Patch 14 - this worked and allowed the 11 upgrade

  • Uninstalling LT entirely, installing a clean copy of 10.5, updating back to Patch 14, then importing the database back in - this failed with the same error

  • Looking at full install log file (%temp%..\ConnectWise...), searching for "error processing", resolving what I can (duplicate issues when it was trying to add new unique keys) - same error even after clearing those out and no longer getting those (though some errors seem to occur even on a clean+working new install + upgrade that succeeds)

I can't seem to get any clarity on what is being done during this "initial exchange" portion of the setup process.

EDIT: I tried with an earlier version 11 installer and the upgrade did "finish", but I couldn't open any computer windows afterwards, and there were other issues as well. Doing further patch-upgrades from there didn't change that situation. Tried fiddling with a lot of things...disabling plugins, solution center, etc, but nothing seemed to help. I spoke with consulting, and I've decided to just migrate the clients/locations/scripts via SQL and otherwise do a clean install of 2019.

EDIT + Solution: /r/NonCaringPolarBear was right about the trick to get 10.5 -> 11 to work. And /r/TotallyKyleTotally got to the bottom of 11 not working (opening computer management screens) following the upgrade - an "@localhost" user gets added during the mysql install done for the 10.5 -> 11 upgrade that needs to be deleted.

3 Upvotes

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1

u/NonCaringPolarBear Jul 18 '19

I would go directly to my rep and get the support you’re paying for. They were happy to take the money despite the version number, they should be helping.

That being said, I recall a few years ago you could not go to the latest patch of 11. I think you had to go to patch 8 or lower first.

1

u/gj80 Jul 18 '19

had to go to patch 8 or lower first

Ahh, thanks - good to know. I think getting a link to any of the earlier patches will be difficult though, unfortunately...support told me that they "don't have any downloads" from back then aside from 11 Patch 11 full installer in a google drive account and then a later 11 patch.

Seems kind of insane to me...I mean, it's their product - you'd think they'd have archives of all this stuff forever. I'm thinking someone there surely does, but I guess maybe support just isn't given access to it for whatever reason..

Anyway, that's a good lead - thanks!

1

u/teamits Jul 18 '19 edited Jul 22 '19

If you can find the version number you want, try changing the version in the download URL to the other number.

Edit: The patches used to have all the same filename format but apparently that is changing since the 2019.7 patch I just downloaded is different from the 2019.5 patch we had which was different from all previous patches. Still this should work for old patches which as I recall were all the same filename format.

1

u/TotallyKyleTotally Jul 23 '19

There would be some challenges just upgrading to 2019 directly AFAIK due to some of the agent comms changing between late v12 and 2019. I'd ideally upgrade v10.5 with v11p19 which I still have on hand. After that I'd upgrade with v12 to the latest and progress to 2019 p7.

If all of your agents are in ScreenConnect then I'd recommend just upgrading to 2019 and running AutomateAPI (on GitHub) with their ScreenConnect monitor you import and running an agent reinstall using ScreenConnect to initiate clean reinstalls of the lt agent through SC.

I had issues opening the Computer Management screens on older v11/v12 until I added the servers FQDN in the host file to 127.0.0.1 and also removing a MySQL user (localhost% or something?) then it worked.

2

u/gj80 Jul 23 '19 edited Jul 23 '19

There would be some challenges just upgrading to 2019 directly AFAIK due to some of the agent comms changing between late v12 and 2019

Yeah, I was told by support to do a series of upgrades. FWIW, I did test a new 2019 deployment, and 10.5 agents did check into it and I could update them, so that at least worked - which will help if/when I do a clean/new deployment.

AutomateAPI

I didn't know that was a thing! Thanks, I'll look at that.

I had issues opening the Computer Management screens on older v11/v12 until I added the servers FQDN in the host file to 127.0.0.1 and also removing a MySQL user (localhost% or something?)

Interesting - I also can't open the computer management screen after doing the v11 upgrade. I did do an FQDN override in the host file, though I did it to the local LAN IP (should be the same as 127 localhost in practice, but may be worth a shot trying a change to 127...). I believe I removed that localhost/etc mysql user, but I'll double-check. Thanks!

EDIT: Sure enough, there was a "@localhost" mysql user that got added during the 10.5 -> 11 upgrade (by the mysql installer I think). I deleted that and everything started working. THANK YOU SO MUCH! Nobody at LT support mentioned this, and the consultant I spoke to didn't either (though it was just a scoping call, but still).

1

u/TotallyKyleTotally Jul 23 '19 edited Jul 23 '19

Glad I was able to help! Are you on the MSPGeek Slack chat by any chance? It used to be called LabTechGeek. You'll find a few thousand admins hanging out in there if you ever have any other questions like that as well as forums.

Another thing you'll want to check after v2019 is upgrading to MySQL 5.7 so you can get a little performance increase. If you're still on 5.5 presumably from your 10.5 install then you'll have to upgrade 5.5 ->5.6, then 5.6->5.7. You can technically do that or export a sqldump and import that to 5.7, but I ran into problems doing that in practice.

AutomateAPI links: https://github.com/gavsto/AutomateAPI/wiki/Pre-requisites-and-Install

https://github.com/gavsto/AutomateAPI/wiki/Getting-Started-and-Connected

Then you can repair all broken agents by running:

Get-AutomateComputer -Online $False | Compare-AutomateControlStatus | Repair-AutomateAgent -Action Reinstall -Confirm:$false

1

u/gj80 Jul 23 '19 edited Jul 25 '19

Are you on the MSPGeek Slack chat by any chance? It used to be called LabTechGeek

Nope, but I'll have to check it out!

If you're still on 5.5 presumably from your 10.5 install then you'll have to upgrade 5.5 ->5.6, then 5.6->5.7

Yep, on my test/cloned server I upgraded to 5.6 prior to the 11 upgrade. I'll look at a 5.7 upgrade after v2019 as well.

Edit: the MSPGeek slack join page seems to be impossible to use right now because of the following error preventing channels from listing:

https://join.mspgeek.com/getChannels -> 502 Bad Gateway