Troubleshooting WinRM

Summary

This article provides some guidance on troubleshooting WinRM connectivity issues. Cayosoft Guardian uses WinRM to connect to a domain controller for event collection. The WinRM service must be properly configured and running on a domain controller. Also, a firewall must allow connections via the WinRM ports. 

Troubleshooting WinRM

In some cases, Cayosoft Guardian might not be able to connect to a domain controller using WinRM; the collection job fails with error messages (see example below).

Retrying the action execution. 
Reason: Connecting to remote server SERVERNAME failed with the following error message :
The client cannot connect to the destination specified in the request. 
Verify that the service on the destination is running and is accepting requests. 
Consult the logs and documentation for the WS-Management service running on the destination, most commonly IIS or WinRM. 
If the destination is the WinRM service, run the following command on the destination to analyze and configure the WinRM service: "winrm quickconfig". 
For more information, see the about_Remote_Troubleshooting Help topic.

Connectivity tests on a Cayosoft Guardian server

1. With Powershell, check the network connection from a computer where Cayosoft Guardian is installed.

Test-NetConnection -ComputerName {Domain Controller} -port 5985

2. If the connection test fails check that the firewall allows WinRM connections. Learn more about ports used by Cayosoft Guardian.

3. To check if the WinRM connection to a domain controller might be established, run the following command on a computer where Cayosoft Guardian is installed.

Test-WSMan -ComputerName {domain controller} -Credential (Get-Credential) -Authentication default

WinRM service checks on a domain controller 

1. Check that service responds by running the below command on a domain controller.

WinRM id

2. If an error is returned, the WinRM service is not running. Usually, error messages include recommendations to run the following command that can help to analyze issues and configure the WinRM service.

WinRM quickconfig

3. Check that the service is running by running the below command on a domain controller. 

Get-Service "WinRM"

 Additional information

In addition to the above-mentioned checks, information about configuring and troubleshooting WinRM can be found in articles offered by Microsoft:

Installation and configuration for Windows Remote Management

How to configure WINRM for HTTPS

Running Remote Commands

Troubleshooting WinRM with PowerShell