Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting AS2 transmissions can be challenging because of all the different elements involved in a single AS2 transfer. However, the following methodologies should help you tackle transfer issues.

Troubleshooting Tasks with AS2 Destinations

Tasks with AS2 destinations are used to send files to your partners.

1. Double-check that you and your partner agree on the following items and that they are configured identically on both sides of the transmission.
   • The URL of your partner's remote AS2 server
   • Your organization's name and your partner's name
   • Your organization's client certificate and your partner's client certificate
   • The type of encryption to be used
   • What sort of MDN you should receive from your partner (usually "none", "synchronous" or "asynchronous"; your partner doesn't need to configure this but should probably know about your choice or will have an opinion of their own)
2. Make sure MOVEit Automation can connect to your partner's AS2 server. You test this when you run your transfer task - pay attention to "host not defined", "cannot connect", "404" errors and the like. If you are having problems here, your partner's URL is likely incorrect or inaccessible. (It's generally worth asking if you are the first one to try this particular connection.)
3. Make sure MOVEit Automation thinks it has sent the file successfully. You will know this is the case if MOVEit Automation shows a working status of "X bytes sent" for your AS2 task and X is both "large" (sometimes larger than the original file size) and constant. If this is as far as MOVEit Automation gets (because it it waiting for an MDN), the task will usually fail with an "AS2 Post Error: Timeout" error after one minute.
4. Make sure the remote AS2 server thinks it has sent the MDN successfully. If MOVEit Automation is getting past this step successfully, the task will simply complete successfully. If the task does not complete successfully, failure could be due to a number of things:
   • Remote AS2 server told MOVEit Automation it received the file but then never processed it or failed to process and silently discarded it. You will need an administrator on the remote AS2 server to help you if this is the case.
   • Remote AS2 server does not support the requested MDN and takes the file anyway - another type of "silent" failure. You may want to switch your MDN type between sync/async, but you may need to get the remote AS2 server administrator involved in here too.
   • Remote AS2 server processes your file but fails to get you a synchronous MDN back in time. If this is the case, the remote AS2 server may log that it created an MDN for your file, but it should also log the fact that you never got it.
   • Remote AS2 server processes your file but cannot send you an asynchronous MDN. As long as you have taken care to leave a value of "[AS2ReceiverURL]" in your Destination's "MDN URL" this error is likely due to an unresolvable DNS, proxy server or other connection problem on the remote AS2 server's side.

     Troubleshooting Tasks with AS2 Sources

     Tasks with AS2 sources are used to receive files from your partners.

5. Double-check that you and your partner agree on the following items and that they are configured identically on both sides of the transmission.
   • The URL of your (MOVEit Transfer) AS2 server. This will be something like "https://myserver.moveittransfer.com/as2receiver.aspx"
   • Your organization's name and your partner's name
   • Your organization's client certificate and your partner's client certificate
   • The type of encryption to be used
   • (You can ask about what sort of MDN your partner expects, but there is nothing to configure in MOVEit Automation regarding this information because AS2 file senders configure this value and AS2 file receivers - MOVEit Automation in this case - are expected to pull it off incoming AS2 messages.)
6. Make sure your partner's AS2 client can connect to your MOVEit Transfer server. You can start with basic connectivity and DNS tests by simply asking your partner to connect to your MOVEit Transfer using the URL you use for normal, interactive web access. Then have your partner try to send an AS2 file with the client and look/listen for "cannot connect", "404" and other errors that suggest that the remote AS2 client cannot connect to the AS2 interface of your MOVEit Transfer server.
7. Make sure your partner is successfully posting files to MOVEit Transfer. sign on to your MOVEit Transfer server as an Admin or FileAdmin to see if you suspect your partner is not posting AS2 files successfully. If your partner is posting files successfully, you will see a folder named "/AS2/[PartnerName]" where "[PartnerName]" is the exact name of your partner (as configured in your AS2 host configuration). As your partner posts AS2 files, you will also see files named "AS2Data" (or something else if URLs with the "Tag=" attribute are used) show up in this folder and in the audit log.
8. Make sure MOVEit Automation is automatically kicking off the task associated with this transfer correctly. There are several reasons why this could not be happening - see the "Tasks Configured to Receive AS2 Files Do Not Run Automatically" section below for details.
9. Make sure your MOVEit Automation task is correctly processing your partner's AS2 file and returning a valid MDN. Fortunately, this is mostly internal processing at this point: MOVEit Automation will provide you information about any problems occurring here. If your partner has requested an asynchronous MDN for its AS2 file, it is possible that the URL he/she provided in the AS2 message is invalid or unreachable, but this is almost the only error caused by external conditions that could be encountered at this stage.

   Error Messages Encountered During AS2 File Transfer

   cannot connect to MIAS2: Access is denied

   This message usually indicates that the MOVEit Automation "MIAS2.exe" AS2 helper application has not been started. This application should be started and have its own "Task Manager - Processes" entry when the MOVEit Automation service starts. First try restarting the MOVEit Automation service. If this does not fix the problem, use the "Run MOVEit Automation manually" option from the "Start | Programs | MOVEit Automation" program group to run MOVEit Automation in the foreground and watch for other clues from the MOVEit Automation or MIAS2 windows in the foreground.

   Host default partner cert not found

   This message often means that a partner's client certificate was imported and selected in an AS2 Host configuration, but that the underlying certificate has since been deleted. The best way to correct this situation is to reimport your partner's client certificate and reselect it in the AS2 Host configuration.

   405 Method Not Supported

   This message means you got to a web server (all AS2 servers are web servers) but that the web server doesn't understand or allow your request. If you copied an "Outgoing HTTP URL" from an AS2 Host configuration into a web browser, this message is perfectly normal (especially if your partner's server is an MOVEit Transfer AS2 server). However, if you see this message during an AS2 file transfer it more likely indicates one or more of the following problems:

• The "Outgoing HTTP URL" you typed in is incorrect.
• A proxy server between your MOVEit Automation and your partner's AS2 server does not allow AS2 traffic.
• URLScan or some other host-based intrusion engine does not allow AS2 transactions.

  The requested name is valid, but no data of the requested type was found

  This error typically indicates that a DNS entry for a configured hostname could not found. If you see this error you should recheck any hostnames configured as part of this transfer. In a specific case, if this error starts with a "AS2SendMDN error: " prefix then the value of the "SMTP Server to be used for sending email MDNs" field in your AS2 host's Advanced settings ("Email MDN" tab) is probably not correct or not reachable.

  304 Could not write to file

  This message may mean that the transfer has exceeded the file size limit for AS2 Receive. The limit for a single file is 1 GB. If you are attaching files to a message (sent via ASx), the limit for a single message and attached files is 200 MB.

  Tasks Configured to Receive AS2 Files Do Not Run Automatically

  If you are receiving AS2 files from partners, you must set up tasks with AS2 Sources for each partner that will be sending you AS2 files. Partners post AS2 files to a MOVEit Transfer server and MOVEit Automation normally learns about posted files and acts on them within seconds of their completion.

  Reasons why tasks configured to receive AS2 files do not start automatically include:

• Your partner isn't really posting AS2 files successfully - Your partner will post AS2 files to your MOVEit Transfer server so you must sign on to your MOVEit Transfer server as an Admin or FileAdmin to see if you suspect your partner is not posting AS2 files successfully. If your partner is posting files successfully, you will see a folder named "/AS2/[PartnerName]" where "[PartnerName]" is the exact name of your partner (as configured in your AS2 host configuration). As your partner posts AS2 files, you will also see files named "AS2Data" (or something else if URLs with the "Tag=" attribute are used) show up in this folder and in the audit log. If AS2 file posts are not making it this far, please consult the "405 Method Not Supported" advice above.
• AS2 poller is not running - If you watch the MOVEit Automation system log at the All Debug level with no task filter set, you should see orange messages like "AS poller found X files on..." and "AS2 poller polled X hosts, saw Y files, started Z tasks" scroll by every few seconds. If you do not see these messages, the AS2 poller (that looks for AS2 file postings on MOVEit Transfer) is probably not running. Normally, restarting the MOVEit Automation service will fix this.
• AS2 poller is finding files, but your task isn't scheduled to run at the time the files are found - At the All Debug level, orange messages like "Considering new file AS2/.../... for task X" will scroll by whenever new AS2 files are posted to your MOVEit Transfer server. If the task you would expect to act on the posted files is not one of the ones listed, it is probably because your task is missing a schedule that would allow it to run when files arrive during a particular window of time. The easiest way to correct this situation is to add a "always on" schedule to your task that runs on "All Days", "Repeated" between "00:00" and "23:59".
• AS2 poller is finding files and your task is scheduled to run when the files are found but the related "receive" task still isn't getting called. - If this is your situation, make sure your AS2 source's "File Tag(s)" match (or include) the filenames of AS2 files being posted to your MOVEit Transfer server. When in doubt, use a wildcard File Tag of "*" to download everything from that particular partner.