Monitor 2025 Agent service not starting on server

[LachlanWainwright]

Hi

OS: Windows Server 2019 Datacenter

I upgraded the Monitor agent to 2025 on 2 machines and neither agent service will start.

Agent installs without error and then when the service tries to start it stops immediately.

This machine worked and works for all other versions of the monitor agents and I reinstalled 2024.1.1 back and have no issues, fires on up.

Did all the usual stuff of unregistering, removing every reference in the install folder, the service account folder running it etc.

Nothing of relevance in Event Viewer

I am outta ideas, anyone got a thought?

I'll lodge a ticket with ESRI AU now and keep you all posted.

Please & thanks 😊

Lachlan

When I updated the log to append following these instructions XML Configuration file for winsw I get the following:

server names & ip addresses changed

arcgis-monitor-agent-service.err

*** xyzxy.x.x.au can't find 0.0.0.1: Non-existent domain

*** YYYYY.y.y.au can't find 0.0.0.2: Non-existent domain

arcgis-monitor-agent-service.out
Error:
Command
failed:
for
/f
"tokens=2
delims=:"
%a
in
('nslookup
0.0.0.1
^|
findstr
/B
Name:')
do
@echo
%a

***
xyzxy.x.x.au
can't
find
172.26.24.16:
Non-existent
domain

at execSync pkg/prelude/bootstrap.js:2115

⁃ Module._compile
pkg/prelude/bootstrap.js:1930

Error:
Command
failed:
for
/f
"tokens=2
delims=:"
%a
in
('nslookup
0.0.0.1
^|
findstr
/B
Name:')
do
@echo
%a

***
xyzx.x.x.au
can't
find
0.0.0.1:
Non-existent
domain

at execSync pkg/prelude/bootstrap.js:2115

⁃ Module._compile
pkg/prelude/bootstrap.js:1930

[JeffMertzXcel]

I have a similar issue with 2025 Monitor Server. Virtual Windows 2022 servers, which are current on Windows patching and run Enterprise 11.3 with no issues. Monitor Server starts up then immediately fails. Will be posting a separate topic and reference this one. 

[LachlanWainwright]

Hi @JeffMertzXcel 

I have a ticket with ESRI Australia and @JonathanTeo is helping out there and I'll keep you updated on what we find.

If you increase the logging level are there any messages?

[JeffMertzXcel]

@LachlanWainwright I believe I found your issue and a resolution, see post below.

[LachlanWainwright]

Hi @JeffMertzXcel 

Can you add the post when you get a sec please.

[JeffMertzXcel]

@LachlanWainwright Through Esri Support we found out that you can run Monitor Server in debug using the following commands in a Powershell

PS C:\Users\Administrator> cd \
PS C:\> cd esri
PS C:\esri> cd .\ArcGIS\Monitor\Server\bin\
PS C:\esri\ArcGIS\Monitor\Server\bin> $env:LOG_LEVEL='debug'
PS C:\esri\ArcGIS\Monitor\Server\bin> .\arcgis-monitor-server.exe --serve

In my case, I immediately saw the reason why the service won't start:

*** UnKnown can't find 10.0.0.185: Non-existent domain

Error: Command failed: for /f "tokens=2 delims=:" %a in ('nslookup 10.0.0.185 ^| findstr /B Name:') do @echo %a
*** UnKnown can't find 10.0.0.185: Non-existent domain

at execSync pkg/prelude/bootstrap.js:2115

⁃ Module._compile
pkg/prelude/bootstrap.js:1930

PS C:\esri\ArcGIS\Monitor\Server\bin> nslookup 10.0.0.185
Server: UnKnown
Address: 10.0.0.180

*** UnKnown can't find 10.0.0.185: Non-existent domain

So, as you can see, if the machine is not joined properly to a domain / or can't resolve its IP address, it will not start.

Now, I reconfigured my virtual server and properly configured reverse lookup in my local DNS, then, when running Monitor Server, it starts just fine, and stays running.

The nslookup results are now working:

PS C:\esri\ArcGIS\Monitor\Server\bin> nslookup 10.0.0.185
Server: UnKnown
Address: 10.0.0.180

Name: monitor.xxxyyy.com
Address: 10.0.0.185

In a nutshell, one of the first things that the Monitor 2025 software does is to perform this nslookup with the server IP address. If that fails, then it will not run successfully. @DerekLaw not sure if this needs to be in the documentation under "System Requirements"

[OlivieroVitale]

Thank you vm, even if that was clear from the first posted logs.

I think that is not an option because it is quite common to not have a reverse dns zone configured properly and also, as you mentioned, it isn't part of 2025.0 system requirements.

Maybe a possible bug considering that 2024.0 (afaik) doesn't have this kind of issue.

[JeffMertzXcel]

Correct, 2024.x did not have this issue, as I have run that version on same setup (pre reverse-ip) with no issues (trying to reproduce an upgrade issue), as well as many other components (Portal, Server, DataStore, Notebook). So appears to be specific to Monitor 2025 setup.

[a-j-campbell]

Hey @OlivieroVitale and @JeffMertzXcel. A timely discussion you've been having as we just ran into the same thing on Windows Server 2025 with Monitor 2025.0 this week. I was successful in updating my PTR records to include reverse lookup on the domain and things appear fully operational. The behavior outlined did apply to both Monitor Server and Agent. 

An important note is that the system appeared fully functional prior to us joining it to our domain, which I believe makes some sense as the reverse IP lookup would just resolve to itself locally, without reaching out to any DNS servers. Please reach out if there's any follow-up questions or comments, we can also attach ourselves to a ticket as appropriate to get this reviewed. 

[aorton_blueraster]

I'm posting here for visibility. We have encountered this issue in two different environments so far, and resolved it by enabling reverse DNS lookup as you suggested. I'd also like to confirm that the issue is not present at 2024.x. It would be nice if it was either mentioned as a system requirement, or if there was better error handling, or a backup config file that it could read from in case it can't find its hostname from the nslookup.

Thanks for posting this solution!