How to force an update of the "Reboot Pending" status in Patch Management Solution

Products

• Patch Management Solution

Issue/Introduction

In some situations a computer may require a reboot to complete the patch process.  When this occurs, the endpoint will send a status NSE up to the Symantec Management Platform server indicating a reboot is required.  There are times when this NSE file may end up not getting sent, or is failed to process.

Environment

Patch Management Solution

Resolution

The Data class 320A659F-9EE0-4D8C-B869-3B0771708A0C (Inv_Software_Update_Distribution_Status) is used to track the update status.
Status of "65536" means that a restart is pending.

In some cases the reporting NSE maybe lost or fails to process.
The update distribution status can be forced by running a script task to execute "AexPatchUtil.exe /i /q" on the client to force an update of the dataclass.
And thus correct and latest information for compliance reports.

Default location: C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Agents\PatchMgmtAgent\AexPatchUtil.exe /i /q

Example NSE that empties the list of updates requiring a reboot:
<inventory>
        <dataClass guid="{320A659F-9EE0-4D8C-B869-3B0771708A0C}">
            <data>
                <resource partialUpdate="false"/>
            </data>
        </dataClass>
    </inventory>

Example NSE with an update that is pending a reboot:

<inventory>
        <dataClass guid="{320A659F-9EE0-4D8C-B869-3B0771708A0C}">
            <data>
                <resource partialUpdate="false"/>
                <row c1="{3194A9F9-C5ED-4406-A115-2791E647D099}" c2="65536" hash="5XK6XpXluCyLws6FdMNG1A=="/>
                </resource>
            </data>
        </dataClass>
    </inventory>

NOTE: The purpose if for troubleshooting or to correct a symptom quickly.  In general the process to update the Software Update Distribution Status is considered reliable.