SAM Templates Showing “Unknown” on Single APE Due to Corrupted JobEngine/Collector DBs and Windows Performance Counters

In some environments, you may see most or all Windows Server application templates reporting “Unknown” status only when polled from a specific APE, while the same nodes or templates work as expected from other engines. Logs on the affected APE show performance counter collection failures and Job Engine worker termination, even though services may appear to be running. This behavior is usually linked to corruption or inconsistency in Windows performance counters/WMI and local SAM JobEngine/Collector DBs on that polling engine. Rebuilding these components on the impacted APE restores normal polling without any product code changes or hotfixes. This scenario should be treated as an environment/engine-health issue, not a core SAM defect.

• Local corruption or misconfiguration of Windows performance counters and/or WMI on a specific APE.
• Corrupted or inconsistent SAM JobEngine/Collector databases on that APE.
• As a result, performance counter collection for Windows templates fails on that engine, causing monitored applications to report “Unknown” status only when polled from the impacted APE.

• Confirm scope and symptoms

  • Verify that only one APE is affected (other polling engines show normal status for the same or similar templates).
  • Check SAM/APM logs on the affected APE for performance counter collection errors and code 0x800007D5, along with any Job Engine worker termination messages.

• Validate engine parity

  • Confirm the affected APE is on the same product version/build as the primary poller and other APEs.
  • Ensure no recent partial upgrades or failed patching occurred on that server.

• Repair Windows performance counters and WMI (on the affected APE)

  • Run standard Microsoft steps to rebuild/repair performance counters on the APE (e.g., lodctr /r, winmgmt repair, as per internal guidelines/MS documentation).
  • Restart the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) service if appropriate and confirm counters are readable locally (e.g., via perfmon or typeperf).

• Rebuild SAM Collector and Job Engine databases (on the affected APE)

  • Stop SolarWinds Job Engine / Collector related services on the APE.
  • Follow Repair a failing Job Engine and Collector Components to rebuild or reset JobEngine and Collector DBs for that polling engine (backup if required, then delete/rename local DB files as per procedure so they are recreated cleanly).
  • Restart the Job Engine/Collector services and ensure they come up without errors in the logs.

• Verify recovery

  • Allow several polling cycles to complete for the affected Windows application templates.
  • Confirm that previously “Unknown” templates on that APE now show valid status and metrics.
  • Re-check logs to ensure 0x800007D5 and related counter collection errors are no longer occurring.