Client failing to return Patch Management Inventories for 8.x

Products

• Patch Management Solution for Windows

Issue/Introduction

How to troubleshooting Patch Management Inventories failing to process?

Environment

ITMS 8.x

Resolution

Step 1. Ensure the Patch Plug-ins are current with the current SMP / Altiris Agents; location detailed in KB article Configuring Patch Management for Windows - Best practices for 8.x, see Step 2.

Step 2. Ensure the client is not in need of a reboot as shown in KB article What does the Patch Management check for Reboot is needed, and does this apply to manually installed updates?

Step 3. Ensure the client has consumed a Patch License as show in KB article How does managed client consume a Patch Management Solution license for 8.x

• Ensure the client's Patch License is consuming as detailed for PM 8.x; Windows System Assessment Scan; as shown in KB article Configuring Patch Management for Windows - Best practices for 8.x, see Step 6.
• Ensure the targeted filters are in order for the Software Update Plug-in Install & Upgrade Policies; turned on and deploying
• Ensure the targeted filters are in order for the Patch Install Tools:
  •  http://localhost/Altiris/console/?mainUrl=%2faltiris%2fconsole%2fItemPage.aspx%3fItemGuid%3d7A708B96-DB92-4F09-AD46-8BC8FDD62D70

Step 4. Ensure the PMImport is current

• The PMImport is the foundation of Patch Inventories; ensure there are no hung tasks running:
  • View Troubleshooting PMImport as shown in KB article PMImport failing to download successfully
  • Even if all is in order on PMImport Page; it may be failing Revise Software Updates Task:
    • View 'Currently Running Tasks' report found in KB article SSE Reports to see if it is hanging on Revised or Downloading Updates
    • If running tasks are hung for PMImport or Revise Software Updates; review steps outlined in KB article Taskinstances table grows rapidly  to truncate bloated Task Tables as shown in KB article Servertaskinstancerequests table has invalid data to clean up orphaned tasks
• Ensure the Vendor List holds the desired Software to be reported on and the version of the Software is not excluded:
  • If the Client is vulnerable to an update from a vendor via the Software Scan, yet that Software/Version is disabled on the PMImport > Vendor List; the Client will not scan for Compliance/Vulnerability for that Software as it doesn't exist in the Windows System Assessment Scan logic replicated from the SMP's Catalog Data.

Step 5. Clear the Server-side data hash for Patch Dataclasses as shown in KB article How does the Windows System Assessment Scan policy work?

Step 6. Configure Client to trap Notification Server Event (NSE) files as show in KB article Capturing NSEs on a Windows client

• These files can be later viewed with Notepad following a Patch Inventory Scan
• Copy / Paste these files onto the Management Server into the default location: C:\Program Files\Altiris\Notification Server\NSCap\EvtQFast folder.
  • Watch the logs to see if these files are failing to process with errors
• Note: Right-click / Open with > Notepad - ensure the file type is not associated with the Notepad.
  • The NSE should display the update name and data confirming the update IsInstalled / IsAppplicable.
  • If there is a problem generating the NSE's for Patch Management or sending them to the Management Server; lies outside Patch Management Solution, and could be a corrupt Altiris Agent, in which an uninstall / reinstall of the Altiris Agent may be in order to resolve this issue.

Step 7. Force a scan of the Patch Management Inventories as shown in KB article Need to force Patch Inventories for Patch Management