[doug]

Works for me without issue. When you say that it doesn’t work, could you be more specific? What exactly happens in BatchPatch?

[doug]

In the current version of BP, BP pushes the updates to the target, which means that they must pass through the BP computer. We recommend keeping the cache dir on the BP computer. We are considering a “pull” methodology in a future version.

[doug]

Excerpt from

Understanding the Special Items in the Job Queue

IMPORTANT: ‘Wait for host to go offline and come back online’ should be used carefully. In particular, we do not recommend using this special action with virtual machine target computers. The reason for this is because virtual machines can often reboot within just a couple of seconds, which unfortunately can be too fast for BatchPatch to successfully detect. If the machine reboots so rapidly that BatchPatch does not know that it ever went offline, then ‘Wait for host to go offline and come back online’ will hang until the global timeout is reached, which will leave you with undesirable results. Here is one possible way you might use ‘Wait for host to go offline and come back online’ in your job queue when the target computer is not a virtual machine.

You could instead do something like this:

Step 1: Download and install updates + reboot always

Step 2: Wait 10 minutes

Step 3: Wait for host to be detected online

Step 4: Download and install updates + reboot if required

[doug]

The section on ‘Access Denied’ in this article might help.

[doug]

Erik – In the current build you’ll have to do this manually. However, thanks for highlighting it. We’ll add these items to ‘Tools > Export’ and ‘Tools > Import’ in the next build. The manual location is in:

HKCUSoftwareBatchPatch

SavedCategoryColumnValues

SavedDescriptionColumnValues

SavedLocationColumnValues

SavedNotesColumnValues

SavedNotes2ColumnValues

[doug]

Yes

[doug]

Access is denied. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070005 (E_ACCESSDENIED))

This error message is due to an issue with account permissions. The following link explains everything you need to know about authentication problems: BatchPatch Authentication in Domain and Workgroup (non-domain) Environments

If you are still stuck the BatchPatch Troubleshooting Guide can help you step through to figure out where things are going wrong.

[doug]

Tools > Export saved commands, deployments, job queues, copy jobs

Tools > Import saved commands, deployments, job queues, copy jobs

[doug]

Generally speaking, error codes are coming from the installer package on the target system, not from BatchPatch. However, in this case the 59 might actually be a Windows System Error code:

ERROR_UNEXP_NET_ERR



59 (0x3B)



An unexpected network error occurred.

[doug]

For local accounts you need to make a registry tweak on the target computers, which is outlined here at the bottom in the section ‘Using Integrated Security with a Local Account’:

batchpatch-authentication-in-domain-and-workgroup-non-domain-environments

[doug]

“Access is denied. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070005 (E_ACCESSDENIED))” indicates a permissions issue, not a firewall or port issue.

I couldn’t tell you why your permissions would be modified after upgrading to 1803, but I can tell you that Microsoft has historically had numerous issues in the first release of any feature upgrade, so I would caution against installing any feature upgrade so soon after it is released. It seems, based on your description, that when you applied the upgrade, the permissions on your computers were somehow modified/affected.

That said, since ‘Access Denied’ is a permissions problem, you should be able to resolve it on your 1803 machines by re-evaluating and fixing the permissions.

We have not yet done any testing with 1803 because it was just barely released the other day, so I’m not able to tell you with certainty what specifically might be going on in your situation.

-Doug

[doug]

In the previous versions of BP there were several hard-coded options for clearing column contents. However, we would continually get requests to add new/additional variations. And so then beginning with the 2018.3.28 version there are no longer any out-of-the-box options set. Instead you can now create your own selections lists so that you can have quick/easy access to clear the specific columns that you want to clear.

Select ‘Create/modify selections’ and then tick the boxes for the columns that you want to clear. Then set a title such as “Clear all but X, Y, and Z” and use the double-right-arrow button to save that selection list. Then when you select ‘Execute saved selections’ in the future you’ll see “Clear all but X, Y, and Z” available to use. This way you only have to create the list one time, and then you can use it over and over.

-Doug

[doug]

Have a look at ‘Tools > Settings > General > Concurrent thread maximum’

Explained more here: BatchPatch Performance Tuning

[doug]

I’m glad that worked. Thanks for confirming.

[doug]

At the time of this writing we have not yet tested it, but I’m 99% certain that installation of version 1803 will be performed using the same method as the previous feature updates, which is demonstrated here:

Deploying Windows Feature Upgrades Remotely to Multiple Computers

[doug]

Yes, we are working on a “row template” feature that would allow you to create a special row to be used as a template for the grid so that when you add a new row to the grid it can automatically get a copy of any of the cells in the template row.

Thanks,

Doug

[doug]

Sorry for the difficulties. We’re working on a solution this for for the next release.

Thanks,

Doug

[doug]

You can specify the client IP in the deployment, if you want. The way to do this would be instead of populating the BatchPatch grid with host names, instead go ahead and populate it with IP addresses. You will then deploy to the IP addresses instead of to the host names. Then inside the deployment if you want to use the IP address as a parameter for the deployment, you can do that by specifying the $computer variable. When the deployment runs, BatchPatch will swap $computer for the actual host name of the row, which in this case would be the IP address since you specified IP addresses instead of host names. You can use the $computer variable in BatchPatch local and remote processes / commands too. I hope this helps.

-Doug

[doug]

1620 is a generic code in BatchPatch that essentially means that BatchPatch received an unknown/unexpected return code from the remote process. The batchpatchremoteagent.exe does not have a -1 return code, so this is likely an issue with psexec not being able to complete successfully. I would suggest going through the steps in the troubleshooting guide to test psexec without BatchPatch.

[doug]

Jeffrey – If there is a failure, what would be the purpose of auto-retrying? Wouldn’t it just fail again until you address the reason for the failure? Or are you talking about in cases where you try to deploy to a computer that is not online? And so you want it to auto-retry again when the computer is online? In this case I would suggest two options:

–You could create a scheduled task and check the box ‘Run task immediately upon detecting the computer online’ This option would not run the deployment until BP first detects the computer is online.

–You could create a job queue that looks uses ‘Wait for host to be detected online’ right before the execution of the deployment. This would have the same effect as the above mentioned method. Just make sure in this case to modify the ‘Global timeout for host offline/online detection’ in the Job Queue window to a value that works for your needs.

I hope this helps. If you think there is still a need for an auto-retry option, could you explain why this would be helpful? Then we can evaluate the possibility of adding it to a future version.

Thanks,

Doug

—

[doug]

Hi Mark – The current version of BP does not have this functionality, but we’re working on it for a future version.

Thanks,

Doug

[doug]

BP doesn’t have a trigger for when a user logs on, but you could incorporate that kind of a check into your script if you really wanted. The easiest way would be to use the Win32_Process class to search for running instances of explorer.exe. Generally you would only have an explorer.exe process running if a user is logged-on. If the script doesn’t find it then it can wait a minute and check again.

Here are a few examples of script integration into BP:

advanced-script-integration-with-batchpatch

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

batchpatch-custom-script-integration-install-windows-updates-only-after-stopping-a-specified-service

Another option would be to perform the deployment through BP instead of through SCCM. Then you wouldn’t have the issue of the command not executing at the desired time. A BP deployment would execute at the time you choose to execute it.

-Doug

[doug]

Hi Kevin – In BatchPatch under ‘Tools > SCCM client triggers’ all of the WMIC commands are hardcoded. You can see the complete list here: Triggering ConfigMgr (SCCM) Client Actions Remotely

They’re WMIC commands just like the ones that you are already executing, so I wouldn’t expect them to produce a different result than what you’re currently seeing unless you use a different trigger (there are a total of 49, if I’m remembering correctly). The only thing I would note is that according to any documentation I have seen, the two commands that you are executing are:

{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001} Hardware Inventory

{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000121} Application manager policy action

not:

Machine Policy Retrieval Cycle

Application Deployment Evaluation Cycle

I don’t know if this means that you are really wanting to execute different commands, or if you are executing the correct commands, but in either case I don’t think you’re dealing with a BatchPatch problem, as it’s essentially just the messenger delivering the command. The command is clearly being executed. We know this not only because of the ‘SUCCESS’ response but because when the user logs on the deployment starts. So I think the real question is why does this SCCM trigger not do anything until the user logs on. I don’t know if this is something that could be answered by a SCCM guru somewhere or if there is a different client trigger that would do what you need/want. However, from the BatchPatch angle I don’t think there is anything else we can do.

[doug]

It’s much more complicated than just issuing a command.

[doug]

When a deployment is stuck ‘executing’ it generally means that you did not use the correct silent/quiet parameter. The problem and resolution is explained here: Understanding and Discovering the Silent Parameters Required to Remotely Deploy Software with BatchPatch

[doug]

Thank you!

[doug]

‘The network path was not found’ could mean that you have a DNS issue. I would suggest trying the IP address or the FQDN in the ‘Host’ field in BatchPatch to see if that makes a difference.

[doug]

Thanks for your input, Patrick. I’d be curious to understand more detail, if you don’t mind sharing. Specifically what I’d like to understand is why automating the report is helpful/important vs running it manually when it’s needed. So like if I know that I need to produce a report for an upcoming audit, I can fire up BP and run the report for all computers within just a minute or two. What value is there to having the report run at a scheduled time? Your thoughts and feedback are appreciated!

Thanks,

Doug

[doug]

Glad you got it figured out! Also happy to hear that you think the app is great!

Thanks,

Doug

[doug]

It’s going to depend on the motherboard vendor and how their BIOS updater works. If the BIOS updater is an executable that can be run from inside Windows (as opposed to having to boot the computer outside of Windows), and if it has the ability to be run from the command line without any user input (this is typically called a silent or quiet installation), then BP should be able to deploy it.

understanding-and-discovering-the-silent-parameters-required-to-remotely-deploy-software-with-batchpatch

software-deployment

[Author]

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