Symptoms

OA tasks to provision Windows services like Exchange or SharePoint through the Windows Provisioning Engine (WPE) fail with the error message 'Connection refused: connect failed in tcp_connect()' like in the example below:

Task ID  198056
 Queue name  ADSCTask_S000000039
 Task name  Create user 'johndoe' in the 'LDAP://OU=S000000039,OU=Provider,OU=Hosting,DC=hosting,DC=local'
 Task description Create user 'johndoe' in the 'LDAP://OU=S000000039,OU=Provider,OU=Hosting,DC=hosting,DC=local'
 Queue status  Rescheduled
 Start not earlier than Feb-15-2013 12:42
 Method name  taskDispatcher_ on OBJREF:ActiveDirectory:0:getOU:5
 Last execution output 
 Destination host 'ad01.hosting.local' (#16), IP '10.39.93.20' :
 SOAP Error: Client, Connection refused: connect failed in tcp_connect() (host 'wpe.hosting.local', error code 111).

Cause

As it can be seen in the failed task details OA cannot establish TCP connection to the WPE on the host wpe.hosting.local to perform provisioning operations. WPE may be not accessible due to various reasons:

  • OA cannot resolve WPE hostname to IP address
  • No routing between OA and WPE host
  • Needed TCP port is closed on WPE host
  • IIS is stopped on WPE host
  • WPE website is misconfigured in IIS

Resolution

The Window Provisioning Engine is implemented as IIS application (website) listening to the special port. Please follow the steps below to resolve the problem.

  1. Check if OA can resolve hostname of the WPE host to IP address, use utilities like ping, host, dig, nslookup on OA Management Node.

  2. Check if OA can connect to WPE port. First, find the port configured in OA for connections to the WPE:

    • Log into OA Provider Control Panel
    • Go to Deployment Director > Server Manager > Hardware Nodes
    • Click on the WPE host
    • Switch to the Packages > PPM tab
    • Click on the WindowsProvisioningEngine package
    • Switch to the Package properties tab

    • Remember the value of the Windows Provisioning Engine port parameter (see the screenshot below)

      wpe properties

      Log into OA Management Node using SSH/RDP and check if OA can connect to the found port on WPE host using e.g. telnet utility: telnet WPE_HOST WPE_PORT Replace WPE_HOST with hostname of the WPE host and WPE_PORT with the found value of WPE port.

  3. If connection to WPE port cannot be established log into the WPE host using RDP and check if WPE IIS application is configured and works properly.

    First, make sure that IIS is up and running on the WPE host, use the Services snap-in of the Microsoft Management Console. Alternatively, use the 'net' utility in command-line tool to check if the "World Wide Web Publishing Service" service is running, e.g.: net start | find "World Wide Web Publishing Service" If IIS service is running open IIS Manager and check if WPE website is running and listens to the correct port:

    • Open IIS Manager
    • Find the Windows Provisioning Engine wesbite in the list of IIS sites and make sure its status is Started
    • Select the Windows Provisioning Engine website and click the Bindings link in the Actions panel

    • In the opened window check that WPE website is configured to listen to HTTPS protocol on the port which is set in the WPE package in OA Control Panel, see screenshot below.

      alttext

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