Patch Management Solution

If you're doing monthly patching, you may notice some of your machines never finishing the patching process.   This is because there are no command line options set for this patch by default....at least for me there weren't.  I just ran across this in beta testing for patches.

Easy enough to fix though, just go into the bulletin, drop down the details for this specific patch and click the command line options.  Check off the ones you'd like to enable it to proceed (Unattended Install).

Will Symantec be sending out a fix to this?  I'm happy to change the parameters, I'm just not sure what will happen if they update it.

I'm not sure...are you seeing the same issue?  I suppose if enough people do ask about it then a correction will come out. As to whether the correction will overwrite it, i'm not sure of that either, but I do know doing what I posted above worked.  :-)

I made your recommended fix (the custom one) so we'll see how it goes tonight.

I've tested 2 machines with the custom settings and they both patched without incident.  I did verify they were targeted for the patch in question first of course.

By default the 'Altiris Recommended' option is checked - which isn't working.  Also, if you choose the standard option and check off boxes in there, it will also fail (popping up an msiexec options screen).

use the 'Custom' option and add "/quiet /norestart" (without the quotes). that seems to work.

We are seeing this across the board as well.

A solution we used to kill the task was:

Create a Run Script task as a batch file:

Manage > Jobs and Tasks > New > Task > Run Script

Script type: Command Script

taskkill /F /IM msxml4-KB2721691-enu.exe /T

This will kill the task, as well as all child tasks related to it.  Software Update will then advance on to the next patch.  However, you will still be vulnerable to this until you manually add the install switches to the msxml4 patch.

Do you think posting here is sufficient? Or do I need to open a case?

Scott

best bet would be to open a case but I havent had time to sit on the phone with support unfortnately...had to fix it and move on since i've been swamped.

please check the latest PM Import 7.1.332 - it has a fix for MS12-043:

You need to have revise option enabled in Import Patch Data task to have existing policies updated.