Citrix User Layer Repair Utility error on line 1864

[Jordan Barnartt]

Hello,

 

I read https://www.citrix.com/blogs/2020/09/17/expanding-user-layers/ and was interested in testing out to User Layer Repair Utility for this purpose.  I downloaded it and am trying to run it, but have run into an issue.

 

After entering our ELM FQDN and root password, I get the output:

Saving the ELM information
Saving the ELM IP/FQDN
Performing Ping Test on ELM
The ELM Appliance [libunivdiprd01.private.uwaterloo.ca] was pinged Successfully
Initializing Plink for use with the ELM
Testing ELM Password

 

I get the error:

An error has occurred in the script on this page.

Line: 1864

Char: 2

Error: File not found

Code: 0

URL: file://C:/Users/<Username>/Downloads/UserLayerRepairUtility/UserLayerRepair.hta

 

I can continue running the script, but the utility will just keep sitting at "Testing ELM Password".

 

Looking the the .hta file itself, like 1864 is Set strOutput = FSO.OpenTextFile(strScriptPath & "\plink\output.txt").  My first thought was that perhaps this file needs to exist beforehand, so I created it however that did not do anything.  The If block beginning in line 1843 even deletes this file before this line of the script is run.

 

I'm not too sure where to go from here, and any help would be appreciated.

 

Cheers,

 

Jordan

[Rob Zylowski]

The only thing i can think of is that your password has a character that is not working well on the cmdline.  I once had a customer that sued a space in their passwords and that is not possible to make work with this.  most special characters are ok but not sure they all are.

[Rob Zylowski]

Hi Jordan,

 

did you run the hta "As Administrator"  That's required to create the reg keys that plink creates to accept the signature of the elm.  You can also just run putty and connect one to the ELM that will create the same keys.

 

Rob

[Jordan Barnartt]

4 minutes ago, Rob Zylowski1709158051 said:

Hi Jordan,

 

did you run the hta "As Administrator"  That's required to create the reg keys that plink creates to accept the signature of the elm.  You can also just run putty and connect one to the ELM that will create the same keys.

 

Rob

 

Hi Rob,

 

Thanks for the speedy reply!  Yes, I am running UserLayerRepair.hta as Administrator.  I ran the HTARunAS.reg file and when I run the .hta I get a Windows admin prompt.

 

I connected to the ELM host using PuTTY 0.74 and authenticated as root, but even after doing so, I am still getting the error when I try to connect using the utility.

 

Cheers,

 

Jordan

[Rob Zylowski]

Do you mean in the setup.  Just try actually getting os layers and see if it works.

[Rob Zylowski]

I see what happened its a bug.  Ill post a new version in a minute

[Jordan Barnartt]

Thanks, Rob!  Let me know when the new version is posted and I will give it a test.

[Rob Zylowski]

Ok I just posted a fix for that issue.  All you would need is the updated hta

[Jordan Barnartt]

Hi Rob,

 

Apologies for late response.  I'm still having the same issue with the same error message.  I downloaded it from https://citrix.sharefile.com/share/view/s0cbae936ace4c089 and from the update date that seems to be your updated version.  Let me know what information I can provide that would help troubleshoot.

 

Cheers,

 

Jordan

[Jordan Barnartt]

Hi Rob,

 

Have you had another chance to give this a look?

 

Jordan

[Rob Zylowski]

Hi Jordan sorry when you saved the settings in setup did that create files in the config folder?  The only thing i can think of is that the utility is not being allowed to create the output file.  I have seen issues on some OSes if you dont disable inheritance from  the root and apply permissions that allow you to write to the utility sub folders.

[Jordan Barnartt]

No problem, Rob.

 

When I click "Save", I still get that error message when on the step "Testing ELM Password".  While that message is still open, I took a look at the config folder.  There's two files there, credelmroot.txt containing some gibberish I assume is the encrypted root password and elm.txt containing our ELM FQDN.

[Rob Zylowski]

After you do that and you putty to the appliance then the utility should work even with the error.  The error is it trying to accept  the fingerprint.  So try it and see if it will work.

 

And yes the files are stored using a hash.  Not really encrypted.

[Jordan Barnartt]

After it errored out when Testing the ELM password, I answered "Yes" to "Do you want to continue running scripts on this page".  I filled out the C and D fields of setup, clicked "Save" and nothing happened.  I switched over the the Repair tab, clicked "Get OS Layer" and received another error:

 

Line: 1577

Char: 2

Error: File not found

Code: 0

 

Once again, I said yes to running scripts.  Just to see what happens, I added an output.txt files to the Plink directory (since that's what it seems to be looking for, and it was not already there).  I clicked "Get OS Layer" again, a cmd comes up saying "Using username root" then closes. It says "OS Layer load done..." but there's nothing in the OS Layer dropdown.  I checked the permissions on the Plink folder and SYSTEM, my user, and Administrators all have Full control.

 

Since the output.txt files is not being generated, it seems to be that that may be where the issue lies.  I'm hoping you may be able to figure something out from this info.  Let me know if there are are other things I can check.

[Jordan Barnartt]

Hi Rob,

 

That seems to have been our issue as well.  I'm not sure exactly what character was causing it, but my guess is the double-quote.  I changed the password to something that didn't contain any special characters that I thought would cause issues, and everything's working fine now.  Thanks for your help!

 

Cheers,

 

Jordan