I've gone through the wizard to add the SMS Provider to another computer.  Since there is so little written about it I have had to to experiment to figure out what combination might work.  Needless to say I haven't found the combination yet.  I've tried installing it with no other roles, adding just the server, and I've tried adding an MP role to the server.  In all cases the Setup Wizard shows the provider installed successfully on the both the primary site server and on the second server.

When I try to connect to the new server with the console, it fails to connect.  I checked for the SMSPROV log, I find the one on the primary, but not on the new server. I don't see anything obvious about it in any of the status messages, I'm not sure where else I should look.

When I try to connect to the new server with the console, it fails to connect. 

Any error message then?

No, it just comes back and says it can't connect.  I suspect the reason is that it's not installed despite what the configuration tool says.

Ok, a bunch more digging and more information.  Unfortunately this has been one of those it's not one thing it has been a series of issues.  Firewalls were the first one, the accounts being used was another, but alas it still doesn't work. 

I checked the SMSPROV.LOG and everything looks good.  I can even see a conversation that appears to be happening with returned results.  There are a few cases where the results returned 0 records, but I suspect that may be normal. 

The SmsAdminUILog is unfortunately just about useless showing a bunch of meaningless exceptions.  Since I'm seeing connections in the SMSPROV.LOG file it's obviously getting some kind of connection, but you would never know it from the Admin log.  The Admin log is below.

[12, PID:8008][03/14/2013 08:49:06] :System.ArgumentOutOfRangeException\r\nProvider machine not found
Parameter name: configMgrServerPath\r\n   at Microsoft.ConfigurationManagement.ManagementProvider.WqlQueryEngine.WqlConnectionManager.Connect(String configMgrServerPath)\r\n
[12, PID:8008][03/14/2013 08:49:06] :Transport error; failed to connect, message: 'Provider machine not found
Parameter name: configMgrServerPath'\r\nMicrosoft.ConfigurationManagement.ManagementProvider.SmsConnectionException\r\nProvider machine not found
Parameter name: configMgrServerPath\r\n   at Microsoft.ConfigurationManagement.ManagementProvider.WqlQueryEngine.WqlConnectionManager.Connect(String configMgrServerPath)
   at Microsoft.ConfigurationManagement.AdminConsole.SmsSiteConnectionNode.GetConnectionManagerInstance(String connectionManagerInstance)\r\nProvider machine not found
Parameter name: configMgrServerPath
\r\nSystem.ArgumentOutOfRangeException\r\nProvider machine not found
Parameter name: configMgrServerPath\r\n   at Microsoft.ConfigurationManagement.ManagementProvider.WqlQueryEngine.WqlConnectionManager.Connect(String configMgrServerPath)\r\n
[12, PID:8008][03/14/2013 08:49:06] :System.Management.ManagementException\r\nNot found \r\n   at System.Management.ManagementException.ThrowWithExtendedInfo(ManagementStatus errorCode)
   at System.Management.ManagementObject.InvokeMethod(String methodName, ManagementBaseObject inParameters, InvokeMethodOptions options)
   at Microsoft.ConfigurationManagement.ManagementProvider.WqlQueryEngine.WqlConnectionManager.ExecuteMethod(String methodClass, String methodName, Dictionary`2 methodParameters, Boolean traceParameters)\r\nManagementException details:
instance of __ExtendedStatus
{
 Operation = "ExecMethod";
 ParameterInfo = "SMS_ObjectLock";
 ProviderName = "WinMgmt";
};
\r\n

[12, PID:8008][03/14/2013 08:49:06] :Transport error; failed to connect, message: 'Provider machine not found
Parameter name: configMgrServerPath'\r\nMicrosoft.ConfigurationManagement.ManagementProvider.SmsConnectionException\r\nProvider machine not found

Might be a red herring but is the alternate SMS Provider server accessible now? You mentioned firewalls and the error above indicates a connection failure (for whatever reason) ...

No it's still not working, we've gradually eliminated all of those other obstacles. I can query the WMI SMS namespace with WBEMTEST so connections are working.  The problem is that the console trying to connect to the WMI provider on the second server fails.  The console can connect to the primary site server provider just fine.

Its weird because the Admin log reports a connection failure, yet I look in the provider log and I see the queries coming in.  Is there a verbose logging for the admin console?  I've never seen any indication of one, but that might be useful to tracking this down. 

If any developers are reading this, logging exceptions is not a valid log.  You need to provide context for the error in the logs so that we can diagnose what's going wrong. 

You can configure verbose logging of the sccm Admin Console by openning the %ProgramFiles(86)%\Microsoft Configuration
Manager\AdminConsole\bin\Microsoft.ConfigurationManagement.exe.config file and setting
switchValue=Verbose. Then you have to restart the console.

Unfortunately the information provided isn't any more useful than with normal logging. 

The sad part is it was working at one point, but I don't know what changed.  It's probably a permissions issue, but everything I've checked looked fine.  The only other thing I can think of is that it might not be able to pass through the credentials, but I'm not sure where to go about looking for that.

I guess I'm going to have to open a call with PSS.

Hi Bob,

Did you ever receive a fix for this?  I have the same problem after installing my second SMS provider.  I am running SP1 CU1

Matthew

Not yet, I ran into other issues that took priority.  It's on my list of things still to resolve.

Thanks for the quick response!

I will probably open a premier case today or tomorrow.  Also, this issue persists even if the console is installed locally on the second SMS Provider so the issue is not remote access rights.

That was my exprience as well.

Hi, when you say you are connecting to the new server with the  SCCM console, how are you doing that?

I've setup a provider on a 2nd server but I dont think you can actually point the console at a specific provider. From the testing and network tracing I did, the console initially connects to the primary site server to query for the available SMS Providers and then selects one of these to use.

Note, if the primary site goes down (and site database isnt local to site server), it appears the console wont use the alternative sms provider because it tries to connect to the primary site server to get the list of available providers.

We were trying to type in the address of the second provider into the site address.  But that doesn't seem to get us a connection.  If what you say is true, then the second provider is pretty useless.

I thought I remembered a discussion on this at MMS that the second provider could be used to offload work for things like administrator consoles.  I can't recall a discussion on it being used for fault tolerance, but that doesn't mean it wasn't.

In my case we want to use it to provide a place for admin consoles to connect to other than the primary.  This has more to do with connectivity for people using the console than it has to do with the load on the primary.

The technet article is somewhat vague:
When a Configuration Manager console connects to a site, it connects to an instance of the SMS Provider at that site. The instance of the SMS Provider is selected nondeterministically. If the selected SMS Provider is not available, you have the following options:

• Reconnect the console to the site. Each new connection request is nondeterministically assigned an instance of the SMS Provider and it is possible that the new connection will be assigned an available instance.
• Connect the console to a different Configuration Manager site and manage the configuration from that connection. This introduces a slight delay of configuration changes of no more than a few minutes. After the SMS Provider for the site is on-line, you can reconnect your Configuration Manager console directly to the site that you want to manage.

See Technet article: Planning for High Availability with Configuration Manager (sorry I can't post links)

Essentially, the console it is sounding like the console "picks" an SMS Provider after contacting the Primary Site Server.  From the design perspective, if this is true then it is nearly useless to have a SMS Provider on the primary site server if you want HA.  If the primary server is down you wouldn't be able to connect anyways.

The same technet article (above) mentions: "When you install multiple SMS Providers, you can provide redundancy for contact points to administer your site and hierarchy." If our assumption of how the console is true, this is hardly redundancy and the technet article is misleading.  I have a PS case open and will confirm if this is the case with the engineer.

Hi, that would be great if you can get it confirmed as I was looking at this for HA if the primary site server was down, we could still use the console via the alternative provider.

However all my testing indicated this isn't how it works due to the console trying to initially connect to the Site Server. Looking through the ports required for SCCM 2012, it appears the console initially uses RPC to talk to the Primary Site server to get the available providers.

Did anyone get a resolution on this?

I still have the case open and so far the engineer has not been able to get it working either.  The engineer has promised an update today, so I'll post back when I hear more.

• Edited by mdedeboer Friday, April 26, 2013 3:00 PM typo

I received the following response from the engineer this morning:

• "Ive consulted with a couple of our support escalation engineers and I was able to get some internal documentation from our developers and theyve stated the following for connecting multiple SMS providers: "The console cannot connect to a provider, it always connects to a site server, then the site gives the console a list of available providers and the console randomly chooses one of the available ones. Even the UI to connect to a site specifies you should enter the site server name, not the provider name." So, you cant connect the console directly to the machine hosting the additional SMS provider(s) - you must specify a site server computer name in the console, then it will be assigned to one of the configured SMS providers at random. So, it appears, there are two options if a provider is not available. Either try reconnecting the console to the site, or, if that particular site server is not available, you could then connect the console to another site server in the hierarchy, and administer it from there (with a bit of a delay, depending on network factors, etc.)."

I have requested that documentation in the technet article be edited to make this point more clear:  technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh846246.aspx

• Proposed as answer by Carlitog Thursday, May 02, 2013 11:28 AM
• Marked as answer by Bob Panick Sunday, May 05, 2013 11:15 AM

Thanks for sharing the info.

As an aside to the SCCM console and needing the primary site server online, I have found that you can use an alternative SCCM provider directly using powershell when the primary site server is down.

While this doesn't give you console access you could use it to perform operations on the site database.

I received the following response from the engineer this morning:

• "Ive consulted with a couple of our support escalation engineers and I was able to get some internal documentation from our developers and theyve stated the following for connecting multiple SMS providers: "The console cannot connect to a provider, it always connects to a site server, then the site gives the console a list of available providers and the console randomly chooses one of the available ones. Even the UI to connect to a site specifies you should enter the site server name, not the provider name." So, you cant connect the console directly to the machine hosting the additional SMS provider(s) - you must specify a site server computer name in the console, then it will be assigned to one of the configured SMS providers at random. So, it appears, there are two options if a provider is not available. Either try reconnecting the console to the site, or, if that particular site server is not available, you could then connect the console to another site server in the hierarchy, and administer it from there (with a bit of a delay, depending on network factors, etc.)."

I have requested that documentation in the technet article be edited to make this point more clear:  technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh846246.aspx

Sorry for resurrecting this old thread, but my google-fu is failing me.

So unless I run a CAS with several site servers this is useless? In that reply they specifically said "site servers". If I have a remote dp I can't install the SMS provider there and still access the console if my primary site server goes down?

Correct, but if you think through the ramifications of losing the Primary does it really matter.  Most implementations have the SQL server on the Primary, so if you lose the Primary, it really doesn't matter how many providers there are.  If you separate the Primary and SQL server, and multiple providers, you might be able to keep the session up, but again there a are a bunch of things that probably are going to prevent you from doing anything useful with the console anyway.

I believe that the reason Microsoft created multiple providers was to increase the capacity of the number of consoles that can be run on one site.  I've never run into limitations myself, but I can see places that might have a lot of consoles connected.

Bob is correct. Multiple, SMS providers are for scalability. Multiple primary are also for scalability and have *nothing* to do availability. If your primary site server is down, depending upon how and where your site roles are, clients will continue to function fine. At that point, getting your primary site up again should be your focus instead of trying to create new things.

Hi Bob

Do you know if their is any documentation that discusses a number of console connections recommended per SMS Provider?

-Tony

Nope, no official numbers or documentation. 100 is the rough guideline often given though.