Troubleshooting Common Issues with the System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Upgrade Assessment ToolUpgrading System Center 2012 Configuration Manager (SCCM 2012) to a newer branch is a complex project that typically begins with assessment. The Upgrade Assessment Tool (UAT) helps identify compatibility issues, configuration problems, and blocker items before you perform an in-place upgrade or a migration. However, running UAT itself can throw errors, produce confusing results, or report false positives. This article walks through common problems you may encounter with the SCCM 2012 Upgrade Assessment Tool and provides practical troubleshooting steps, diagnostics to collect, and mitigation techniques.
Table of contents
- What the Upgrade Assessment Tool does
- Preparation and prerequisites
- Common issues and fixes
- 1) Tool fails to start or crashes
- 2) Authentication and permission errors
- 3) Connectivity problems to the site database
- 4) Inventory, discovery, or data collection failures
- 5) False positives in compatibility reports
- 6) Performance and long runtime
- 7) Missing or incomplete logs
- Diagnostics and logs to collect
- Best practices to reduce assessment problems
- When to escalate to Microsoft support
What the Upgrade Assessment Tool does
The Upgrade Assessment Tool performs automated checks across your Configuration Manager environment to detect:
- Unsupported site and hierarchy configurations
- Incompatible or deprecated features and components
- Problematic client health and deployment issues
- SQL Server and database concerns
- OS and site server prerequisites that may block an upgrade
The output is typically a set of reports and rule-based findings that indicate severity (error/warning/info) and recommended actions.
Preparation and prerequisites
Before running UAT, ensure:
- You have a current backup of your site database and critical site server files.
- The account running UAT has appropriate permissions (Site Server local admin, SQL access).
- .NET Framework and required Windows updates are installed on the machine where you run the tool.
- Network connectivity from the UAT host to the site server, management points, and SQL Server.
- The site and hierarchy are in a healthy state (site components up, client health reasonably stable).
Skipping these checks is a frequent cause of the problems described below.
Common issues and fixes
1) Tool fails to start or crashes
Symptoms:
- UAT executable does not launch.
- Application window opens briefly then closes.
- Tool crashes with an unhandled exception.
Causes and fixes:
- Corrupt download or blocked file: Re-download the tool from the official Microsoft source and unblock the file (right-click → Properties → Unblock) if downloaded to a Windows host.
- Missing .NET components: Verify the required .NET Framework version is installed and enabled. Install or repair .NET as needed.
- Insufficient permissions: Run UAT elevated (Run as administrator) and ensure the account has local admin rights on the site server or the machine where the tool runs.
- Incompatible OS or system libraries: Run the tool on a supported Windows version; check the release notes for OS compatibility.
- Conflicting security software: Temporarily disable or create exceptions in anti-malware or endpoint protection that may terminate the process.
2) Authentication and permission errors
Symptoms:
- Access denied when connecting to the site server or SQL Server.
- The tool reports inability to enumerate objects or read configuration.
Causes and fixes:
- Account lacks SQL permissions: Grant the account the necessary SQL Server access — at minimum, it should be able to connect and read the Configuration Manager database. For many checks, sysadmin or db_owner may be required; consult your security policy and Microsoft guidance.
- Wrong account context: When UAT runs under a local account, it may not have domain access; use a domain account with the needed rights.
- Delegation or double-hop issues: If UAT is run remotely and needs to access SQL Server or other servers, Kerberos delegation may be necessary. Use an account with proper delegation or run UAT locally on the site server.
- Group Policy or LAPS restrictions: Check local/group policies that may restrict account access; if using LAPS, ensure you can retrieve the local admin password.
3) Connectivity problems to the site database
Symptoms:
- Timeouts connecting to SQL Server.
- Socket or network error messages.
- Partial data collection or missing database details.
Causes and fixes:
- SQL Server firewall or network port blocked: Ensure TCP port 1433 (or your custom SQL port) is open between UAT host and SQL Server. Also confirm SQL Browser is reachable if using named instances.
- SQL Server not listening on expected interface: Verify SQL is configured to accept remote connections and listening on the right IPs.
- DNS resolution issues: Ensure the FQDN used by UAT resolves correctly; test with ping/nslookup.
- High SQL load or slow response: Perform the assessment during a maintenance window or low-load time. Investigate SQL performance (long-running queries, CPU/memory pressure) and adjust as needed.
- TLS or encryption mismatch: If your SQL Server requires specific TLS versions or enforces encryption, confirm the UAT host supports those protocols and has up-to-date Windows updates.
4) Inventory, discovery, or data collection failures
Symptoms:
- UAT reports missing collections, clients, or discovery data.
- Incomplete client health metrics or empty discovery results.
Causes and fixes:
- Management Point or MP communication issues: Confirm MPs are online and clients are reporting. Check IIS on management points and CM logs (mpcontrol.log, mpatp).
- Client activity low or long heartbeat intervals: If client inventory is stale, increase the assessment window or stimulate client policy retrieval.
- WMI corruption on site server or clients: WMI problems can prevent accurate data collection. Repair WMI or use the CIM repository repair steps on affected machines.
- Boundaries and boundary groups misconfiguration: Ensure clients are within defined boundaries and the discovery methods are correctly configured.
- Site database replication latency (in multi-site): If you have a CAS or secondary sites, allow replication to complete before running checks that rely on global data.
5) False positives in compatibility reports
Symptoms:
- UAT flags components as incompatible, but they are actually supported or already remediated.
- Duplicate or outdated findings appear in reports.
Causes and fixes:
- Cached or stale UAT data: Clear UAT caches or rerun assessments after ensuring the environment data is up-to-date.
- Version detection limitations: The tool may use product version strings or registry keys that changed with hotfixes. Cross-check flagged items manually — check the exact version and installed updates.
- Custom or third-party integrations: Add-ons or custom components may trigger generic incompatibility rules. Validate each hit against vendor guidance or test in a lab.
- Configuration drift since last discovery: If changes occurred after the last SCCM inventory or discovery, trigger a fresh hardware/software inventory and rerun UAT.
6) Performance and long runtime
Symptoms:
- Tool runs for many hours or days.
- High CPU, memory usage on the UAT host or site server during assessment.
Causes and fixes:
- Large environment and deep scanning: For very large hierarchies, run UAT during maintenance windows and set scope to a subset of sites or objects if supported.
- Insufficient resources on UAT host: Use a machine with adequate RAM and CPU; run the tool on the site server for faster local database access.
- Excessive logging or verbose modes: Disable debug/verbose modes unless needed for troubleshooting.
- Parallelism limits: If UAT spawns many parallel queries, consider staggering runs or limiting concurrency where configurable.
7) Missing or incomplete logs
Symptoms:
- UAT finishes with no useful log details.
- Logs show truncated or garbled entries.
Causes and fixes:
- Log path permissions: Ensure the account running UAT can write to the log folder. If logs are redirected to a network share, confirm write permissions and connectivity.
- Disk space: Verify sufficient free disk space where logs and temp files are created.
- Log rotation or archival interfering: Some systems clean logs automatically; ensure UAT logs aren’t being archived/deleted during runs.
- Encoding or localization issues: Rarely, non-English locales or unusual system locales can produce parsing problems. Run the tool on a host with a supported locale or set the system locale appropriately.
Diagnostics and logs to collect
When troubleshooting, collect:
- UAT tool log files (location varies by tool and version).
- SCCM site logs: smsdpprov.log, sitecomp.log, mpcontrol.log, rcmctrl.log, and others as relevant.
- SQL Server logs and extended events trace for slow queries.
- Windows Event Logs (Application and System) from the UAT host and site server.
- Network traces (netstat, port checks) and DNS resolution checks.
- A copy of the UAT report output (CSV/HTML) showing the flagged items.
Provide timestamps and correlate logs across systems to track the same assessment run.
Best practices to reduce assessment problems
- Run the assessment during a maintenance window with low client activity.
- Use an account with documented and tested permissions.
- Ensure SQL and site server health before running UAT.
- Keep Windows and .NET patches current on the host running UAT.
- Start with a limited-scope run (single primary site or collection) to validate the process, then scale up.
- Keep an isolated lab that mirrors production to validate fixes for issues raised by UAT.
When to escalate to Microsoft support
Escalate if:
- UAT reports database corruption or SQL-level issues beyond routine optimization.
- You see unexplained crashes with no clear cause after basic troubleshooting.
- Findings include high-severity upgrade blockers you cannot resolve (site metadata corruption, unsupported hierarchy states).
- You need confirmation that a flagged item is a false positive or guidance on an uncommon configuration.
Collect the diagnostics listed above before opening a support case to accelerate resolution.
Troubleshooting the Upgrade Assessment Tool is mainly about ensuring the environment is healthy, permissions and connectivity are correct, and that the tool is run with the right system prerequisites. When you combine systematic log collection with the targeted fixes above, you can resolve most issues and obtain accurate upgrade readiness results.
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