• Installation Troubleshooting
• Troubleshooting Licensing/Activation
• Troubleshooting Discovery
• Running the ""SystemInformation"".ps1 Diagnostic Script
• Verbose Logging Support

Note: This documentation was adapted from the F5 Management Pack Wiki hosted on DevCentral (http://devcentral.f5.com/wiki/MgmtPack.HomePage.ashx). Certain links or context described in this document may refer to content originally created on the Wiki.

Installation Troubleshooting

This section presents scenarios that may occur during installation.

Installation issues

Issue 1:

Setup takes a really long time and then fails with an error in the log saying that the Monitoring Pack could not be imported.

This is caused by improper Operations Manager credentials. You should make sure that the user you are running setup under and the user you have specified for the service account are both Operations Manager Administrators. This means they must be in one of the groups specified in the Security->User Roles->Operations Manager Administrators section of the Operations Manager console.

Issue 2:

Setup finishes, but then the service continues to cycle and eventually fails to start.

This is fixed by following the solution for Issue 1.

Issue 3:

Uninstall fails, but does not display any useful help message.

The reason for failure will be inside the setup log in C:\\Program Files\\F5 Networks\\Monitoring Pack\\logs

Issue 4:

Installation is complete, but the service does not respond and there are errors in the event log.

This is a symptom of not installing the software package onto the Root Management Server(RMS) first. If you install onto a non-RMS computer first, you will see these sorts of errors. To fix this, uninstall from the problematic server(s) and install onto the RMS, then reinstall on the management servers again.

Troubleshooting Licensing / Activation

One of the problems that may occur during the license registration process is related to the way the cryptographic services are configured on the management server(s) where the F5 Monitoring Pack is being activated. The error would basically point to the encryption algorithm (used by the licensing wizard) not being FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standards) compliant: "This implementation is not part of the Windows Platform FIPS validated cryptographic algorithms".

The F5 Monitoring Pack Licensing Wizard attempts to create an MD5 hash of a local dossier file, created during the licensing/setup process, which is sent out to the F5 Licensing Server for storing it with the license key. When the MD5 hash is being attempted by the Licensing Wizard, the call into the underlying cryptographic service provider (MD5CryptoServiceProvider) handled through the .NET base class libraries would fail. In most cases this problem is caused by a local security policy on the management server, enforcing FIPS compliance for encryption algorithms. This could be verified either by:

• checking the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\fipsalgorithmpolicy registry key (value 1 produces FIPS compliance), or
• checking the Local Security Policy > Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options > System Cryptography: Use FIPS compliant algorithms for encryption, hashing and signing.
  

Because local security policy restrictions prevent you from disabling FIPS, the workaround for the error in this case:

1. Go to Services Control Manager and stop the F5 Monitoring Service;
2. Go to the F5 Monitoring Pack installation folder (by default Program Files\F5 Networks\Management) and edit the f5mpsvc.exe.config file. Scroll down to the bottom of the file, and BEFORE the closing tag, insert the following XML snippet:
   
   <runtime>
   <enforceFIPSPolicy enabled="false"/>
   </runtime>
   
   
3. Save the *f5mpsvc.exe.config* file.
4. Using notepad.exe create the following file in the F5 Monitoring Pack installation folder (default: Program Files\F5 Networks\Management): *f5mpgui.exe.config*. Make sure the file is named exactly as suggested here, and doesn't have a trailing .txt extension (as normally would occur when creating a new file through notepad.exe).
5. Paste the following content into the *f5mpgui.exe.config* file:
   
   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
   <configuration>
   <runtime>
   <enforceFIPSPolicy enabled="false"/>
   </runtime>
   </configuration>
   
   
6. Save the *f5mpgui.exe.config* file.
7. Re-run the F5 Monitoring Pack licensing wizard.
8. Restart the F5 Monitoring Service.

Troubleshooting Discovery

Discovery Failure errors

General Failure

Discovery can fail for many different reasons. If you are using the Discovery Wizard you can double click on a failed discovery to view the discovery log. The first 2 lines should tell you why discovery failed. If you were trying to discovery from the command line or Powershell, you should see the reason inside the console window. Alternatively, you can view the trace.log located in C:\\Program Files\\F5 Networks\\Monitoring Pack\\Logs.

License Expired or Bad License

You will have to navigate to the licensing page on the BIG-IP itself and resolve any licensing issues from there.

Big-3d Update Failed

Generally, the F5 Networks Monitoring Pack can only discover F5 devices with BIG-IP v9.3.1 or higher. Check your device version by navigating to the device's configuration page and verify it is compatible with the Monitoring Pack.

Cannot Discover: Duplicate MAC Address

This means you have already discovered the device under an alternate IP address. If you wish to re-discover this device under a different IP address, you must first remove it.

IP Address Must Not Be 0.0.0.0

You need to update the IP address for this device.

Too Many Host Combinations

You might see this during a subnet scan. Try splitting up discovery by changing the size of your subnet. ( In a 255.255.X.0 subnet, try increasing the X value to lower the number of possible host combinations.)

Device already discovered on another Management Server

In some cases, you may wish to rediscover an F5 device. You must do this from the management server you originally discovered it from. If you wish to have a different management server discover the device, you must first remove it from the parent management server and then you can run the discovery wizard on the desired host computer.

Running the ""SystemInformation"".ps1 Diagnostic Script

The System Information gathering tool can help support gather system information to assist in diagnosing problems. To run our system information gathering tool, you will want to follow the following instructions.

1. Download the System Information PowerShell script from http://devcentral.f5.com/downloads/MgmtPack/SystemInformation.zip.
2. Go to Start->Run, type cmd and press enter or click Ok.
3. Once the console window pops up, type PowerShell and press enter.
4. Now you will want to navigate to the directory where you downloaded the SystemInformation.ps1 file to.
5. Type .\SystemInformation.ps and press enter.
6. Type dir *.F5.log and verify you have a new file named SystemInformation.F5.log
7. Close the console window.
   The script creates a log file, and you can send the log file to support if you have an issue.

Verbose Logging Support

What is also helpful to troubleshooting and helping us find a solution for you is to turn on verbose logging for the F5 Networks Monitoring Pack. To do this, follow the following steps.

1. Open up the C:\Program Files\F5 Networks\Monitoring Pack folder.
2. Locate the file named f5mpsvc.exe.config.
3. Create a backup copy of the file. (from a command shell shell: cp f5mpsvc.exe.config f5mpsvc.exe.config.bak).
4. Open the original file in a text editor. (from a command shell window: notepad f5mpsvc.exe.config).
5. Locate the following line towards the bottom of the file:
   <add name="sourceSwitch" value="Warning"/>
6. Change "Warning" to "All" so that it reads:
   <add name="sourceSwitch" value="All"/>
7. Save and close the file.
   

The logging should start immediately, but if you do not see any informational messages or verbose messages in the log file, you may need to restart the F5 Monitoring Service.

Contacting F5 Networks

For additional information, please visit http://www.f5.com.