Patch Management Updates Pending: Machines are in a State Ignoring Update Schedule and are not Applying Software Updates.

Products

• Patch Management Solution

Issue/Introduction

Machines are not installing Patch Management software updates. Logs show the following messages:

Process: AeXNSAgent.exe (1468)
Thread ID: 680
Module: PatchMgmtAgents.dll
Source: SoftwareUpdateAgent
Description: stateChangeEvent() It is time to apply updates
 
Process: AeXNSAgent.exe (1468)
Thread ID: 680
Module: PatchMgmtAgents.dll
Source: SoftwareUpdateAgent
Description: Ignoring update schedule - updates cannot be applied whilst in this state

NOTE: This text line is not Red (error text) or Blue (warning text), for it is an 'Information' line of text, and therefore will not show as a different color and will not stand out.

Environment

Patch Management Solution for Windows 8.x

Cause

There are multiple reasons that this message can occur:

• The Software Update Agent is not ready.  Inventory is running.
• It is already in the middle of a Software Update Cycle.
• Previous updates required a reboot and that has not yet happened, or a reboot is in progress.
• Packages are not yet downloaded.

Resolution

As there can be multiple causes there are also potentially multiple resolutions:

• The main cause of this is that the computer is pending a reboot.  Reboot the computer.

Note: Restarting the Altiris Services is not enough, the machine must be rebooted:

• Wait for the running Software Update Cycle to finish.
• Verify that packages are downloading and address that if the packages have not yet been downloaded.