'Script or executable failed to run' - Part 1

This message can occur many times in a SCOM enviroment and can be a bit frustrating as well. Moreover since there is not a single cause for it so there isn't a single solution for it either.

However, in all the SCOM enviroments where I bumped into this Alert message I found there are some generic causes to be found. Here I will give the most common reasons for this Alert message:

Permissions
In a certain SCOM enviroment I bumped into the situation where the SCOM-account (Agent Action) - due too strong security settings - didn't have enough permissions to start the process cscript.exe, located in the folder c:\windows\system32. By granting this account the Read & Execute permissions everything was OK again.

x64 vs. x86
When a server is x64 based, an x64 SCOM Agent will be installed automatically (when the SCOM Agent is being pushed from the Management Server that is). When this server runs a x86 application the SCOM Agent will have difficulties to discover these applications. By installing a x86 Agent on this x64 server things will run better.

Antivirus software
This software can block certain (vb) scripts to run. Microsoft has written a generic KB article about it, found here. There is also another KB article which is more specific. Eventhough it writes about MOM 2005 and an older version of certain Antivirus software, it might come in handy. Look here for this KB article.

Version of Windows Script
It seems that a versions of Windows Script below 5.7 can cause memory problems and scripts not to run. The blog of the Operations Manager Support Team wrote an article about it, so all the credits goes to this team. The article is to be found here, with the solution for it (installing Windows Script version 5.7) as well.