Data Protection Advisor - PowerProtect Data Manager Jobmonitor randomly failing with NullPointerException

Summary: PowerProtect Data Manager jobmonitor randomly fails with: "NullPointerException(null)" or "ProcessingException(Unable to invoke request)"

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Symptoms

Reports for PowerProtect Data Manager are not working or are not correct.
The jobmonitor request randomly fails with:
"NullPointerException(null)" or "ProcessingException(Unable to invoke request)"

Steps to confirm the issue:
1. Put the agent that is monitoring PowerProtect Data Manager in debug:
UI: Data Collection > Agents
Select or click on the agent > click on the Data Collection Agent Settings on top. 
Set the Log Level to DEBUG LOW.

2. Allow a jobmonitor request run when the problem occurs.

3. The following is observed in the dpaagent.log (<install dir>/dpa/agent/logs/dpaagent.log) 
DBG2     9160.10916    20231031:120812        com.base.i18n - convertToUTF8Data(): convdata->conv is NULL
ERR      9160.10916    20231031:120812 com.emc.dpa.agent.mo - execute(): Function jobmonitor caught NullPointerException
DBG2     9160.10916    20231031:120812        com.base.i18n - convertToUTF8Data(): convdata->conv is NULL
DBG2     9160.10916    20231031:120812        com.base.i18n - convertToUTF8Data(): convdata->conv is NULL
DBG1     9160.10916    20231031:120812      com.base.runcmd - csystemreadline(): returning line:
java.lang.NullPointerException
WARN     9160.10916    20231031:120812     com.agent.worker - runAgentWorkerRequest(): Received unexpected output from worker: java.lang.NullPointerException


Cause

This is an issue that is addressed under the following engineering escalation:
DCE-6074 - PowerProtect Data Manager Jobmonitor randomly failing with NullPointerException(null)

Resolution

For DPA on 19.9, installing 19.9 b1 agent version provides a temporary workaround.
NOTE:  You cannot have a DPA agent on a higher version than the version on the DPA servers.


If DPA severs not on DPA 19.9, the fix will be available in a future release, estimated January 2024.

Affected Products

Data Protection Advisor
Article Properties
Article Number: 000219420
Article Type: Solution
Last Modified: 25 May 2026
Version:  2
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