[May 13 Update] Thank you all for your patience. A hotfix to address this issue is now available for download here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2509007
-- Brian Huneycutt
[Today's post is from Brian Huneycutt]
The Configuration Manager Sustained Engineering and Customer Support and Services teams are investigating an issue where the Install Software Updates action will hang indefinitely on Windows 7 clients.
When this happens, the task sequence Installation Progress dialog displays "Downloading 1 of x Updates (0% complete) ..." with no change in the progress bar, as shown in the following picture.
If you look at the smsts.log file during this time, you'll see the following entries and the last entry repeats:
//Installing all updates targetted for this computerInstallation of updates startedWaiting for installation job to completeWaiting for job status notification ...Waiting for job status notification ...Waiting for job status notification ...//
In addition, the other log files that are associated with the Install Software Updates task (CAS.log, UpdatesDeployment.log, UpdatesHandler.log, UpdatesStore.log) do not update during this time.
Note: The repeated "Waiting for job status notification" message can appear under normal circumstances when updates are being installed. However, if you see the repeated entry and the progress bar hangs at "Downloading 1 of x Updates" and the other components are no longer logging, it is likely that you're experiencing this issue under investigation.
In some scenarios, this issue can occur when a large number of software updates (more than 60) are applied via the Install Software Updates task for Windows 7, Office 2007, or Office 2010. A possible solution here is to use the Updates folder in the Office installation folder to reduce the number of updates to be installed during the Install Software Updates task. For additional information about how to use the Updates folder, see the following:
Office 2010http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc178995.aspx#BKMK_UpdatesFolder
Office 2007http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc178995(office.12).aspx#BKMK_UpdatesFolder
Some customers have reported that installing the latest Intel Mass Storage drivers as part of their deployment can also trigger this problem. If you experience this, a solution here is to remove the drivers from their deployment packages because base functionality is provided with the default Windows 7 drivers.
These are not necessarily the only triggers for this particular issue, but the two that have been observed by several customers. This blog entry will be updated as soon as we have more information.
Thank you for your patience as we work to find the best resolution for all our customers.
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties and confers no rights.
[Today's post is from the Configuration Manager Writing Team]
The Configuration Manager documentation library (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb680651.aspx) has been updated on the Web with updates for January. Topics that were updated have Updated: January 1, 2011 at the top of the topic.
You will see updates to the supported configuration information, including a statement to clarify Configuration Manager support for products that are beyond their current support lifecycle. We also incorporated some customer feedback for the operating system deployment documentation.
Although we can't promise to make the docs perfect for everybody, we are committed to continual improvement. So, keep that feedback coming, and feel free to contact us about anything related to the documentation by using our usual address of SMSDocs@Microsoft.com.
What's New in the Configuration Manager Documentation Library for January 2011
The following information lists the topics that contain significant changes since the October 2010 update.
Configuration Manager 2007 Supported Configurations- Updated to correct a conflicting statement about SQL Server upgrades.
Configuration Manager 2007 SP1 Supported Configurations and Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 Supported Configurations- Updated to add support statements for SQL Server 2008 SP2, and support for Windows Storage Server R2.
Configuration Manager 2007 R3 Supported Configurations- Updated to correct an incorrect statement that SQL Server 2008 requires an update to support the reporting services point for Configuration Manager 2007 R3.
Using a Remote SQL Server to Host the Site Database- Updated to clarity that a SQL Server that hosts the site database must be in the same domain as the site server.
How to Configure an SPN for SQL Server Site Database Servers - Updated to add information about how to configure the SPN for a clustered SQL Server and how to verify the SPN by using the SetSPN command.
Troubleshooting Configuration Manager Setup- Updated to add a new error message that identifies when Setup fails when it installs the SMS Provider because of a problem with the SPN for the SQL Server.
Administrator Workflow: Create and Distribute Image for Operating System Deployment- Updated to clarify how to manually create a .wim image.
How to Capture an Image from a Reference Computer by Using Capture Media- Updated to specify that the .iso image must be burned to CD or DVD media by using a separate application.
How to Add Boot Images to Configuration Manager- Updated to clarify how to add custom boot images for 32-bit and 64-bit computers.
Capture Windows Settings Task Sequence Action Variables- Updated to correct the definition of the OSDTimeZone task sequence variable.
How to Add a New Computer to the Configuration Manager Database- Updated to clarify that you can import only one MAC address per computer into the database.
Task Sequence Media Wizard - Select Media Type Page- Updated to clarify that only USB flash drives are supported when you select the media type.
How to Advertise Task Sequences- Updated to clarify that task sequences can only be advertised to computers, and not to users.
Log Files for Operating System Deployment- Updated to correct the location of the CreateTSMedia.log log file.
-- The Configuration Manager Writing Team
[Martin Li has provided today's post]
The task sequence (TS) feature was introduced in Configuration Manger 2007 to enable Operating System deployment scenarios. As a good "side effect", it also provides a convenient mechanism for administrators to perform a series of arbitrary tasks on selected client computers, with reporting and logging support. Therefore, many administrators utilize TS to deploy massive applications, software updates, and other custom tasks that fulfill their specific business requirements.
When you work with a very large task sequence using the Admin Console TS editor, there might be high memory pressure on the WMI instance hosting the SMS provider. Depending on the size and complexity of the TS, you might encounter the following error while saving a task sequence:
You might also find the error 0x80041006 in theTaskSequenceProvider.log, which means: WBEM_E_OUT_OF_MEMORY.
The TS editor does not save the task sequence to the site database directly; instead, it initiates a WMI call to the SMS Provider, which will then write the data to the site database. For a very large and complex task sequence, the WMI call can cause the WMI process hosting the TaskSequenceProvider to exceed its memory quota. When this occurs, the out-of-memory error is returned to the TS editor which displays the above dialog.
One way to prevent this issue is to adjust the memory quota of the WMI Provider, namely the MemoryPerHost and MemoryAllHosts properties of the __ProviderHostQuotaConfiguration configuration class under the root namespace.
More information can be found in this blog article by Mark Ghazai on the definitions of these quotas and how to adjust them using wbemtest.exe.
On the Windows Server 2008 R2 site server in our lab, the default MemoryPerHost value is 536870912 (512MB) and MemoryAllHosts is 1073741824 (1GB). The default values might be different on your SMS Provider server.
How much you should increase the quota depends on your specific situation. For example, take into consideration the TS size and complexity, your existing WMI memory load excluding the SMS Provider, and the available physical memory on your server. As memory resources are limited on a given server system, the quota cannot be set infinitely high. You should only increase the quota when necessary.
You can use the Task Manager or Performance Monitor (perfmon) to measure the memory usage (private bytes) of WMI processes. There are usually multiple WMI provider host processes (WmiPrvSE.exe) running on each system. You can find out which WMI process hosts the TaskSequenceProvider by running "listdlls.exe -d TaskSequenceProvider.dll".
Besides adjusting the WMI provider quota, also consider reducing the size of the task sequence. There is a 4-Megabyte (MB) limit on the task sequence file size, documented in http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb932192.aspx.
--Martin Li
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
[Today's post is provided by Chaohao Xu.]
The Transfer Site Settings Wizard in Configuration Manager 2007 R3 provides two new options that are shown in the following picture: Power Management Agent and Enable Active Directory Delta Discovery and Delta Discovery Interval. To transfer these settings from one site to another, the source and destination sites must both be running Configuration Manager 2007 R3.
The Power Management Agent setting allows you to transfer the configuration of the power management agent and supports two settings; enabled or disabled.
The Enable Active Directory Delta Discovery and Delta Discovery Interval setting deserves a little more attention and is discussed below.
Enable Active Directory Delta Discovery and Delta Discovery Interval
This option applies to the following types of discovery methods:
It is a best practice to select Polling schedule when you select Enable Active Directory Delta Discovery and Delta Discovery Interval. This ensures that all the settings related to the discovery schedule and delta discovery transfer together. This is important because with Configuration Manager 2007 R3, delta discovery can change how schedules are evaluated. Unless you transfer all the settings, it is possible the resulting schedule will not be as you expect.
When delta discovery is enabled on Configuration Manager 2007 R3, as shown in the following picture, the properties used by the discovery component are set as follows:
With the configurations shown in the example, the Startup Schedule is set to the delta discovery interval of five minutes and the Full Sync Schedule is set to the polling schedule, which is daily at 12:00 am. This configuration results in the discovery method initiating a full discovery cycle at midnight every day, and running a delta discovery cycle every five minutes.
When you disable delta discovery the schedule properties for the discovery component revert to pre-R3 behavior. The Startup Schedule is set to be the polling schedule, there is no delta discovery process, and the Full Sync Schedule setting is ignored. This is shown in the following table. What this means is the discovery method will run on the defined polling schedule. Because delta discovery (incremental sync) is not enabled, there are no supplemental discovery actions.
Transferring Settings between Sites
The Transfer Site Settings Wizard needs to handle these property changes, which result in transferring different properties based on the whether delta discovery is enabled or disabled on the source and destination site. The following tables illustrate the outcome for different scenarios, which apply to both online transfers and offline transfers (exporting settings to an XML file).
Conclusion
When the destination site is running Configuration Manager 2007 R3, as a best practice, select the option Polling schedule when you select the Enable Active Directory Delta Discovery and Delta Discovery Interval option in the Transfer Site Settings Wizard. For all other scenarios, reference the tables above to confirm the outcome of your transferred settings.
--Chaohao Xu
[Today's post is provided by Yvette O'Meally]
On April 12th, 2011 SMS 2.0 will reach the end of its extended support lifecycle. At that time, the Security Update Inventory Tool (SUIT) or Extended Security Update Inventory Tool (ESUIT) for SMS 2.0 and SMS 2003 will be retired and will no longer be available for download. Updated catalogs will not be provided after that date.
You are encouraged to begin planning your upgrade to Configuration Manager 2007 to deploy Software Updates. For customers remaining on SMS 2003 SP3 the Inventory Tool for Microsoft Updates (ITMU) is also an option.
Why Upgrade?
The SMS 2.0 SUS Feature Pack and the SMS 2003 Scan Tools ship the Office Update Inventory Tool (OUIT) to scan for Office products. The Office Detection Tool, the scan engine and catalog for OUIT, was deprecated on July 2009. Without upgrading you cannot scan for Security Updates on Microsoft Office products.
In addition, the Security Update Inventory Tool (SUIT) that is based on the MBSA 1.2 scan engine and catalog, does not support Internet Explorer 7 or later. The Extended Security Update Inventory Tool (ESUIT) is also affected. These tools and their limited scope of application can cause a risk to an organization if they are utilized as a scanning and update validation resource. Microsoft recommends a migration to more recent tools for your environment such as System Center Configuration Manager 2007 for Software Updates or the ITMU for SMS 2003 customers. Note that SMS 2003 mainstream support ended in January 2010, and SMS 2003 is currently in extended support.
In summary, the SMS 2003 Scan Tools and the SMS 2.0 SUS Feature Pack do not support the following:
Will You Lose any Scan Capabilities Upgrading to ITMU or Configuration Manager?
The following products will not be supported using the latest software update tools because they are not published into Microsoft Update:
Administrators deploying security updates to these products can continue to use the legacy catalogs until April 12th, 2011, and then will need to deploy the hotfixes using Software Distribution. Administrators should still upgrade to ITMU for deploying security updates to all other products.
Administrators who are considering upgrading to Configuration Manager 2007 should note that the legacy scan tools are not supported. We recommend you use Software Distribution for the products above after upgrading.
How Can I Deploy Security Updates using Software Distribution?
Guidance can be found at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc917507.aspx. This was written for SMS 2003 but the same steps will work for Configuration Manager 2007.
-- Yvette O'Meally