Error 2912 when a Virtual Machine Manager 2008 and 2008 R2 operation fails due to a certificate issue: "Element not found (0x80070490)"

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Article ID: 971264 - View products that this article applies to.
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When you use System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 to perform any action that involves file transfers across virtual machines, such as new VM or new P2V, the operation fails and generates the following error message:

Error (2912)

An internal error has occurred trying to contact an agent on the %serverName%.
(Element not found (0x80070490))

Recommendation Action

0x80070490 = Element not found = Certificate not found

Note The exact error message that is displayed in the console is generic in nature and will contain an error code such as 2912 or 3154. However, the message will always contain "Element not found" in the description.


This problem occurs because the certificate is missing from the VMM server or because of an issue that affects the Host certificate, such as an incorrect name or the use of IP instead of FQDN or NetBIOS.

To identify and verify this issue, you must capture a trace by using the Dbgview tool. For more information about this process, including where to download the Dbgview tool, click the following article number to view the article in the microsoft Knowledge Base:

970066 How to collect traces in System Center Virtual Machine Manager

The following is a snippet from the stack trace that was collected when this error occurred. Notice the point at which the operation checks for the certificate on the VMM server. Another key to this problem is the BitDeployer.Copy function.

00006921 302.15213013 [1972] at Microsoft.VirtualManager.Engine.Deployment.FileDeploymentServerJobFactory.GetPeerCertificate(WsmanAPIWrapper clientWrapper) 
00006922 302.15213013 [1972] at Microsoft.VirtualManager.Engine.Deployment.ImageDeploymentServerJobFactory.CreateJob(WsmanAPIWrapper serverWrapper, WsmanAPIWrapper clientWrapper, DeploymentFile file, Boolean useHTTPS) 
00006923 302.15213013 [1972] at Microsoft.VirtualManager.Engine.Deployment.BitDeployer.Copy() 
00006924 302.15213013 [1972] at Microsoft.VirtualManager.Engine.Deployment.DeploySubtask.RunSubtask() 
00006948 302.15328979 [1972] *** Carmine error was: HostAgentFail (2912); HR: 0x80070490 


To resolve this problem, remove the managed host from the VMM server, and delete any residual certificates from the host on the VMM server. Then, re-add the host. To do this, follow these steps:
  1. On the SCVMM server, remove the managed host from the console. For the steps to remove a managed host, see the following Microsoft TechNet topic:
  2. Locate and then delete any certificates for the Host computer.
  3. Open the Certificate console on the SCVMM server. To do this, follow these steps:
    1. Open a new console, and add the certificates snap-in.
    2. Select the computer account and local computer options.
    3. Click Finish, and then click OK to load the snap-in.
  4. The certificates for the Host computer can be in any of the following locations:
    • Personal Certificates
    • Trusted People (if the host is W2K8 or W2K8 R2)
    • Trusted Root Authorities (If the host is W2K3)
  5. In each store, expand the Friendly Name field.
  6. Locate the certificates for the Host server that have a Friendly Name that starts with "SCVMM_CERTIFICATE_KEY_CONTAINER" and is followed by the FQDN, by the IP address, or by the NetBIOS name of the Host server.
  7. Delete these certificates.
  8. Re-add the host in SCVMM.

    Note SCVMM re-creates the certificates as they are required.

More Information

SCVMM uses BITS to transfer payload between SCVMM managed computers. These data transfers are encrypted by using a self-signed certificate that is generated at the time that a host computer is added to VMM. If these certificates are corrupted or missing from the VMM server or from the managed computers, the payload deployment job can fail. Deleting the certificates and re-adding the host causes the certificates to regenerate.


Article ID: 971264 - Last Review: May 2, 2012 - Revision: 4.0
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