Patch Management Solution

We are seeing an issue once we upgraded our NS to 7.1SP2 where x64 clients always show that the software update plug in is not ready. In the past there was an x64 agent job but that is no longer there (not sure if it is supposed to be)  

We ran a repair on the patch management component which fixed a small  issue in the sense we had some policies that had no package associated and that added the x32 package and that seems to be working fine, but x64 clients all show software update plug-in not ready and there is no longer an x64 policy for the software update plugin. Should I run a repair on any other items to resolve anything??

Have you cloned the agent rollout jobs? You're not supposed to for Patch anymore as there's hidden components.

We had cloned them originally, but its a bigger issue than that I believe. It is only affecting x64 clients. They do show that they need the upgrade in the upgrade policy but it never gets pushed to the machine. The default policies are doing the same thing. I contacted symantec support today and they are seeing the same symptom in their lab and they are looking into it. My test environment is fine but we had never cloned them there.

I went as far as uninstalling the old subagent on my machine and it is not pushing it even as a new install. 

So that may be the root cause but they are seeing the issue there and looking into a solution. 

Also seeing this in the log... so it looks like something got fubar with the swd table for the new package.

We upgraded from 7.1 SP1 to SP 2 like the TECH177513

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Log File Name: C:\ProgramData\Symantec\SMP\Logs\a.log
Priority: 1
Help and Support:
Date: 16.01.2012 19:05:09
Tick Count: 677902
Host Name: WYALT02WN
Process: w3wp (3912)
Thread ID: 68
Module: w3wp.exe
Source: Altiris.NS.AgentManagement.PolicyRequest.LoadItemPolicy
Description: Unable to generate policy XML for item: Software Update Plug-in Install for Windows x64 (a91cf66b-a87b-460c-967a-41b125c6cbf5)

( Exception Details: Altiris.NS.Exceptions.AeXException: Unable to build the client configuration XML for advertisement with guid Software Update Plug-in Install for Windows x64 (a91cf66b-a87b-460c-967a-41b125c6cbf5). Reason: Did not get a row for Software Delivery Advertisement "Software Update Plug-in Install for Windows x64", Guid = Software Update Plug-in Install for Windows x64 (a91cf66b-a87b-460c-967a-41b125c6cbf5) from the SWD tables. ---> Altiris.NS.Exceptions.AeXException: Did not get a row for Software Delivery Advertisement "Software Update Plug-in Install for Windows x64", Guid = Software Update Plug-in Install for Windows x64 (a91cf66b-a87b-460c-967a-41b125c6cbf5) from the SWD tables.
   at Altiris.NS.StandardItems.SoftwareDelivery.AdvertisementItem.OnBuildClientConfigXml2(Guid workstationGuid, XmlNode requestDocumentElement, XmlTextWriter xmlBuilder)
   --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
   at Altiris.NS.StandardItems.SoftwareDelivery.AdvertisementItem.OnBuildClientConfigXml2(Guid workstationGuid, XmlNode requestDocumentElement, XmlTextWriter xmlBuilder)
   at Altiris.NS.StandardItems.Policies.ClientConfigPolicy.GetConfigXml(Guid resourceGuid, String requestXml)
   at Altiris.NS.AgentManagement.PolicyRequest.<>c__DisplayClass4.<LoadItemPolicy>b__0(IDatabaseContext ctx)
   at Altiris.Database.DatabaseContext`1.PerformWithDeadlockRetryHelper(Int32 retries, Boolean inTransaction, Getter`1 getContext, Action`1 action, Action`1 retry)
   at Altiris.Database.DatabaseContext`1.PerformWithDeadlockRetry(Int32 retries, Boolean startNewTransaction, IsolationLevel isolationLevel, Boolean independentContext, Action`1 action, Action`1 retry)
   at Altiris.Database.DatabaseContext`1.PerformWithDeadlockRetry(Int32 retries, Boolean startNewTransaction, Action`1 action, Action`1 retry)
   at Altiris.NS.ContextManagement.DatabaseContext.PerformWithDeadlockRetry(Int32 retries, Action`1 action, Action`1 retry)
   at Altiris.NS.AgentManagement.PolicyRequest.LoadItemPolicy(String request, Guid requestGuid, Guid resourceGuid, Guid hostGuid, Guid policyGuid, String& policy, String& policyHash, Guid& category, Int32& priority, Boolean& canCache, ISet`1& requiredPermissions, ISet`1& filterCollections) )
( Exception logged from:
   at Altiris.Diagnostics.Logging.EventLog.ReportException(Int32 severity, String strMessage, String category, Exception exception)
   at Altiris.NS.Logging.EventLog.ReportException(Int32 severity, String strMessage, String category, Exception exception)
   at Altiris.NS.AgentManagement.PolicyRequest.LoadItemPolicy(String request, Guid requestGuid, Guid resourceGuid, Guid hostGuid, Guid policyGuid, String& policy, String& policyHash, Guid& category, Int32& priority, Boolean& canCache, ISet`1& requiredPermissions, ISet`1& filterCollections)
   at Altiris.NS.AgentManagement.PolicyRequest.LoadItemPolicies(String request, String configVers, Guid hostGuid, List`1 idents, SortedDictionary`2& policies, SortedDictionary`2& hashes)
   at Altiris.NS.AgentManagement.PolicyRequest.GetPolicies(String request)
   at Altiris.Web.NS.Agent.GetClientPolicies.ProcessRequest(String& request, Byte[]& clientConfigData, String& clientConfigXml, Boolean& compress)
   at System.RuntimeMethodHandle._InvokeMethodFast(Object target, Object[] arguments, SignatureStruct& sig, MethodAttributes methodAttributes, RuntimeTypeHandle typeOwner)
   at System.Reflection.RuntimeMethodInfo.Invoke(Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, Binder binder, Object[] parameters, CultureInfo culture, Boolean skipVisibilityChecks)
   at System.Delegate.DynamicInvokeImpl(Object[] args)
   at Altiris.Common.Threading.LocalThreadPool.InvokeCallback(Object state)
   at Altiris.Common.Threading.LocalThreadPool.ExecuteUserWorkItem(UserWorkItem workItem)
   at Altiris.NS.Threading.NSThreadPool.ExecuteUserWorkItem(UserWorkItem workItem)
   at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.runTryCode(Object userData)
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.RuntimeHelpers.ExecuteCodeWithGuaranteedCleanup(TryCode code, CleanupCode backoutCode, Object userData)
   at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state)
   at Altiris.Common.Threading.LocalThreadPool.ExecuteUserWorkItemInContext(UserWorkItem workItem)
   at Altiris.Common.Threading.LocalThreadPool.ThreadPoolProc(Object threadStartParameter)
   at System.Threading.ThreadHelper.ThreadStart(Object obj)
 )
( Extra Details:  Type=Altiris.NS.Exceptions.AeXException Src=Altiris.NS.StandardItems

  Inner Extra Details:  Type=Altiris.NS.Exceptions.AeXException Src=Altiris.NS.StandardItems )

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Anyone, any idea?

Thanks

Ok what I had to do to start getting rid of it.  I went onto our test server and exported the package at least parts of it though you could do a lot of it by hand. 

go to settings>console>views>software>software catalog>deliverable>releases and you should find the package in there... in my case it was missing on my production server. (You wont see all the packages if you just go to manage >software)

I did a right click>actions>detailed export and selected at least the top 3-4 columns. If you get an error about not being able to merge resources you may need to do just a normal export and fill in some of the details by hand using your test server as a guide.

Go into the same location on your production server and right click on the releases folder to import. 

It appears this fixed the issues so I am setting it as resolution

If you need more info or help let me know.

Can you please post the link to download the plugin?

Thanks