Opt-in not working

[NotABot]

Ever since we changed BP from Windows Update to Microsoft Update in the Settings and Server Selection (to include all MS products) some of the Windows servers would always come back with the following:

Windows Update: Error -115: Failed to execute the search. Unknown update service. If attempting to use ‘Microsoft Update’ you must first opt-in to the service. See ‘Actions > Windows Updates > Opt-in…’

Going into the Actions menu as described has never worked for us. We do the Opt-in option and it’s like nothing ever happens to the selected server in the grid. So we’ve just been logging into the server and making the WU change to include all MS products manually.

Well we have a Server Core and I do not know how to make such a change manually with it. Is there something I’m missing why the BP Opt-In isn’t doing anything for us?

Thanks

[doug]

We have never heard of any issues with opt-in not working. Can you answer the following questions so that we can try to figure out what’s going on here?

1. What version of BP are you running? Please provide full version number that appears under ‘Help > About’

2. What version of PsExec are you using? Right-click on the psexec.exe file, then view ‘Properties > Details > File version’

3. What OS version is BatchPatch running on? Please put the BatchPatch host computer name into the BatchPatch grid as a target (so you’ll be targeting the local computer) and then use ‘Actions > Get information > Get OS version’, and then paste the complete result here.

4. What OS version is the target computer where this problem is occurring? Again please use ‘Actions > Get information > Get OS version’ but this time for the target computer(s).

5. You mentioned that Opt-in was not working on multiple/numerous computers, and the problem is not limited to just the server core OS. Can you check a few of the problematic machines that were running the full/gui version of Windows. Are they all running the same OS as the server core target? Or do we have a variety of target OS versions having the issue?

6. When you run the opt-in command in BatchPatch, what is the result that is reported in the ‘All Messages’ column? Can you paste the verbatim result text here?

7. Under ‘Tools > Settings > Remote Execution’ what do you have the ‘Remote Execution Context’ values set to for ‘Remote process/command’ ? SYSTEM or Elevated token? Is ‘Interactive’ selected too or not?

Thanks,
Doug

[NotABot]

Your step #3 gave me a clue. When I tried to add itself, I was presented with the following:

When entering *this* computer into a BatchPatch grid, you must run BatchPatch as administrator (right-click on the batchpatch.exe and select ‘Run as administrator’) in order for everything to work properly.

Hmmm, even though I’m logged into the batchpatch box as an administrator, perhaps I should do a run as. Sure enough. When I start up BP with Run As Administrator, then do the Opt-In, I actually then get a dialog about what it’s about to do and there is now feed back in the logs.

Thanks!

[doug]

While I’m glad you’re making progress, I would love to understand what is actually going on here.

Running as admin is only required for when targeting the local computer in the grid. For remote computers this is not required. Were you trying to use “opt-in” on the BP computer all along and not on a remote computer? I’m a bit confused because this wouldn’t make sense. Also when you use ‘opt-in’ regardless of whether BP is running as admin or not, it will give you feedback. And when you say there is now feedback in the logs, what is the feedback that now appears that was not appearing before? And what was there previously?

The more information that you can provide to me, the better we will be able to potentially address this issue (if there actually is an issue) in a future version. At the moment it sounds like something is not right, so I’m hoping you can help me understand exactly what’s going on because we would like to make this experience better for end users in a future version, and we can’t do that without understanding what is happening.

Thanks!

[NotABot]

Were you trying to use “opt-in” on the BP computer all along and not on a remote computer?
Nope, these were all remote vm’s

And when you say there is now feedback in the logs, what is the feedback that now appears that was not appearing before?
This is what I did not see before

Remote Command Output Log
The Windows Update service is stopping.
The Windows Update service was stopped successfully.

The Windows Update service is starting.
The Windows Update service was started successfully.

There was also a popup window that informed me of services about to be restarted or something like that.

And what was there previously?
Nothing. I licked on Opt-In and it was like nothing happened. No pop up, no nothing. Now that I ran it as admin, seems to be working as expected

BP is version 2021.4.7.18.55

Thanks

[doug]

Strange. Thanks.

[Author]

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