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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
Your log illustrates the problem at this line:
Wed-10:07:50> Remote Command (logged output): Executing \target -sYou 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
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
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
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
Thanks for explaining. We’ll consider it.
-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
Microsoft’s WMI troubleshooting article:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/desktop/WmiSdk/wmi-troubleshooting
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
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.
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.
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
Thanks, blanning. We’ll consider this.
Try ‘Actions > Modify category, description, location, notes, color > Modify row color’
When you select multiple rows and execute a saved job queue, it executes the saved job on each row simultaneously. The basic multi row queue sequence is what tells BP to execute each row sequentially, one at a time. To do this you must first apply the queue to be executed onto each row, then execute the basic multi row queue sequence. Then BP knows which queue to use for each row because each row can have its own independent queue.
You can use either the basic multi row queue sequence or the advanced multi row queue sequence for this. Probably start with the basic sequence since it’s simpler to use and gives you what you are asking for. If you need more complex sequences that aren’t just one at a time, then check out the advanced sequence. Tutorials below.
basic-multi-row-queue-sequence
advanced-multi-row-queue-sequence-video-tutorial
advanced-multi-row-queue-sequence
virtual-machine-guest-host-update-and-reboot-sequence-automation
Additionally note that if you are using ‘Wait for host to go offline and come back online’ you should make sure to read the important note about it at this page:
Thanks for clarifying. We will consider these ideas for a future build. Thank you for your suggestions!
-Doug
Hi Jared – This forum is a fine place to make your requests. 🙂
With regard to the status bar idea, the first thing you asked for is “how long is left in their process.” My question to you is how could BP know how long is left in an indeterminate process? If you execute an action there is no way to know in advance how long that action will take, so I’m not sure then how BP could report on “time left” or similar. Am I misunderstanding what you’re describing? The number of running processes, however, is something that can be reported on. We’ll consider this for a future build. Currently we only report that there are active process or that there are not active processes, based on whether or not you see the yellow orb icon/image in the tab header next to the tab name, but we don’t report the actual number of running processes. This is a reasonable idea, so we’ll definitely consider it. Thank you. Were there any other specific thoughts/ideas that you wanted to convey? You said ‘etc’ as if there are other things but that you just didn’t share them because you weren’t sure if this is the right venue or not, so please do let me know.
Thanks,
Doug
This tutorial demonstrates how you can remove an update when the ‘package identity’ for the update does not contain the KB ID.
when-uninstall-individual-update-windows-10-2016-in-batchpatch-fails-to-remove-an-update
This bug will be fixed in the next release, coming soon.
I’ve emailed you to discuss further so that I can more easily review screenshots etc.
Thanks,
Doug
It’s pretty much gotta somehow be related to permissions/authentication. Microsoft is not ambiguous about access denied errors, and we have not ever heard of an access denied error that didn’t have something to do with the machine denying access due to something relating to permissions. That said, I can also tell you that a normal installation of 2016 behaves just the same as a normal installation of 2012 in terms of having no issues using BP and WMI. We have many customers using 2016 without issues, and we have no issues with 2016 and BP internally here. All that said, I would suggest you start with the link below. Please go through it carefully and make any necessary changes. Additionally please note that testing with a local account does not create an apples/apples situation because local account authentication requires additional registry modification on the target, as described toward the bottom of the link.
batchpatch-authentication-in-domain-and-workgroup-non-domain-environments
If you continue to have trouble after that I would refer you to Microsoft’s WMI troubleshooting page.
More here:
https://batchpatch.com/troubleshooting-common-errors-in-batchpatchYou can exclude/filter updates in BP:
The update classification filters are applied by the batchpatchremoteagent process that runs on the target computer. In normal (non-cached) mode, the target computer is responsible for downloading/installing updates, and since the update classification filters process runs on the target computer, update classifications that are UNchecked do not get downloaded or installed. However, in cached mode the BatchPatch computer is responsible for downloading the updates. It downloads all of the updates found in the search, even if they are UNchecked in the update classification filters. The BatchPatch computer then copies these files to the target computer’s BatchPatch remote working directory cache folder. Then the target computer processes everything according to the filtering that has been applied, and so it sees that the files are filtered by the update classification filters being UNchecked, and so the target computer does not copy the files from the BatchPatch remote working directory cache folder to the Windows Update cache folder. So, to the Windows Update agent, the files never get a status of ‘Downloaded-TRUE’. They are effectively never “downloaded” by the target computer. So to reiterate how the process works, the BatchPatch computer puts the files on the target computer into the BatchPatch remote working cache directory, and then the target computer performs a scan and only runs the copy to cache (this method copies files from the BatchPatch remote working directory cache folder to the Windows Update cache folder) for updates that are included (or NOT excluded) by the filter. We are aware of this behavior. We need to modify it to either not copy files to the target that will never be cached on the target, or to delete files on the target (in the remote working dir cache folder. default is C:Program FilesBatchPatchcache) that were copied there but were not cached into the Windows Update cache location (in C:WindowsSoftwareDistribution) due to being excluded by the filter.
In the log that you shared we can see a status of ‘Downloaded-TRUE’ for *all* of the updates, even the ones that should be excluded by your update classification filters set. This means that either you downloaded *all* of the updates on that machine prior to the session that you created to obtain the log file by using BatchPatch *without* UNchecking the update classifications filters, or you had a different process perform the download of updates, and so the BatchPatch filters were not observed by that other process. The log that you pasted does not show BatchPatch running copy to cache for the files that would be excluded by having the update classification filters UNchecked. Rather it shows the files *already* have a status of ‘Downloaded-TRUE’ before the log you included was created.
All that said, everything appears to be working properly, based on what you have shown me, and based on my testing here to confirm that the behavior is what I described. I realize that it’s not completely what one would expect to have happen, considering the language about “applies only to download / installation” but in reality the “applies only to download / installation” is from the perspective of the target computer remote agent, not from the BatchPatch computer. When running in cached mode things are a bit different, and so you’ll see the BatchPatch computer download updates that are UNchecked in the update classification filters, but when they go for processing on the target computer, the target computer excludes them properly and never caches them (never copies them from the BatchPatch cache folder to the Windows Update cache folder) and hence they never obtain a status of ‘Downloaded-TRUE’ as a result of a BatchPatch action, unless the BatchPatch action is executed with filters applied that do enable the updates to be copied to the Windows Update cache. In your case I can’t tell you how the updates got to a point where status would show ‘Downloaded-TRUE’. I can only tell you that it was not due to BatchPatch unless at an earlier time you ran BatchPatch with the update classification boxes *checked* for the updates in question, and then you subsequently unchecked the boxes at a later time to run the action that produced the logs that you shared.
You asked “A second question: When using offline mode, the client computers create their own download lists for use by the Batchpatch server, for the purpose of downloading updates:
C:Program FilesBatchPatchBatchPatch.log
C:Program FilesBatchPatchBatchPatchTempAvailableUpdates.log
My question is, do these lists get amalgamated on the Batchpatch server somewhere? Or does Batchpatch reach out to each client to check the contents of these lists prior to downloading require updates”
The two files that you mentioned are not “download lists for use by the Batchpatch server, for the purpose of downloading updates.” BatchPatch instructs the target computer batchpatchremoteagent process to create these files, and then BatchPatch consumes these files for a variety of purposes.
For any further questions on this matter, please contact us directly for support.
Are you sure that BatchPatch is what downloaded the updates in question? The log snippets you provided show that the updates were downloaded on the server, but they don’t show that BatchPatch was responsible for downloading them. For that matter your log snippet doesn’t even show that BatchPatch installed them. Can you provide the complete log that backs up your assertion? I’d like to see the log that shows the entire filter + download + install operation. Also what version of BP are you using? Version number is displayed under ‘Help > About’
“Wait for host to go offline and come back online” is explained in more detail here:
‘Tools > Settings > General > Concurrent Thread Maximum’ can be used to control the number of simultaneous threads. However, in your situation since you are scheduling the jobs I would recommend that you simply schedule the virtual hosts in a staggered fashion so that they execute at different times rather than trying to execute them all at the same time.
Another option is to use the multi row queue sequence to stagger execution:
advanced-multi-row-queue-sequence-video-tutorial
advanced-multi-row-queue-sequence
virtual-machine-guest-host-update-and-reboot-sequence-automation
1. Configure grid sync settings (Grid > Synchronize grid with directory)
2. Configure 30-day threshold for Windows Updates (Tools > Settings > Windows Update > Only install updates that were published / approved at least 30 days ago)
3. Configure email notifications settings (Tools > Settings > Email notifications)
4. Create and save a job queue with steps that looks something like this:
—-A. Synchronize grid with directory (add and remove hosts)
—-B. Download and install updates plus reboot if required
—-C. Send email notification
Job Queue tutorial: https://batchpatch.com/using-the-job-queue-in-batchpatch-for-multi-step-execution
5. Create a recurring scheduled task that executes the job queue that you created/saved:
The exit code in this case is not coming from BatchPatch. Rather, BatchPatch is passing through the exit code that was returned by wusa.exe on the target or by the target OS. I can’t find 1396 in any lists of wusa.exe exit codes, so there is a pretty good chance (not a guarantee) that it’s just a standard Windows system error code. If that’s true then in this case it would mean
ERROR_WRONG_TARGET_NAME
1396 (0x574)
The target account name is incorrect.This error would normally occur due to a logon failure on the target computer, and so it seems like it’s probably not coming from wusa but rather from Windows during the attempt to connect. To confirm that this is actually what’s happening, try a different command:
‘Actions > Execute remote process/command’ and then try to execute just a simple IPCONFIG command as a test. If this fails with the same error, then we can be pretty confident that the error info above is accurate and that there is a logon issue. The link below explains some ways that you might be able to resolve that logon issue.
One possible quick workaround might be to use IP address instead of host name.
More possible workarounds/solutions here:
While this is not possible with any built-in actions, you can still use BP to accomplish this task very easily by creating a ‘Local command’ in BP (Actions > Execute local process/command…)
The command would need to look like this (see below). At the time of execution BP will automatically replace $computer with the value from the Host column of that row.
xcopy “\$computerc$someFoldersomeFile.ext” “C:temp”
When you execute the above command as a local command in BP, BP will copy someFile.txt from \targetcomputerc$someFolder to the local computer C:temp