We are running version 2020.3.2 and the latest Tentacle on all clients. The server is running Windows 2016 as well as all clients. We have an issue with either the server or Tentacle service not starting upon restart, usually when Windows Updates are installed, but does happen with normal reboots as well. I cannot find any logs or Event logs that would state why the service fails to start, but it happens more often than not.
Manually starting the service always works. I’ve tried setting the service with a “delayed” start, but without success.
Has anyone else had/have this problem? I can put self-health workarounds in place with monitors, but it seems like overkill for something that should run on boot.
Thank you for contacting Octopus Support. I’m sorry you are running into this problem.
Apologies if you have tried already, did reinstalling the tentacle manually make any difference? What happens if you temporarily disable antivirus then reboot? We have run into more than a few instances of antivirus products getting in the way.
A couple more items to check would be the permissions of the account(s) that the tentacles/Octopus server are installed under as well as making sure a GPO isn’t being enforced here.
Thank you Donny, I will try reinstalling and also disabling Windows Defender (or whatever it’s called these days) on our Tentacle agent. On the server side, Octopus gets upgraded regularly; I’m not sure if that counts as an actual reinstall or not, but we’ll try with the agent first.
Our agents run with administrator level accounts and are not enforced by GPO, so we should be OK there. They do have the “logon as a service” right.
Unfortunately I’ll have to wait until the next patch Tuesday to give this a real test on the agent.
I also attached our server and agent logs in the support section of our account if you wouldn’t mind looking those over in the meantime to see if anything obviously sticks out.
I had a look and only saw two instances of this occurring, once for the server and once for the tentacle. On August 13th, the server appears to have shut down at around 4:15am then we see Octopus come back up at around 7:10am. On August 12th, the tentacle seems to shut down at around 5:45pm and come back up around 7:10pm.
Has this issue occurred more than once beyond what is in the logs? If not, there is a solid chance that both the server and tentacle were affected by the same Windows Update if that is what was going on at the time.
Let me know if and when you are able to replicate this again. If it does happen again, please send updated logs the same way you did previously. If you have any questions between now and then, please don’t hesitate to ask.
Thanks Donny, yes, this has happened several times to both tentacle and server on various machines on reboot, but does usually coincide with a Windows Update. I always assumed the updates were the culprit, but other services seems to come back online when they’re complete were Octopus does not.
I’ll keep an eye on it; I was hoping other people had a similar issue or there was a known workaround, but it seems like a pretty unique issue in our case. If I find any other clues I’ll post them here.
One other option you have is to set up a service watchdog:
We recommend this option when there doesn’t appear to be any clear reason as to why the Octopus Server service isn’t starting as it should. If you continue to have issues, even after implementing the watchdog, feel free to reach back out.
Otherwise, if you have any questions about this or anything else, don’t hesitate to ask.