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Technote 010

Missing OS Patches in Software Distribution Center

Question:

Why are OS patches not appearing in the Software Distribution Center even though they appear in the Missing Software Updates or Missing Patches categories for individual computers?

Answer:

The following two items must be set up correctly for patch management to work.
1. Make sure you have defined a master staging server. The client computers won't know where to upload the packages for the OS patches without one.
2. The client machines need to be configured to participate in patch management. This can be done in the "Agent Settings" command under the "General" tab by checking "Include in patch management."

If both these items are configured correctly and patches are still not appearing in the Software Distribution Center even after you perform a manual scan for new patches with the "Run Software Distribution Check" command, it might be that a slow network link is preventing your agent machines from downloading the patches and uploading them to the master staging server.

By default clients on a "slow network link" (anything below 100Mbit) will not download software from the Apple and Microsoft update servers and then upload them to the master staging server. If your client machines are on a slow network link under 100Mbit, you can resolve this problem by changing the SlowNetworkThreshold setting in the client preferences. For Mac clients, open the "/Library/Preferences/com.poleposition-sw.lanrev_agent.plist" file with Property List Editor and set the "SlowNetworkThreshold" property value to 10. For Windows clients, change the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Pole Position Software\LANrev Agent\SlowNetworkThreshold" registry value to 10. To preconfigure this agent setting before deployment consult TN 004: How to pre-configure the LANrev Agent.

For this setting to become effective on your Mac clients you need to force the LANrev Agent to reload its settings by sending it a HUP signal with the following command in Terminal

      sudo kill -HUP <LANrev_process_id>

where <LANrev_process_id> needs to be replaced with the process id of the LANrev Agent. For Windows clients change the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Pole Position Software\LANrev Agent\Trigger" registry value to 1.

Then issue a "Run Software Distribution Check" command. If the OS patches still do not appear in the Software Distribution Center restart the agent on your Macs by issuing the following command from Terminal.

      sudo systemstarter restart LANrevAgent

To restart the LANrev Agent on your Windows clients, stop and restart the LANrev Agent service. Software packages for OS patches should begin to appear in the Software Distribution Center under "Unconfirmed Patches" within a few minutes.

Date: 22 Jun 2006
Revised: n/a
Components: Agent
Versions: 2.0 and higher