[doug]

Strange. BatchPatch retrieves the LastBootUpTime and LocalDateTime properties from Win32_OperatingSystem to calculate the uptime. Somehow the machine was in a state where Win32_OperatingSystem wasn’t reporting the correct values, but I have no idea why/how. I’ve never seen that happen before. Glad to hear that rebooting fixed it.

-Doug

[doug]

Hi Stuart – It sounds like you’ve got everything configured the way that it needs to be. If the firewall is disabled on the destination computer and the RPC service is started, then there is no (logical) reason for you to receive “RPC server is unavailable.” So, you may be correct that there is a timeout issue. Or perhaps there is some type of other issue such as the one described here: https://support.microsoft.com/kb/935677

I wish I had another suggestion, but unfortunately it really does sound like you have everything configured properly, so I’m not sure what else to make of it. You might consider checking in the target computer’s event log to see if there are any indications of what might be happening or if a connection is ever being attempted. Another thing you could try is to run a packet capture utility like Wireshark on the target system to see if you see the connection attempt.

-Doug

[doug]

The way this will be addressed in the next build is through the Deployment action. You will be able to choose “Actions > Deployment” to deploy a script just like you can already do, but there will be an additional checkbox to “retrieve logged output.” When that box is checked, not only will BatchPatch copy the script from wherever it’s located to the target computer for execution, but upon completion the output of the script will be returned back to BatchPatch for viewing.

-Doug

[doug]

Note – PsExec v2.1+ now uses an encrypted channel for communication between the source and destination computers. Passwords are NO LONGER sent in clear text, which is very cool. This means that using alternate credentials in BatchPatch is no less secure than using integrated security.

-Doug

[doug]

Thanks for letting us know about this. We’ll see what we can do to address it in the next build.

-Doug

[doug]

Cory determined that the issue appears to be resolved after manually the running Windows Update GUI on the problematic machines, installing the updates, and rebooting. After that, BatchPatch once again worked normally.

At this time, it’s not clear exactly what the cause of the problem was/is, but I will update this thread if/when there is more to report.

-Doug

[doug]

Cory – I’m going to email you so that we can iterate more easily. Once we’ve gotten to the bottom of the problem I will post an update here in the forum.

-Doug

[doug]

Cory – When you say “no longer wants to check for updates” what do you mean? Could you please provide details?

Is there an error? If yes, what is the exact error text?

Additionally, do you see a BatchPatchError.log file on the target machine in the remote working directory? (this directory defaults to C:Program FilesBatchPatch, if you haven’t modified it)

What happens if you run the Windows Update GUI (from control panel) manually on one of the problematic machines? Does this work as expected?

The more information you can provide, the more likely I’ll be able to help you. At the moment, however, I simply don’t have enough information to go on. There is no reason that I am aware of why things would all of a sudden stop working on your 2003 machines. Nothing changed in the BatchPatch code that would prevent it from working, so I suspect there is something that changed in your environment.

What version of BatchPatch are you using? (Help > About)

Are you using WSUS?

Thanks,

Doug

[doug]

This is odd/unexpected. My guess is that the termination itself might not have completed and that BatchPatchRemoteAgent.exe is actually still running on the target. The reason I say this is because I can’t think of another reason why there would be an access problem all of a sudden. It seems like the Remote Agent is still sitting there and Windows has it open/running, so it can’t be overwritten. This is similar to the behavior that I would expect if you tried to delete an open Word document, for example. I would start by rebooting the target machine and see if that does the trick. Let me know how it goes.

I know you said other actions appear to work, but if that doesn’t fix it, could you please test “Services > List all services” and let me know if that also doesn’t work, and if so what is the error message?

Thanks,

Doug

[doug]

Hi Stephen – This will be fixed in the next release.

Thanks,

Doug

[doug]

nolant – Yes, you can simply disable a row (or rows) that you don’t want to execute. Actions (or right-click) > Disable/enable row(s). After you’ve disabled the rows, wait X seconds, where X is the number of seconds you’ve set the Row Execution Interval to be, and all will be skipped. When the execution thread reaches a disabled row, it immediately moves to the next row (instead of waiting for the Row Execution Interval time to pass), so if row 1 is executing and you disable rows 2-10, once you wait the 30 seconds (or whatever the REI is), all disabled rows will be looked at and skipped immediately.

-Doug

[doug]

Vince – We’re working on improving error codes, and we generally try to put descriptive text next to errors whenever possible. In this case, the issue is just that you need quotes around you query, so exit code 1 is signifying Invalid Syntax:

So, for this to work for you now, try: “HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftInternet ExplorerSetup”

We will get this fixed in the next build so that quotes won’t be necessary. This was an oversight in the code.

Thanks for making us aware.

-Doug

[doug]

Tony – Great news is that the latest version of PsExec (v2.1 published in March 2014) actually sends all data over the network via an encrypted channel, so this is no longer an issue!

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb897553.aspx

-Doug

[doug]

Thanks for the feedback and suggestions. At the moment we don’t anticipate any integration with Royal TS.

-Doug

[doug]

Excellent. Glad you got it working. Thanks for letting me know.

-Doug

[doug]

vinceco – I’m sorry that you’re having problems with importing old .bps files. There were some changes made to the 2014.5.2.9.48 version that could have caused this. In any case, if you simply create a brand new .bps file from scratch with this new version of BatchPatch, those problems should disappear.

As for ways that you can share lists of computers, there are a couple:

1. You can use .bpt files instead of .bps files. With the new BatchPatch Template (.bpt) format, you can create a single .bpt file and then load it multiple times to create multiple identical tabs in an instance of BatchPatch. BatchPatch won’t let you save over a template file, so when you click the save button you’ll be prompted to save a new .bps file for the grid. You can create your own .bpt files by simply renaming existing .bps files, or you can use the File > Generate template file (.bpt) menu option to create a .bpt file from a BatchPatch grid.

2. You can use simple .txt files. If you drag and drop a .txt file onto BatchPatch, it will load those hosts into a BatchPatch grid.

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions or problems.

Thanks,

Doug

[doug]

Perhaps you could explain to me why you believe that you need to maintain multiple copies of .bps files? I don’t think I understand exactly how you are using or how you want to use BatchPatch. Using the same Word document example, I would ask you why would more than one person edit a document at the same time? That wouldn’t make sense, right? Only one person would edit a document at one time. And so for BatchPatch, could you please explain how or why you would need to have multiple people using the same .bps file at the same time? Maybe if you could give me a better sense of how you envision using the software, I can better understand how to assist.

Thanks,

Doug

[doug]

“RPC unavailable” is almost definitely due to a firewall problem or some kind of similar access issue. Many VPN clients have firewall software built-in, which could cause this. But it could also be caused by your VPN infrastructure. In either case, the issue is that BatchPatch cannot communicate with the RPC server on the target host because it appears to not be available. Since you’ve already established that things work normally within your network, you know that the RPC server on the target is enabled. The issue is only when you’re trying to work across the VPN. That said, you need to examine your VPN setup and figure out how to allow RPC communication (and full PC to PC communication) across the VPN.

-Doug

[doug]

Hi David – I have emailed you directly to troubleshoot.

Thanks,

Doug

[doug]

Just as two or more people cannot edit a Word document at the same time from different computers, two or more people should not try to simultaneously use the same .bps files. You can use .bpt files, which are BatchPatch Template files to allow multiple users to load the same content into their own BatchPatch instances. But if/when they try to save those grids, they will be prompted to save them as new .bps files.

I hope this helps.

-Doug

[doug]

Generally speaking if the computer is removed from the network in the middle of an operation, nothing bad is going to happen. Depending on exactly what it was doing, it might complete the operation or it might not. If there is a particular update that is installing when the computer is disconnected, that update is generally going to complete installing. The rest of the updates queued to install may or may not install, depending. If a user were to manually power down his machine by holding in the power button in the middle of an installation, that would NOT be good. However, if a user simply disconnected from the network everything is generally going to be fine. You might have to finish the download/installation at a later date, or you may not have to.

-Doug

[doug]

These features have been added in the 2014.5.2 build.

-Doug

[doug]

OK – I see now that you’re saying that BatchPatch is giving you “error -2” when you try to substitute paexec for psexec. I had thought that you meant that when you ran paexec at the cmd prompt that it would give error -2.

I just installed a fresh 2012 (non-R2) domain controller (I just built it from scratch with nothing but AD and DNS), and I am able to use it as a BatchPatch target without any problems. It works flawlessly. I’ll test a 2012 R2 domain controller next to see what happens, but I suspect it will behave properly just as as all of my other 2012 R2 (non-dc) tests have. I’ll let you know. I still believe that the issue you are experiencing is unique to your particular domain controller.

I’m going to email you directly regarding the error -2 because that is a separate issue that has to do with the BatchPatch configuration for paexec.

-Doug

[doug]

It’s probably the same error just being reported slightly differently, especially if you notice that the paexec service doesn’t get removed properly either. I wonder if there is some sort of 2012 DC incompatibility with these apps. While I’ve certainly tested all Windows OSes, I have not specifically tested a 2012 DC, so I’ll see if I can reproduce on a fresh test 2012 DC.

-Doug

[doug]

I thought you were only seeing it on your domain controller and not on any other computers? I have so far not been able to reproduce it. What installation media are you using? Is this the English version of Windows? Are you only seeing it on Windows 2012 (non R2) ? What roles are you installing?

One thing you might try as a test is download the program called “paexec” which is an alternative to PsExec and is also free. Replace psexec with paexec (and rename paexec to psexec) and see if it has the same problem.

-Doug

[doug]

Hi Michael – all I meant when I said I’m not sure that it’s a “bug” per se is that it clearly only happens on a very limited number of computers. A “bug” implies that there is a problem with the code that prevents it from working properly, and that the code could somehow be “fixed” to prevent the problem. However, I tend to think that since it happens so rarely in the world of computers, that it might not be a problem with the code, but rather there might be something with the particular computer that causes the issue. This is just speculation on my part since of course I’ve never seen the code for PsExec.

-Doug

[doug]

No worries. Unfortunately there is only one output column. Your best bet is to probably create two rows per server. Sorry about that.

-Doug

[doug]

Do you have a SQL admin team who has access to all the SQL servers? A good db administrator should be able to collect all his/her SQL instance versions, using the “select @@version” in under 5 minutes. S/he wouldn’t even need to write a script because SQL management studio allows you to query multiple SQL servers at one time with just a single query. So maybe you can just ask the SQL admin team to give you this info? Would save you some time so that you don’t have to script it out. Just a thought.

Good luck!

-Doug

[doug]

Jeremy – Domain admin permissions is not sufficient to have permissions to the SQL server. I think in SQL 2000/2005 it *was* sufficient but my recollection is that starting with SQL 2008 things changed and unless the domain admins group has been explicitly added to the SQL server logins, you wouldn’t automatically have permissions. That said, it sounds like the first step will be to get yourself setup with an account that has permission to the SQL servers. Once you have that, getting the version information shouldn’t be a problem. I would then just use SQLCMD at the command line (not in BatchPatch) to test that the permissions are working properly, and then once you have it working with 1 server you can duplicate across all the servers and use BatchPatch to grab the version info. Am I missing something? Do you have a separate team who manages your SQL machines? Maybe you’ll need to work with them to give you the access you need?

I guess if you simply are not able to get access to the SQL servers, then your boss shouldn’t be tasking you with getting a list of SQL versions, no? 🙂 One other option, I suppose, would be to write a script to get the file properties on the sql exe file as described here, which wouldn’t require access to the SQL servers and would only require access to Windows: http://www.mssqltips.com/sqlservertip/1140/how-to-tell-what-sql-server-version-you-are-running/

-Doug

[doug]

Glad to be able to help, Jeremy. Let me know how it works out for you.

-Doug

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