Network Management

SolarWinds Certificate Management Service (CMS) does not start after upgrading ASP.NET Core in the SolarWinds Platform

After performing an upgrade to the installed ASP.NET Core version, the Certificate Management service fails to start with a 1053 error.

First published date

10/25/2024 9:13 AM

Last published date

4/22/2026 1:11 PM

Overview

After upgrading the ASP.NET Core version, the Certificate Management Service (CMS) cannot be started (manual start or after the Configuration Wizard is run) when there is a discrepancy between the "Microsoft ASP.NET Core" and "Microsoft .NET Desktop Runtime" versions installed.

This issue is seen on both MainPoller and MainPoller Standby servers in high availability.

The following can also be seen in the Windows Application Event log:

When running the configuration wizard, the following message may appear:

ERROR CwAuditLogger - Configuring Certificate Management FAILED

Services configuration failed:
	•  Unable to start SolarWindsCertificateManagementService.

Product section

Network Performance Monitor

Cause

This issue occurs because the introduction of Certificate Management Service (CMS) starting in 2024.4 and above. Due to this change, Microsoft ASP.NET Core and Microsoft .NET Desktop Runtime must be installed and running .NET 8.0 and above

Example of mismatched Versions:

Command prompt used to find the info above:

"dontnet --info"

Resolution

Important! .NET 8.0 Patching Requires Coordinated Updates

SolarWinds Platform requires that Microsoft ASP.NET Core and Microsoft .NET Desktop Runtime are always on the same version. If these components are updated independently, a version mismatch can cause the Certificate Management Service to fail to start.

Before applying any Windows patches to your SolarWinds server:

Note the current versions of both components in Add/Remove Programs (search for "Microsoft ASP.NET Core" and "Microsoft .NET Desktop Runtime")
If Windows Update patches one but not the other, download and run the matching installer immediately
Verify both versions match before restarting SolarWinds services

To verify installed versions at any time, run the following in Command Prompt or PowerShell:

dotnet --list-runtimes

Both Microsoft.AspNetCore.App and Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App should show identical version numbers.

Resolution 1

To fix the issue, all versions of "Microsoft ASP.NET Core" and "Microsoft .NET Desktop Runtime" must be on the same version (https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet/8.0)

To prevent this issue in future, we strongly recommend to opt-in .NET Core (at least 8.0) automatic windows updates described here: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/server-operating-systems-auto-updates/. This will always update both runtimes to same version and no need to manually update any of them.

This can be enabled on the SolarWinds server by adding the following registry key:

.NET Version	Registry Key	Name	Value
Allow .NET 8.0 Updates	[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NET\8.0]	“AllowAUOnServerOS”	dword:00000001

Resolution 2

If the SolarWinds version is not 2024.4, upgrade the environment to version 2024.4 in order to fix the problem with the missing SolarWinds Certificate Management Service in the SolarWinds Platform Service Manager.

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