Errors when running the default Task for Windows System Assessment Scan

Products

• Client Management Suite
• IT Management Suite

Issue/Introduction

There is a task that runs the System Assessment Scan on Windows Computers.  

After enabling the Default Microsoft Update Configuration Policy, the System Assessment Scan on Windows Computers is now failing to run on some computers.  The Policy for Windows System Assessment Scan (WSAS) runs every 4 hours on all computers, and does not have any issues.

Environment

ITMS 8.x with Default Microsoft Update Configuration Policy enabled

Cause

The Microsoft Data part of Patch Management runs Windows Update commands.  We found that the systems that were failing to run the Task were not able to run Windows Update successfully for one reason or another.  The Firewall may have ports closed which allow access to Microsoft servers, for instance.

Resolution

We can update the Task to run the same command as the WSAS Policy.  Open up the Script that runs the "Run System Assessment Scan on Windows Computers"

Near the end of the script is this line: 

     CALL "%pInstallDir%\Agents\PatchMgmtAgent\AeXPatchUtil.exe" /i /q

Change that to: 

     CALL "%pInstallDir%\Agents\PatchMgmtAgent\AeXPatchUtil.exe" /i Shavlik /q

That change will bypass the agent from running the Microsoft Data / Windows Update commands, and should be successful like the WSAS Policy in the Agent UI.