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NI Salt-Minion Service could not be started

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When trying to connect to the SystemLink server from a windows machine, I get the following error:

 

"The NI Salt-Minion Service could not be started."

 

Up to this point I've been working on Win 7 machines and have installed the SystemLink client just fine on nearly a dozen computers. Just recently I got a Win 10 computer to start checking SW deployments and this error was the result of trying to connect to the SystemLink server. In fact I have two Win 10 computers and both have the same issue. My firewall settings are the same from Win 7 to Win 10 (as in off). I installed SystemLink client 18.1 from NI Package Manager. My SystemLink server is currently running 17.5. 

 

I tried looking at the running services per this post but the file NationalInstruments.SmConsole.exe is not at the prescribed location.

 

Are there any known issues with running the SL client on Win 10? Has the method to view running services changed? How can I ensure the services are started?

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Message 1 of 11
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I would start by looking into the Salt minion logs under C:\ProgramData\National Instruments\salt\var\log\salt

 

I have the SystemLink Client installed on several Windows 10 systems, so in general it should work.

 

In addition, I don't think you can connect a SL 18.1 client to a 17.5 server.  In general, the server has to the same version or newer than the clients.  My assumption is that the newer client is trying to connect to the older server, which is causing an exception and the minion to stop.

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Message 2 of 11
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I originally had 17.5 client installed on the Win 10 machine. That client UI didn't have as much info on it as the 18.1 client, so I can't say for sure if it was the salt-minion that wasn't starting, but the result was the same. I couldn't connect the PC to the SystemLink server. 

 

I upgrade to 18.1 just to see if that made a difference. Apparently it didn't, and may not work anyway. I'm about to upgrade my server to 18.1 (or perhaps 18.2 when it arrives).

 

I looked at the log file and found a lot.

 

This was repeated many times:

2018-04-25 14:37:42,328 [salt.minion      ][WARNING ][4432] Master is set to disable, skipping connection

 

This error was repeated several times:

2018-09-20 08:33:39,089 [salt.crypt ][CRITICAL][10080] The Salt Master has rejected this minion's public key!
To repair this issue, delete the public key for this minion on the Salt Master and restart this minion.
Or restart the Salt Master in open mode to clean out the keys. The Salt Minion will now exit.

 

This was repeated 100's of times:

2018-09-20 10:08:49,950 [salt.config :2125][ERROR ][11120] Error parsing configuration file: C:\ProgramData\National Instruments\salt\conf\minion.d\_schedule.conf - unacceptable character #x0000: special characters are not allowed
in "<unicode string>", position 0

 

I will for now roll back the client version to 17.5 and check the logs again.

 

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I uninstalled client 18.1 on the Win 10 machine and then installed 17.5. This time the server actually showed the pending system and I was able to approve it, however the server never shows the system as actually connected. This is further than I got last time, so perhaps there was a bad install of 17.5 originally. 

 

However, the system still isn't connecting right. I can see it in my systems manager but it's disconnected and no data about the client machine is available. 

 

On the client machine, the salt minion log shows a lot of this:

2018-09-20 12:38:06,835 [salt.config :1978][ERROR ][11548] Error parsing configuration file: C:\ProgramData\National Instruments\salt\conf\minion.d\_schedule.conf - unacceptable character #x0000: special characters are not allowed
in "<unicode string>", position 0

 

And at the end of a couple hundred lines of the above, the log gives another error:

2018-09-20 13:36:31,999 [salt.minion ][WARNING ][8348] Master is set to disable, skipping connection
2018-09-20 14:03:36,777 [salt.crypt ][ERROR ][11232] The Salt Master has cached the public key for this node, this salt minion will wait for 10 seconds before attempting to re-authenticate
2018-09-20 14:03:36,973 [salt.crypt ][ERROR ][10348] The Salt Master has cached the public key for this node, this salt minion will wait for 10 seconds before attempting to re-authenticate
2018-09-20 14:03:46,784 [salt.crypt ][ERROR ][11232] The Salt Master has cached the public key for this node, this salt minion will wait for 10 seconds before attempting to re-authenticate
2018-09-20 14:03:56,795 [salt.crypt ][ERROR ][11232] The Salt Master has cached the public key for this node, this salt minion will wait for 10 seconds before attempting to re-authenticate
2018-09-20 14:04:06,806 [salt.crypt ][ERROR ][11232] The Salt Master has cached the public key for this node, this salt minion will wait for 10 seconds before attempting to re-authenticate

 

The client says "Connection Status: Connected". The server says "Disconnected". Puzzling. 

 

Any thoughts as to what I should look at next?

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Message 4 of 11
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On the server open a Windows command prompt as an Administrator.  Then navigate to c:\Program Files\National Instruments\Shared\salt and run 

   salt "*" test.ping

 

If it returns true then the target is actually connected and the problem is on the server side.  If it does not connect, it is most likely an issue on the client.

 

Screen Shot 2018-09-20 at 9.32.46 PM.png

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Message 5 of 11
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Also, you may want to try removing the minion from the server first.  Then set the SystemLink Client to disabled, save, then set it back to your master and try approving the target.

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Message 6 of 11
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Ping command shows that the client in question is connected (True return). System Manager page still shows system as disconnected. I tried removing client from server, then going back to client and applying the disabled state, then reconnecting to the server. Same situation results where server can approve system but it shows as disconnected after that.

 

How does one get the minion ID on the client computer? I can see it on the server, but I'm not sure how to see it on the client. 

 

So this implies there is an issue on the server side?

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Message 7 of 11
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The issue you describe seems similar with something that we've fixed in SystemLink Server 18.1.1. Can you please go to the salt folder on the client side and run this command from an elevated prompt? Based on the output I will be able to say if the problem is the same or not.

salt-call --local grains.items

The output should look like this:

grains.jpg

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Message 8 of 11
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I sent the output in a PM.

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Message 9 of 11
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Solution
Accepted by topic author wrkcrw00

Just wanted to follow up for everyone else that this issue was fixed in SystemLink 18.1.1.  The client is successfully connecting to the server, but the data is failing to update in MongoDB.  Upgrading the server to 18.1.1 should resolve the issue.

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