CreoAgent does not start

BenLoosli · ‎Apr 11, 2025

This one has had me confused for about a month so I am turning to the Community. PTC Tech Support call was opened on March 21 and nothing back to help. Instead of the usual "Can we do a Teams session?', the support engineer replied that he had sent the issue to R&D.

We run Creo from a single install on a network server, have since Wildfire 4 days. Procedure is to the install on a Windchill server, which doubles as the Publishing machine for CreoView, and then copy the install folder over to the network drive and edit the parameteric.bat file to change the file location. This has worked great. Wehn the CreoAgent program came into play, we do the same thing, using an environment variable in a start batch file that we call from parametric.bat. This has worked through Creo 4, Creo 7, Creo 9 and somewhat in Creo 11.

I have 2 sets of Windchill/Creo servers and one is air-gapped due to data security reasons. When I installed Creo 11 on that server, did the copy and edited the files, Creo 11 runs just fine. Servers are Windows 2019 and workstations are all Windows 10.

On my internet connected system, CreoAgent fails to start. Same routine for copying the files, same editing of the batch files. I thought at first it was Windows 11, since these were updated, but we still have a few WIndows 10 machines and it fails on the one I tried it on. Servers are also Windows 2019. I have been through the CS articles on this subject and can find nothing that is set wrong.

Has anyone out there experienced issues with CreoAgent not starting?

RandyJones · ‎Apr 11, 2025

If you are like me and when running the installer choosing a non standard location eg c:/ptc/creo_parametric-11.0 then one of the very important things that has changed over previous releases is the installed location of the platform services "Creo" directory.

Creo Parametric 11.0 installer installs the "Creo" platform directory as c:/Program Files/Common Files/PTC/Creo no matter the installation directory chosen.
Creo Parametric 10.0 installer installs in the chosen dir: c:/ptc/creo_parametric-11.0/Creo

So you have to manually copy the c:/Program Files/Common Files/PTC/Creo to c:/ptc/creo_parametric-11.0/Creo.

I don't know if this is your issue or not but it is a major change in how the installer works that might affect you.

RandyJones · ‎Apr 11, 2025

See also this: https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article/CS416280

BenLoosli · ‎Apr 11, 2025

I am aware of that and did copy the files over.

My Creo agent location is: X:\OR\Engineering\Systems\PTC\Creo11\Creo\Agent

My batch file sets: CREO_AGENT_EXE_PATH=X:\OR\Engineering\Systems\PTC\Creo11\Creo\Agent\creoagent.exe

In Creo 9, it is a similar location: X:\OR\Engineering\Systems\PTC\Creo9\Creo\Agent with the batch file settiing CREO_AGENT_EXE_PATH=X:\OR\Engineering\Systems\PTC\Creo9\Creo\Agent\creoagent.exe

Creo 9 works fine on this install.

Creo 11 works fine on my air-gapped system with the same set up.

RandyJones · ‎Apr 11, 2025

@BenLoosli wrote:

I am aware of that and did copy the files over.

My Creo agent location is: X:\OR\Engineering\Systems\PTC\Creo11\Creo\Agent

My batch file sets: CREO_AGENT_EXE_PATH=X:\OR\Engineering\Systems\PTC\Creo11\Creo\Agent\creoagent.exe

In Creo 9, it is a similar location: X:\OR\Engineering\Systems\PTC\Creo9\Creo\Agent with the batch file settiing CREO_AGENT_EXE_PATH=X:\OR\Engineering\Systems\PTC\Creo9\Creo\Agent\creoagent.exe

Besides setting CREO_AGENT_EXE_PATH we are also setting:

set CREO_PLATFORM_DIR=c:\ptc\creo_parametric-%CREO_VERSION%.0\Creo\Platform
set CREO_AGENT_LDP_LIST=%CREO_PLATFORM_DIR%\%CREO_VERSION%\manifests

BenLoosli · ‎Apr 14, 2025

Randy,

I was already setting CREO_AGENT_LDP_LIST. I added a setting for CREO_PLATFORM_DIR and it made no difference.

MartinHanak · ‎Apr 14, 2025

Hi,

on my PC I have several Creo installations. No PTC Creo xxx Platform Services item is visible in Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Programs and Features window.

When installing I always use following procedure (below metioned steps are related to Creo 10.0.6.0):

install Creo ... into E:\PTC\Creo10_060 directory
check whether following sub-directories exist
- E:\PTC\Creo10_060\Creo\Agent
- E:\PTC\Creo10_060\Creo\Platform
copy E:\PTC\Creo10_060\Creo into E:\PTC\Creo10_060\Creo_copy
uninstall PTC Creo 10 Platform Services ... it removes E:\PTC\Creo10_060\Creo directory
rename E:\PTC\Creo10_060\Creo_copy to E:\PTC\Creo10_060\Creo
add following lines into parametric.psf

ENV=PTC_WF_ROOT=E:\PTC\PTC_WF_ROOT_Creo10_060
ENV=CREO_AGENT_EXE_PATH=E:\PTC\Creo10_060\Creo\Agent\creoagent.exe
ENV=CREO_AGENT_LDP_LIST=E:\PTC\Creo10_060\Creo\Platform\10\manifests

Martin Hanák

BenLoosli · ‎Apr 14, 2025

There is no Creo Platform Services installed on my machine. When I run Creo 9, it does launch creoagent.exe. Running Creo 11 does not.

I have all of those variables set in my startup batch file. I did change the PTC_WF_ROOT to be unique for Creo 11, instead of sharing with the Creo 9 folder and that did not change things.

MartinHanak · ‎Apr 15, 2025

@BenLoosli wrote:

There is no Creo Platform Services installed on my machine. When I run Creo 9, it does launch creoagent.exe. Running Creo 11 does not.

I have all of those variables set in my startup batch file. I did change the PTC_WF_ROOT to be unique for Creo 11, instead of sharing with the Creo 9 folder and that did not change things.

Hi,

I did a test.

1.] I copied my local installation E:\PTC\Creo11_020 to network disk ... T:\mh\Creo11_020

2.] I modified parametric.psf

I changed original lines

ENV=PTC_WF_ROOT=E:\PTC\PTC_WF_ROOT_Creo11_020
ENV=CREO_AGENT_EXE_PATH=E:\PTC\Creo11_020\Creo\Agent\creoagent.exe
ENV=CREO_AGENT_LDP_LIST=E:\PTC\Creo11_020\Creo\Platform\11\manifests

to following ones

ENV=PTC_WF_ROOT=E:\PTC\PTC_WF_ROOT_Creo11_020
ENV=CREO_AGENT_EXE_PATH=T:\mh\Creo11_020\Creo\Agent\creoagent.exe
ENV=CREO_AGENT_LDP_LIST=T:\mh\Creo11_020\Creo\Platform\11\manifests

3.] I created shortcut in local directory E:\users\creo11_parametric

Target ... "T:\mh\Creo11_020\Creo 11.0.2.0\Parametric\bin\parametric.exe"

Start in ... E:\users\creo11_parametric

4.] I started Creo

I had to add some rules into Windows Firewall.

Creo started successfully.

"T:\mh\Creo11_020\Creo\Agent\creoagent.exe" is running.

Martin Hanák

BenLoosli · ‎Apr 15, 2025

Could the firewall rules for Creo 9 creoagent be different for Creo 11 creoagent?

I have had Creo 4, Creo 7 and Creo 9 run successfully from my network install in production. I had Creo 10 run in a test setup. Now Creo 11 is not working on this network. I do have Creo 11 running on my other network from a network drive with no issues.

I guess I need to bring our IT group in and see if they can find something in the firewall logs.

MartinHanak · ‎Apr 15, 2025

@BenLoosli wrote:

Could the firewall rules for Creo 9 creoagent be different for Creo 11 creoagent?

I have had Creo 4, Creo 7 and Creo 9 run successfully from my network install in production. I had Creo 10 run in a test setup. Now Creo 11 is not working on this network. I do have Creo 11 running on my other network from a network drive with no issues.

I guess I need to bring our IT group in and see if they can find something in the firewall logs.

Hi,

when I run Creo for the first time (after installation) it always adds new rules into Windows Firewall.

During my test following rules were defined.

Martin Hanák

BenLoosli · ‎Apr 16, 2025

I had IT run the creosvcs_64.exe this morning on my workstation and it ended with a failure message. When I launched Creo 11, it did not make a difference. I will reboot tonight and try again tomorrow. We saw nothing in the Event Viewer logs to signify something is being blocked or failed.