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Another user who was experiencing this error determined that the source of the problem was his WSUS server:
Another user who was experiencing this error determined that the source of the problem was his WSUS server:
It’s probably not actually “stuck.” You can see on the remote host if the “BatchPatchRemoteAgent.exe” is still listed in the running processes. If yes, then it’s still running. The Windows Update Agent has gotten slower and slower over time at searching for updates, in particular when run on machines with slow processors. Microsoft has released a number of updates to the Windows Update Agent over the past year, all with the intention of of improving performance in those cases, but we have found that it has been mostly unsuccessful. I have one machine that took 6 minutes to scan this month, and a second machine that took almost 3 hours. This isn’t a BatchPatch issue per se but rather is an issue with the Windows Update search on the target computer. Even when searching manually using the control panel GUI and not using BatchPatch, the machines that are slow with BatchPatch will also be slow with manual searching.
-Doug
You are correct that it’s “Create/modify list of specific updates for download/installation.”
Please see the following tutorial for an explanation of how to use it.
If you are searching your WSUS, then select “All software” and “All drivers” instead of “Important” and “Recommended.” When you select “Important” and “Recommended” BatchPatch will filter what it sees on your WSUS and show you only a subset of those updates. But for WSUS server usage, just select “All software” and “All drivers” so that BatchPatch displays everything that the WSUS has approved for installation.
-Doug
Oops – Forgot to tell you where the setting is located! 🙂 Go to ‘Tools > Settings > Grid Preferences > Hosts are considered offline after X ping timeouts’
-Doug
Hi Franklin –
Is the target computer in this case a virtual machine that reboots very quickly? Based on what you have described, it sounds like BatchPatch is not detecting that the computer is ever going offline in the first place, so when it comes back online BatchPatch is still waiting for it to go offline. The only thing that can really cause this behavior to occur is when the reboot completes so quickly that BP isn’t even able to detect the computer was ever offline. We have only ever seen this happen with virtual machines on occasion, since they can sometimes reboot extremely rapidly.
The default behavior has BatchPatch waiting for 3 failed ping attempts before considering a host to have gone offline. If the host reboots before 3 ping failures occur, then BatchPatch will never mark the host as having gone offline, and then it will produce the situation that you are experiencing. For computers that reboot extremely quickly you could set this 2 pings or even 1 ping. However, if it’s set to just 1 ping, then any time there is an intermittent ping timeout with any online computer, BP would think it went offline. You can imagine how this could be a problem since occasionally, depending on network activity or a computer’s activity level, a machine that is online might not respond to every single ping. What we have observed is that in most cases 3 is the best number to use in this settings. We have seen some cases where 2 is needed, particularly with very fast rebooting VMs. We have never observed 1 being needed, so my recommendation to you is to try 2 and see how it goes.
‘Tools > Settings > Grid Preferences > Hosts are considered offline after X ping timeouts’
Unfortunately programmatically determining that a computer has truly gone offline and come back online is actually not quite as simple as it seems like it might be. BatchPatch uses a combination of ping attempts and WMI connection attempts to strike the most reasonable balance for finding the truth in this scenario.
I hope this helps.
-Doug
Giles – I’m not sure I fully understand what you mean about hiding updates in a preference rather than having to apply hide to rows. When you hide an update on a target computer using BatchPatch, BatchPatch instructs that target computer to hide the update so that Windows Update on that computer no longer includes that update in the list of updates that it presents for download/installation. Once that operation has been executed and an update has been hidden, it’s actually hidden on the target computer. It’s not hidden in BatchPatch, if you know what I mean. So for example, if you hide the update and then go to the computer and look at the Windows Update control panel GUI, the update will no longer appear there either. And so for this reason, it is done on a per-row/per-host basis. The instruction only needs to be executed one time, and then once that update has been hidden, it will remain hidden until/unless you choose to unhide it. So, it’s not something that you would hide via a BatchPatch setting/preference because it’s not a setting per se. It is an instruction/action that must be executed on the target computer. More on hiding updates: Hiding Windows Updates Remotely
Now, while hiding updates is one way of not ever downloading/installing a particular update or set of updates on target computers, you can also use a filter list to only download/install certain updates. The following link demonstrates how to use both the hide option mentioned above or the filter list option mentioned after that.
Remotely Install Only A Subset Of Available Windows Updates
-Doug
Sascha –
You said: “in our virtual environment it would be great to shutdown the remote machine with installing updates (same as pressing the shutdown button when windows updates are available with the yellow sign).
We did not find a way to initiate this request because shutdown.exe doesn’t install available updates before shutting down.”
To install updates and shutdown a group of computers: Highlight the computers (rows) in BatchPatch and then select ‘Actions > Windows updates > Update + shutdown > Install downloaded updates + shutdown.’
You said: “In BatchPatch there is an option “installing updates and reboot always”. Would it be possible to get information about the “how” on doing this via remote / command line or whatever?”
To install updates and reboot a group of computers: Highlight the computers (rows) in BatchPatch and then select ‘Actions > Windows updates > Install downloaded updates + reboot always.’
For other custom action sequences, please use the job queue: Using the Job Queue in BatchPatch for Multi-step Execution.
On our website there are numerous tutorials available at BatchPatch Tutorials. You can also download the BatchPatch Administrator’s Guide from inside the application under the ‘Help’ menu.
-Doug
Is this problem occurring on just one particular computer or on all computers?
Error 3 translates to:
ERROR_PATH_NOT_FOUND
3 (0x3)
The system cannot find the path specified.
Do you have any sort of AV (Anti-Virus), HIPS (Host Instrusion Protection Software), or other security-related application running on the target system that might be either deleting the BatchPatchRemoteAgent.exe file after BatchPatch copies it there, or might be severing the network connection?
Does PsExec work against this target computer? So from the BP computer open a CMD prompt and type something like:
psexec.exe IPCONFIGDoes it return the IPCONFIG information or does it fail to execute?
-Doug
Awesome! Thanks.
We will consider direct implementation of your request in a future build of BatchPatch. In the meantime to accomplish this you can do the following:
In BatchPatch create a “remote process/command” by selecting ‘Actions > Remote process/command.’ Your command syntax should look like this:
shutdown /r /f /c "Your computer will be restarted in 5 minutes." /t 300I hope this helps.
-Doug
Error 67 is “The network name cannot be found.” It’s peculiar that you would see this on just a single 2008 R2 target, but I think it could probably mean a few things. Here are a couple of things to try and places to look:
1. DNS or NetBIOS issue/error. Try the FQDN if you aren’t already using the FQDN. Try the NetBIOS name if you are already using the FQDN. Try the IP address instead of the FQDN or NetBIOS name. See if any of those helps.
2. Make sure that there isn’t some type of anti-virus, host intrusion prevention, or other host security software severing the connection.
-Doug
Mattia – There are multiple ways that you can do this.
First, your method of executing “local command 1” is fine. Why don’t you simply execute the local command 1 on just a single row instead of on all rows? That way it will only be executed one time.
Another option is to create a separate, single row just for the local command.
Lastly, if you want to automate the entire process you can do the entire thing in an automated queue if you use the Using the Advanced Multi-Row Queue Sequence
I hope this helps.
-Doug
Giles – The psexec.exe only has to be on the computer that you are using to run the BatchPatch.exe. The psexec.exe does *not* need to be put on any of the target computers being used by students and staff. The location of psexec.exe on your own computer running BatchPatch has nothing to do with you preventing students and staff from accessing the BatchPatch folder on their computers.
I hope this helps.
-Doug
I would suggest in BatchPatch going to ‘Actions > Send message to logged-on users.’ With this feature you can simply tell users something like “Please reboot your computer now or it will be rebooted in 5 minutes” or just “Your computer will be rebooted in 5 minutes. Please save all work.” And then go ahead either start pinging the computer or wait 5 minutes and use the ‘Get last boot time’ option in BP to see if the user performed the reboot. If not, then go ahead and reboot it. If they are already ignoring the reboot prompt from Windows Update, then sending them a message with a ‘Reboot Now’ option doesn’t seem like it would be any different.
-Doug
Thanks, Hugo. Yes, we can add the “Get pending reboot status + reboot if required” to the task scheduler. In the meantime as a workaround, you can create a job queue with that in it, and then add the job queue to the scheduler.
With regard to the SCCM question, unfortunately BatchPatch is not able to “see” the updates that are available in the SCCM client. We might do some sort of integration in the future, but I can’t say for sure.
-Doug
It keeps disappearing because it is only temporarily deployed by BatchPatch and then removed when BatchPatch is done working.
-Doug
T – Could you please describe the *exact* steps you are taking to perform this deployment? (a screenshot of the ‘Deployment’ window would help too)
When I deploy Adobe Flash using the BatchPatch ‘Deploy’ feature, I cannot reproduce your issue. I follow the instructions here (Using BatchPatch to Deploy Adobe Flash to Numerous Computers), and it installs successfully to a computer that is not on a domain.
If you can tell me the exact steps you are taking, then I will attempt to reproduce, so that I can see what the issue is.
Thanks,
Doug
Good luck. Let me know how it goes.
-Doug
Thank Steve! I’m glad to hear you’re loving BP!. Thanks also for the Slack suggestion. We’ll look into it.
-Doug
When you run “sc query psexesvc” then if it exists you should not get “OpenService FAILED 1060” because that means that the specified service does not exist as an installed service. You would normally only receive 1060 after the service is removed (it removes itself when it is done). That said, it’s really unclear what is happening on your machine. What you are describing doesn’t really make much sense to me. Do you have some type of Anti-Virus or other security related software such as Host Intrusion Prevention Software or similar that is placing a lock on the file? I’m not sure what else could be happening. Did you try the free paexec instead of psexec? I would give that free paexec a shot (rename it to psexec and delete all copies of psexec) to see how it goes. Maybe it will give you better/different results. Maybe not.
If you aren’t able to delete the psexesvc or stop/delete the service, then it sounds like maybe the psexesvc.exe process is still running! Check that first. If that process is still running/hung, then there is your problem.
-Doug
Is there a network firewall in between the machines and your BatchPatch machine? Is there a third-party (non-Windows) firewall installed? Is there a third-party HIPS or similar security software installed? Could be any one of those things. Doesn’t have to be just the Windows Firewall.
Also, if you run the batchpatch.exe (as administrator) directly on one of the problematic computers and then just enter that same computer into the grid to eliminate any network communications, you can see what happens. If you don’t get the WMI error when running locally on self, then the problem is surely network/firewall related.
Please review: Troubleshooting Common Errors in BatchPatch
“RPC server is unavailable” is typically caused by one of the two following things:
1. RPC (remote procedure call) service is not running on the target computer. Make sure the service is started and set to ‘Automatic.’
2. Windows firewall, a third-party software firewall, or a network firewall is preventing RPC communication to the target host. Either disable the firewall altogether or make sure it is set to allow RPC communications to pass through. For instructions on configuring Windows firewall to work with BatchPatch, see this page: Using BatchPatch With Windows Firewall
“Call was canceled by the message filter” is also likely caused by a firewall preventing full/proper RPC communication.
“Not found” probably means WMI is broken on that computer or somehow corrupt. I used to see this error occasionally on Win 2003 machines. My recollection is there was some type of WMI memory issue that would cause it to occur sometimes when a Win 2003 machine was online for a while without being rebooted. Hence, this type of error is frequently fixed by a reboot. If a reboot doesn’t fix it then there’s a good chance you would need to repair/rebuild WMI on that computer.
Thanks for confirming the behavior of MSE updates. Definitely strange. Anyway, the only way you would be able to push the AV def using the ‘Deploy’ feature would be to somehow obtain that update in msi, msu, msp, exe format etc. Not sure if these are available directly from Microsoft’s website or not, and I’m also not sure what format the updates come from Windows Update, but you could take a look by using ‘Actions > Windows Update > Retrieve consolidated URL list’ against a computer that has the particular update waiting/available for installation. From there you can download the actual file that Windows Update uses to perform the update.
-Doug
Yes, BatchPatch can/will install optional updates. See Tools > Settings > Windows Updates for the various filtering options.
As for MS Essentials Virus Def updates, Essentials installs its own updates, but it appears to somehow use the Windows Update agent to do this. If you check the BatchPatch.log (in C:Program FilesBatchPatch) on the target computer you’ll be able to see if the virus def is actually getting installed by BP. I know for sure that Defender’s updates will be installed by BP, but MS Essentials might be doing something a bit differently. I vaguely recall seeing similar behavior to what you’re describing where MS Essentials pretty much always has an update that’s waiting, but only it can install it for itself. I’m not 100% sure of this behavior, but similarly I don’t think the Windows Update GUI will ever show the MS Essentials update as available to install because Essentials has to install it itself.
-Doug
Excellent! Thanks for confirming.
Take care,
Doug