orchestrator: ftp integration pack error

i was recently assigned some work that required automating some ftp tasks. i thought what a perfect opportunity to try out the ftp integration pack (IP) in orchestrator! after configuring the ftp options, i tried to use one of the activities and hit a problem: failed to initialize configuration object.

 

YOU DON’T HAVE TO READ THIS PART

i don’t normally look at stack traces and know what the hell is going on so i immediately went to my crutch and starting searching the entire world of knowledge and finally landed on this post describing the exact same problem. in the end, the original poster (OP) fixed the issue by uninstalling all of his IPs and reinstalling them. that seemed like total crap to me so i dismissed it and forgot about it until yesterday when i found some time to really look at this problem.

 

(OR THIS) THE ANALYSIS

i had two environments to work with, both not working. the first thing i tried was the OP’s fix. i uninstalled everything and reinstalled the ftp IP. it worked. miraculous. well, now that i had one working environment, i ran some directory comparisons followed up by file version comparisons. everything matched up. nauseating.

after that came up empty, i took a comparison of the ftp installation log that gets generated when deploying the IP. after pouring over the working and broken deployment logs, i came across what appeared to be the most valid problem in the broken deployment.

MSI (s) (5C:80) [18:52:25:455]: skipping installation of assembly component: {E62B04EA-3903-4E06-B59E-D59C65E4E993} since the assembly already exists

MSI (s) (5C:80) [18:52:25:455]: skipping installation of assembly component: {EC4186F1-7361-4BDE-94CD-977F7423BD4C} since the assembly already exists

MSI (s) (5C:80) [18:52:25:455]: skipping installation of assembly component: {359797A9-050F-48EA-9E50-8B293510AB2D} since the assembly already exists

when compared to the working deployment, i couldn’t find these lines. that was the giveaway. i searched for the GUIDs in the broken deployment logs and was able to locate the lines that detailed the exact assembly components. here’s an example:

Line 853: MSI (s) (DC:44) [17:58:12:205]: Executing op: AssemblyCopy(SourceName=6zp65wgq.dll|Microsoft.SystemCenter.Orchestrator.Integration.Framework.Core.dll,SourceCabKey=OITFrameworkCore.B2E2426B_5261_46EB_A61F_C536FB02167D,DestName=Microsoft.SystemCenter.Orchestrator.Integration.Framework.Core.dll,Attributes=512,FileSize=51040,PerTick=65536,,VerifyMedia=1,,,,,ComponentId={E62B04EA-3903-4E06-B59E-D59C65E4E993},IsManifest=1,,,AssemblyMode=0,)

 

by the way, if you’re interested, here’s the log location and name:

location: <program files>\common files\microsoft system center 2012\orchestrator\management server\components\logs
filename: 20130912122320952_{F5D3B6E7-3286-487D-BE06-27A0D69AC367}.log

i was able to trace back the original installation stemming from the exchange mail IP available on codeplex. that doesn’t mean anything but did show up in all of the environments with the same thing.

 

THE FIX

the assembly components and filenames mapped as indicated below. the directories all start at <windir>\assembly\gac_msil.

guid	assembly	directory
E62B04EA-3903-4E06-B59E-D59C65E4E993	Microsoft.SystemCenter.Orchestrator.Integration.Framework.Core.dll	Microsoft.SystemCenter.Orchestrator.I ntegration.Framework.Core\7.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35
EC4186F1-7361-4BDE-94CD-977F7423BD4C	Microsoft.SystemCenter.Orchestrator.Integration.Framework.dll	Microsoft.SystemCenter.Orchestrator.I ntegration.Framework\7.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35
359797A9-050F-48EA-9E50-8B293510AB2D	Microsoft.SystemCenter.Orchestrator.Integration.dll	Microsoft.SystemCenter.Orchestrator.I ntegration\7.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35

 

please exercise caution and test this in your own environment since this is completely unsupported. also, the safest method is to follow what the OP suggested and uninstall all IPs and reinstall them. this works because it removes the assemblies that the ftp IP installation will not overwrite.

• uninstall the ftp integration pack. do this first to clear the path of the installation that will happen after dealing with the assemblies.
• unregister the assemblies. this requires the use of regasm which is in your .net framework directory. i found mine under <windir>\microsoft.net\framework\v4.0.30319. with administrative credentials, run regasm. it should look pretty similar to the following:

  
  regasm /u "C:\windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Microsoft.SystemCenter.Orchestrator.Integration\7.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35\Microsoft.SystemCenter.Orchestrator.Integration.dll"

  
  regasm /u "C:\windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Microsoft.SystemCenter.Orchestrator.Integration.Framework\7.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35\Microsoft.SystemCenter.Orchestrator.Integration.Framework.dll"

  
  regasm /u "C:\windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Microsoft.SystemCenter.Orchestrator.Integration.Framework.Core\7.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35\Microsoft.SystemCenter.Orchestrator.Integration.Framework.Core.dll"

• delete the assemblies. now that they are unregistered, delete the assemblies in the table above. trying to install over them after unregistering doesn’t seem to work since the installer still detects they exist.
• reinstall the ftp integration pack. at this point, reinstall the IP. if you look at the deployment log, you should no longer see the “skipping installation” lines mentioned earlier.

and now… it works.