[doug]

You found a bug. Thanks for bringing it to our attention. The issue is with “Terminate queue if previous ‘Check for available updates’ finds 0 updates”, which is crashing the job queue thread when the previous check for updates returns an error instead of producing a result. That’s why it just sits there indefinitely. We’ll have this fixed for the next release. In the meantime your options are to either not use the “Terminate queue if previous ‘Check for available updates’ finds 0 updates” or to use something like this instead, which will force the queue to terminate if the check for available updates errors so that the 3rd step in the queue is just never executed in that case and therefore cannot crash the thread:

1: Check for available updates

2: Terminate queue if previous action fails/errors

3: Terminate queue if previous ‘Check for available updates’ finds 0 updates

-Doug

[doug]

Mike – I’m sorry to say that I can’t really understand well enough what you are describing to suggest a solution. However, the following link has numerous tutorials for how to create and execute a deployment in BatchPatch. You should be able to use these to model your current deployment.

BatchPatch Software Deployment

If you continue to have issues and would like further assistance, perhaps you can try again to explain as clearly as possible but include screenshots and any other supporting information to help illustrate exactly what you are doing and what is happening. You may contact us to establish an email dialog for this purpose, if desired.

[doug]

Jay – I’m sorry to say that I can’t really decipher what you’re describing well enough to suggest how to rectify it. It sounds like you just have something misconfigured, but I can’t understand well enough what you are describing to tell you what you’re doing wrong. If you want to take another stab at describing again in a different way, as clearly as possible, I’ll see if I can give you a better response. If you think screenshots will help illustrate your issue, feel free to contact us via email, and then we can then get a dialog going to send/receive screenshots along with your description of the issue.

Thanks,

Doug

[doug]

booster – have you tested the old version side by side with the new one? I’m wondering if the issue might be due to a change in server 2016 that happened in between last time you used BP on it to now when you used the new version of BP. We didn’t change anything in BP that would/should affect the load time of the app. The best guess I have is that it is something with the Windows SmartScreen. The new version of BP has a new certificate because the old one expired. I wonder if possibly the Windows SmartScreen check of the new certificate is what is causing the delay.

-Doug

[doug]

Step 1: Parameterize your powershell script so that it can accept arguments. Multiple examples of how to do that are explained here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5592531/how-to-pass-an-argument-to-a-powershell-script

Step 2: Run a local command in BatchPatch to execute the script.

‘Actions > Execute local process/command > Create/modify’ :

powershell.exe c:scriptspowershellscript.ps1 vCenterName, ResourcePoolName

or if you want to pass the host name from the BatchPatch ‘Host’ column you can use $computer :

powershell.exe c:scriptspowershellscript.ps1 $computer, vCenterName, ResourcePoolName

[doug]

We do not have any such documentation.

[doug]

I’m not sure what it could be since the code didn’t change in those commands between the last and current version. I noticed in your video that there is no tab header status icon, which makes me wonder are you definitely using the current version of the app? Or did you just disable it under ‘Tools > Settings > Grid prefs > Show tab header activity / alert images’.

I know you said the issue didn’t exist until you started using the new version, but I’m wondering have you since gone back and tried the previous version to see if it still does not occur in the previous version even though it occurs in the current/new version? Also are you running BP on the same computer as you always were or did you change computers or start running BP in a VM or something like that in between the last time you used the older version and the time that you started using the newer version?

[doug]

Hi Mike – Yes you can do that. You would just need to parameterize the inputs so that you can pass them into the script at the time you run the script rather than having the script prompt you with a dialog. Below are a few different tutorials that should give you an idea of how you can do it.

virtual-machine-create-snapshot-apply-windows-updates-reboot-remove-snapshot-basic-multi-row-queue-sequence-example

advanced-script-integration-with-batchpatch

advanced-script-integration-with-batchpatch-part-2

[doug]

There are two things happening here.

1. The ‘Save’ item remains grayed out after you modify the column visibility. We are aware of this, and it’s a design option that we chose intentionally for reasons that are difficult to explain in this posting. The bottom line though is that the grid data needs to be modified before the ‘Save’ item will be activated. Adding or removing a column without actually adding/modifying data in the grid will not activate the ‘Save’ item. We do not plan/expect to change this behavior. To get around this, your solution of using ‘Save as’ and then overwriting the .bps file is your best option. There is nothing wrong with doing this, and it will work properly.

2. You found a bug that prevents the ‘Disk Space (%)’ column from being automatically displayed when loading a grid that had been saved while it was visible. ‘Disk Space (%)’ is the only column where this occurs. ‘Disk Space (MB)’ and all other columns will properly be displayed when loading the .bps file if they were visible when the grid was last saved. Thank you for highlighting this bug. We will look to address the ‘Disk Space (%)’ column auto-display on load in a future build.

-Doug

[doug]

Glad you got it worked out! That’s my mistake. All of my examples were intended to have the .msi in quotes. Thanks for reporting back.

[doug]

I’m unable to test this myself because I don’t have the .msi in question, but I would try the following syntax options in the ‘Command to execute’ field. I’d expect that at least one of them should work. Let me know.

msiexec.exe /i SpiceworksAgentShell_Collection_Agent.msi /qn SITE_KEY=”CY3qdCi8EPHqDbHAsWd0″

msiexec.exe /i SpiceworksAgentShell_Collection_Agent.msi /q SITE_KEY=”CY3qdCi8EPHqDbHAsWd0″

msiexec.exe /i SpiceworksAgentShell_Collection_Agent.msi /qn SITE_KEY=CY3qdCi8EPHqDbHAsWd0

msiexec.exe /i SpiceworksAgentShell_Collection_Agent.msi /q SITE_KEY=CY3qdCi8EPHqDbHAsWd0

msiexec.exe /i SpiceworksAgentShell_Collection_Agent.msi /qn SITE_KEY=’CY3qdCi8EPHqDbHAsWd0′

msiexec.exe /i SpiceworksAgentShell_Collection_Agent.msi /q SITE_KEY=’CY3qdCi8EPHqDbHAsWd0′

[doug]

In the deployment configuration window you would have to manually modify the ‘Command to execute’ field to make the syntax what you want it to be.

-Doug

[doug]

I think you’re asking about the WSUS SID. According to the following link, there are a few registry values that store this information.

https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/Reset-WSUS-Authorization-2e26d1b0

Registry values to look at:

HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionWindowsUpdate



PingID

AccountDomainSid

SusClientId

SusClientIDValidation

BatchPatch can retrieve registry values from target computers using ‘Actions > Get information > Get registry key/value’

[doug]

I don’t have an explanation for why you would see significantly different load times between the two versions, but I would suggest that you simply try running BP on a physical machine or a VM with more horsepower. For comparison, on my physical workstation, which is approx 8 years old, the current version takes only 2 seconds to load. The older version also takes 2 seconds to load.

[doug]

“load” times? I’m still confused. Are you describing the amount of time that it takes to launch BatchPatch? So like from the time that you double-click the batchpatch.exe until the time that the BatchPatch window appears?

[doug]

Paul – I actually don’t really know what you’re describing or what you’re comparing. I don’t think it’s the same thing that Justin is talking about. If we just use your 2008 example for a moment, what are you saying took an average of 8 seconds on 2018.10.4.14.1 as compared to an average of 40 seconds on 2019.3.20.16.58?

[doug]

Justin – I don’t think there is anything in the new version that could cause the behavior to be different than the previous version. Have you tried both versions side by side to compare? The code didn’t change for the actions you’re talking about.

-Doug

[doug]

Your log illustrates the problem at this line:

Wed-10:07:50> Remote Command (logged output): Executing \target -s

You are executing an empty/blank/non-existent command. You are not executing ‘wmic bios get serialnumber’ as you think, else we would see the command in that line. I’m not quite sure where you’re going wrong, but hopefully this helps you figure things out. Maybe you are creating the command under Remote command logged output 1 but then executing Remote command logged output 2? Maybe you created a saved remote command but you only gave it a title but didn’t give it command syntax to execute? Seems like the issue has got to be something similar to that where you just aren’t properly executing the command, so you end up submitting a blank command instead.

-Doug

[doug]

No, it is not possible to trigger a BatchPatch job via a Windows scheduled task. You can use the BatchPatch ‘run as a service’ feature to enable BatchPatch to run tasks that were scheduled before the BatchPatch computer was rebooted and when the BatchPatch computer is not logged on.

-Doug

[doug]

I would strongly recommend that you manage the host that runs BP completely separately from everything else. I wouldn’t recommend doing what you’re trying to do. However, if you must, then in order to have BP send an email report after it reboots you would have to run BP as a service ‘Tools > Settings > Run As Service’, and then you would have to use the task scheduler to schedule the email report to send at a time when you know the BP computer will be back online.

-Doug

[doug]

Sue – In order for me to be able to figure out what’s going on here I need more information including a screenshot of the deployment configuration and a copy of the actual script. I’ve emailed you to discuss further.

Thanks,

Doug

[doug]

Thanks for explaining. We’ll consider it.

-Doug

[doug]

We thought it made sense to use the same column because the dual scan check also reports the windows update config info, which you can see if you expand the row or middle click on the field. Additionally, we don’t view the dual scan check or the windows update configuration check to be things that generally would be changing… that is to say that there shouldn’t generally be a need to be checking either of these items on a regular basis because if a computer is set properly, then it’s set and it’s not going to change its configuration all of a sudden. I’d be curious to hear why you think it would make a significant difference to put these in separate columns.

This is what the expanded result looks like for the dual scan check. The WUServer value is the same as the result that you would see if you use ‘get windows update configuration’:

---

Dual Scan Enabled: FALSE . . .



WUServer: Windows Update

DefaultAUService: Windows Update

---

Thanks,

Doug

[doug]

Microsoft’s WMI troubleshooting article:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/desktop/WmiSdk/wmi-troubleshooting

[doug]

In BatchPatch ‘remote process 1’ and ‘remote process 2’ support psexec switches. To have any chance at the -i interactive switch working you would also need to set the ‘remote execution context’ under ‘Tools > Settings > Remote Execution’ to ‘Elevated token’ instead of ‘SYSTEM’ for the ‘Remote process/command’ section.

Syntax example:

If I want to launch calc.exe on a target computer interactively… after I set the remote execution context to ‘Elevated token’… then in ‘Remote process/command 1’ I can use:

-i calc.exe

-Doug

[doug]

0x8024401c -2145107940 WU_E_PT_HTTP_STATUS_REQUEST_TIMEOUT Http status 408 – server timed out waiting for request

The target computer is trying to connect to the update server, but it’s timing out. This likely indicates either a network issue or an issue with the update server. If you’re using WSUS then it’s probably an issue with the WSUS. If you’re using Windows Update or Microsoft Update then it’s probably a temporary issue with Microsoft’s public update server.

[doug]

Mikhail – This is not a BatchPatch problem. This is an issue with WMI on that target computer. I would start by rebooting the computer. This might resolve it, but probably not. If not then you’ll need to troubleshoot WMI on that computer, and you might need to rebuild the WMI repository.

WMI Diagnosis Utility

[doug]

Roman – You can include drivers in BP under ‘Tools > Settings > Windows Update > Search Preferences > Search for *all* driver updates’

However, your mileage may vary for actually having success with installation of drivers through Windows Update. We generally don’t recommend using this option anymore. Years ago they could be installed successfully, but with changes to the OS that Microsoft has made over the years, you will now find in the newer versions of Windows that the drivers won’t download/install successfully in some/many/most cases even though in the older versions of Windows they will work just fine. The same would be true for the script you linked to or for any other method that gets drivers directly from Windows Update because under the hood they are all calling the same Windows API methods.

-Doug

[doug]

Thanks, blanning. We’ll consider this.

[doug]

Try ‘Actions > Modify category, description, location, notes, color > Modify row color’

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