Import Patch Data for Windows task is failing when using a Proxy after upgrading to 8.7.2 (or latest Patch Point Fix for 8.6/8.7)

Products

• IT Management Suite
• Client Management Suite

Issue/Introduction

Import Patch Data for Windows (PMImport for Windows) is failing to download from SolutionSam.com after upgrading to 8.7.2. We use a Proxy to get to SolutionSam.com, and those proxy settings are no longer working. Proxy settings worked just fine in 8.7.1 before upgrading.

Error is 403 Forbidden when trying to access the pmimport.cab file on SolutionSam.com:

Environment

8.7.2 and also Point Fixes for these previous versions:

Patch_8_6_POST_RU3_v5.zip
Patch_8_7_POST_RTM_v1.zip
Patch_8_7_1_PF_v1.zip

See the link to the Cumulative Point Fix for more information.

Cause

Changes made in 8.7.2 to the Patch Data import functionality to troubleshoot Red Hat import issues includes emulating a browser.

Resolution

A Point Fix has been created for this issue and is available in KB 366939.  Changes in this Point Fix include being able to remove the browser emulation, and configure as needed.

The Point Fix makes the following changes:

Two new NS.CoreSettings parameters:

• • PatchUserAgent (string, default value is @"Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/124.0.0.0 Safari/537.36). Value of setting will be send as "User-Agent" parameter of header a HTTP request.
  • PatchUserAgentAutoUpdate( boolean, default value is 'true'). Value of 'PatchUserAgent' may be automatically updated if user opens a 'Import Patch Data ..' task UI. Value of the setting will set to value of user's browser. Setting 'PatchUserAgentAutoUpdate' to False may disable this functionality.

Note:
If user does not want to set property for 'UserAgent' of WebRequest to emulate a browser, he may set the empty string, and set PatchUserAgentAutoUpdate to 'False'. If set in this manner, behavior will be identical to 8.7.1.

New Core settings will be created with the following default parameters after pointfix installation:

• PatchUserAgentAutoUpdate  - True
• PatchUserAgent - empty string by default, and will be set a value of UserAgent when user opens or views an Import Patch Data for ... task page in the Console (It is not necessary to make any changes, just View the Import Patch Data... task page)

After viewing the Import Patch Data for Windows task in the Console using Chrome, the values are updated as follows:

The Value for PatchUserAgent (when viewed with Chrome) is: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/124.0.0.0 Safari/537.36

This value can be updated as needed as Web Browser versions increase by simply viewing the Import Patch for .. task page.

If the functionality of 8.7.1 is desired, set PatchUserAgentAutoUpdate to False and set UserAgent to the empty string (Delete the contents of this string).  After setting these custom values, and then Viewing the PMImport for Windows the values remain as set and are NOT updated to the current browser settings: