KBI 311694 Argent Advanced Technology Daughter Fails After Microsoft Update
Version
Argent Advanced Technology – Any Version
Date
Tuesday, 31 July 2018
Summary
After automated updates to servers by Microsoft Windows updates, customers may find that one or more Daughter Engines no longer communicate with the Main Argent Advanced Technology Engine
Technical Background
Microsoft security updates can wreak havoc with a plethora of secure applications such as Argent Advanced Technology
As an example, a Microsoft .NET Framework Update released in July 2018 caused applications to stop responding or to run incorrectly
Some customers reported the .NET Framework Update caused servers to reboot unexpectedly and improperly shut down and damaged other vendor’s applications
Argent has also observed this behavior affecting Argent AT Daughter Engine’s ability to communicate with the Main Argent Advanced Technology Engine
This is why ALL Microsoft patches and hot fixes need to be first tested
Customers may notice the following errors in the Argent Daughter Engine Service Log:
SERVERNAME\SERVICE_ACCOUNT STARTED service daughter process ‘ARGSOFT_ARGENT_GUARDIAN_ULTRA_MAIN.EXE /PPID=1140’
(Assigned to Job Object) SERVERNAME\SERVICE_ACCOUNT could not contact Argent Support server
************************************* Warning ***************************************
A critical error affecting the integrity of the Argent product has been detected.
* Please contact Argent at Support@Argent.com, specifying Error Code=404
In this specific instance, Microsoft issued a user advisory regarding the .NET Framework fiasco:
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/dotnet/2018/07/20/advisory-on-july-2018-net-framework-updates/
Microsoft’s solution was to uninstall the update and wait for a new update that would supposedly not contain the serious coding flaw
Notoriously, updates such as these are not isolated occurrences and future Microsoft updates may cause similar issues
Argent strongly recommends disabling automatic Windows updates on all servers
Windows updates should be tested before implemented in a production environment
Resolution
Customers should contact Argent support for assistance if they experience ANY issues – especially the error above – with Argent AT Daughter Engines following Microsoft Windows Updates or Security Patches