The customer is trying to create a new "Software Update Policy" task to distribute some patch packages.
When the "Creating Software Update Policy" window appears, the status stays in "Task is being initialized..." indefinitely.
The NS logs just show log entries like these ones:
Created a task 'SLO test policy DROPBOX-211221'.
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Date: 12/28/2021 7:24:45 AM, Tick Count: 15071062 (04:11:11.0620000), Size: 349 B
Process: w3wp (4808), Thread ID: 328, Module: Altiris.PatchManagementCore.dll
Priority: 4, Source: Altiris.PatchManagementCore.Tasks.Server.SoftwareUpdateDistributionTask.CreateInstance
Starting task instance 'SLO test policy DROPBOX-211221' (ecea1bbb-98fb-4f70-9037-6ff838847bd9) from 'Distribute Software Updates' (99b6a96a-f0a2-40fa-88bb-9ddfa97b4ddf, 9480a600-4610-4997-a25d-147f5c606b7b)
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Date: 12/28/2021 7:24:45 AM, Tick Count: 15071218 (04:11:11.2180000), Size: 431 B
Process: AtrsHost (5520), Thread ID: 176, Module: AtrsHost.exe
Priority: 4, Source: ServerTaskExecutionThread
And then just loops on messages like these ones:
Entry 1:
Resuming task instance 'SLO test policy DROPBOX-211221' (ecea1bbb-98fb-4f70-9037-6ff838847bd9), 12/28/2021 8:48:34 AM
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Date: 12/28/2021 8:54:30 AM, Tick Count: 1926234 (00:32:06.2340000), Size: 341 B
Process: AtrsHost (9416), Thread ID: 116, Module: AtrsHost.exe
Priority: 4, Source: ServerTaskExecutionThread
Entry 2:
Task is being initialized...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 12/28/2021 8:54:30 AM, Tick Count: 1926234 (00:32:06.2340000), Size: 270 B
Process: AtrsHost (9416), Thread ID: 116, Module: AtrsHost.exe
Priority: 4, Source: PMC:SoftwareUpdateDistributionTask.Progress
Entry 3:
Another instance is running, task put to sleep for: 00:00:20
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 12/28/2021 8:54:30 AM, Tick Count: 1926250 (00:32:06.2500000), Size: 302 B
Process: AtrsHost (9416), Thread ID: 116, Module: AtrsHost.exe
Priority: 4, Source: PMC:SoftwareUpdateDistributionTask.Progress
ITMS 8.5, 8.6, 8.7
Possible SQL Server performance issues or hung Altiris Services
There have been issues in the past where other Software Update Policy Tasks are just hung (due to issues with the SQL Server or just services not responding in a timely fashion).
Try the following: