Mandatory Assignments not running when scheduled

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All Forums >> [Management Products] >> Microsoft Systems Management Server >> SMS 2003 >> Mandatory Assignments not running when scheduled

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Mandatory Assignments not running when scheduled - 8/20/2008 2:28:46 PM

rvrpadln

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Hello,

I am having trouble with all clients in a collection running a mandatory assignment at a scheduled time. For example, if I create an advertisement for a test collection and configure an 'Advertisement start time' for 10:00am and then create a mandatory assignment to start at 10:10 am (on the same date), the clients in the collection do not run the advertisement at 10:10am, rather they run at various random times after the scheduled mandatory time. For example, one client may run the advertisement at 10:10am and then the next at 10:17am while another runs the advertisement at 10:40am.

I have tested different scenarios and the only time that all clients ran when scheduled is when I set the mandatory assignment time to 10 minutes before the advertisement start time. Unfortunately, this only happened once and I have not been able to reproduce it.

I work in a manufacturing plant and so when we schedule downtime to install software it important that the install occurs during the alloted time. We were using another program that worked as needed, but we have been bought out by a company that uses SMS 2003 and so need to use it for software deployment.

Any suggestions or tips would be greatly appreciated.

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RE: Mandatory Assignments not running when scheduled - 8/20/2008 2:35:39 PM

hcortez463

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rvrpadln
the client need to recive the policy and by defualt its set to 60 min. You need to make sure you give yourself enought time for the clients to recive the policy and execute it. Check the logs and see when the clients reviced the policy on the pcs that your saying are executing at diffrent times.. Did i miss your question

< Message edited by hcortez463 -- 8/20/2008 2:36:00 PM >

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RE: Mandatory Assignments not running when scheduled - 8/20/2008 2:36:06 PM

skissinger

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From: Sherry Kissinger
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One possibility... Are you hitting OK or apply on the advert a few minutes before 10 am, expecting the clients to start it at 10:00 am? You've got to give your clients some time to pick up the new policy, evaluate it, and determine if it is actionable. You could also use either right-click tools or a 3rd party application to ask all clients in the collection to do a machine policy refresh.

Think of it this way; SMS is a pull-from-the-client technology, not a push-policies-from-the-server. The SMS Management Point offers policies, but doesn't interactively find every online client and make it pick up new policies. It's the client that goes to the MP & picks up policies on a schedule.

Edit: What Hector said.

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RE: Mandatory Assignments not running when scheduled - 8/20/2008 7:03:07 PM

rvrpadln

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Thanks for the information both answers were very helpful.

I was in the mindset of our previous software (Managesoft) which would distribute a package to its distribution servers and the clients were configured to pull down the package at a pre-determined interval depending on their collection membership. I now understand about the SMS's version called the "Advertised Client Agent" being set to 60 minutes for all collections by default (and, BTW, in our corporate system).

But that now leads me to ask every 60 minutes from when? Is it every 60 minutes from at the top of the hour or at the half hour? Where is the time that the 60 minutes is based on configured? Knowing the client polling time (I hope that is the correct term) would be helpful when I create an advertisement so I can have it in mind when I configure the mandantory assignment, e.g., when I schedule a mandatory assignment to run at 10 am, I know that it has to be advertised by XX time (where XX is a client polling time at least 60 minutes before 10am).

Again, I appreciate your help.

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RE: Mandatory Assignments not running when scheduled - 8/20/2008 7:19:30 PM

skissinger

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From: Sherry Kissinger
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60 minutes from their last polling time -- which isn't set in stone. Usually it would be when the computer last booted & the service started, but if you used a right-click tool or other method to invoke a remote policy refresh, or interactively at the computer invoked a refresh, you've reset the clock.

So for your scenario, if you want something to run at 10 am, change your advert anytime before 9 a.m.; to ensure the most complete coverage. I know you're going to hate this next bit... depending upon the # of computers, how the advert was designed, and the # of Distrib Points you have, that's still no guarantee that they'll all start at exactly 10 a.m. But you'll get a lot more than if you changed it at 9:55 am.

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RE: Mandatory Assignments not running when scheduled - 8/21/2008 11:46:17 AM

rvrpadln

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Success! I set up six different SMS packages with the mandatory assignment time set to run at least 65 mintues (just to be safe) from advertised time. I then scheduled the assignments to run at various times during the night and when I came in this morning they had all run right on time.

You are right, I do hate the bit that you mentioned, but I guess I will have to factor that in when doing my updates. Fortunately it's only one distribution point and 150 workstations that are required to install on a tight schedule, so it's not an impossible task.

Again thanks to both you and hcortez463 for your help.

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RE: Mandatory Assignments not running when scheduled - 8/21/2008 9:13:00 PM

ldekalb

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I thought i'd just reiterate something that Sherry mentioned and perhaps was lost in the details. There is an SMS console extension that allows you right click a collection and force a policy refresh on the clients. This speeds everything up and you dont have to wait ages for SMS to trigger the trigger that writes the file to trigger a process to kick of a SQL routine that finally outputs what you want (it still does all that but you dont ahve to wait for the polling intervals to tick over).

Download it from here ->http://www.myitforum.com/myITWiki/SMS%202003%20Console%20Extensions.ashx. It's the one listed as "Initiate Advanced Client Actions Remotely such as hardware, software, policies, advertisements, etc."

Enjoy!

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Post #: 7