RMMC CC4 Start up and Shutdown jobs

[JHLEHS]

Hello All,

 

 

Just wanted to ask everyone if they have startup and shutdown jobs using schedule tasks in RMMC CC4, If so how do you implement them? We have about 500 computers at our school and I was advised to run the startup\shutdown jobs for our machines in batches of 100. This worked for a few weeks and now only one of the startup and shutdown jobs runs. I have tried re allocating the jobs but this faild. Does anyone have any ideas? This is very frustrating for me as I can't see why they do not work.

 

I have raised this with RM and we still didn't solve the issue.

 

 

Thanks in advance.

[tj2419]

Hi

 

We have our shutdowns set up by rooms, so that if a particular room is being used late one evening then we can just disable that shutdown schedule. The startup is all in one go with about 400 desktops.

 

One trick we learnt was try change the time by one minute when it stops working. e.g. 7:30am to 7:31am.

[JHLEHS]

Great, thanks for your input. I am trying what you suggested with the startup jobs and will have a look tomorrow. I'm glad to see that it is not just me having problems.

[the_wuigi]

Great, thanks for your input. I am trying what you suggested with the startup jobs and will have a look tomorrow. I'm glad to see that it is not just me having problems.

 

RM advised me to schedule startup jobs in batches of 30

[X-13]

RM advised me to schedule startup jobs in batches of 30

 

I've been working with CCx for the past 6 years... i was NEVER told that.

[the_wuigi]

How do you schedule your Windows updates on cc4?

[DrBeaker]

Hi All,

 

I know this is an old thread - but I'm new to RM and CC4 networks and wondered how this automatic/scheduled shutdown and startup actually works on an RM network?

[AlanD]

Yes - they work. But there is a problem...and the problem is when you "suspend" those tasks and re-enable them again later (which is why you suspended them rather than deleted them). If after suspending them, they miss their next timeslot (which is more than likely otherwise why did you suspend them) then once you re-enable them...they no longer work....not at all. This is a "known issue"...and one it would seem RM are not going fix (and I have a support thread with them confirming this). Its annoying...because what you need to do is to change the task time by one minute after re-enabling them. This sounds fine - until you have a large network with hundreds of computers - as we tend to in schools...and there are 20 or 30 such tasks (because, yes, you don't want to start hundreds at the same time...and for that matter - not shut down large numbers either - because some users will have left themselves logged on - and timeouts would cause profile to fail to save correctly).

 

We find most RM scheduled tasks are not 100% reliable. There is a service (RM service host) in the clients which I presume "listens" for instructions. The service is prone to stopping. RM's "fix" was to simply restart the service if it stops....but it never actually fixed the underlying problem...and sooner or later the service stops even when it is configured to restart. Once stopped - the RM servers can no longer control the client - until you "remote" to client ...and restart it to clear the problem.

 

Even when the service is running - I have seen clients just sit there...ignoring tasks assigned to run. Even restarting the PCs doesn't help - its like the server has given up on the client. (Maybe the server RM host service has a similar bug). Once a couple of days has past (or if you restart the server)…something must timeout...as the task then magically runs when you reassign the same task - despite having that same task pending for the previous days

 

Its not mission critical....but its bloody annoying.....like the fact the right click stops working in RMMC console after a period of use.

[deano3693]

I just group my machines into 3 groups - Teacher PC's, Office PC's and Student PC's and have them as Smart Lists. I then have Start up and shutdown jobs for each - One that runs at 4/4:05/4:10 and shutsdown anything that is not logged in and not in use. I then run again at 6:30 for Student PC's, 7:30 for Office PC's and 9:30 for Teacher PC's regardless of wether or not they are logged in. The Teacher PC one is late as we have a tutor company who hires several of our rooms until 9pm for tutoring sessions every night of the week!

 

I then just delete the jobs every so often and re-create them from the Smart Lists this way any new machines that have been added get added to the smart list and then the shutdown job etc. It also means the job is re-created manually every so often so gets round the issue of it just randomly stopping working.

[DrBeaker]

I just group my machines into 3 groups - Teacher PC's, Office PC's and Student PC's and have them as Smart Lists. I then have Start up and shutdown jobs for each - One that runs at 4/4:05/4:10 and shutsdown anything that is not logged in and not in use. I then run again at 6:30 for Student PC's, 7:30 for Office PC's and 9:30 for Teacher PC's regardless of wether or not they are logged in. The Teacher PC one is late as we have a tutor company who hires several of our rooms until 9pm for tutoring sessions every night of the week! .

 

 

Do you do the same with IT suites e.g. Do you treat the room as one room, one room with multiple student PCs and 1x teacher PC or exempt the teacher PC?

 

I'm interested in reorganising the shutdown jobs setup on RM CC4 by a previous tech with seemingly no logic or proper name as to what that task does. E.g. from "Shutdown 26 PCs" to "Shutdown ICT Suite 1". What's your opinion on this?

 

I'm new to the RM CC4 setup as everything was Vanilla in previous places but impressed with the shutdown/startup arrangements by RM to be fair, it's a good idea.

[deano3693]

Hi,

 

I bundle all of them into One student PC's group. We did have individual IT Room jobs at one point but it became a pain when you had to suspend them all or delete and re-create them. You can create jobs at a room level by right clicking on the room and then creating a shutdown/start up task and these also work if new machines get added to the room.

[DrBeaker]

Hi,

 

I bundle all of them into One student PC's group. We did have individual IT Room jobs at one point but it became a pain when you had to suspend them all or delete and re-create them. You can create jobs at a room level by right clicking on the room and then creating a shutdown/start up task and these also work if new machines get added to the room.

 

 

This might be a daft question but HOW do you create/recreate them? Do you have access to do this yourself or is it only something RM can do? Even the inbuilt help file dosen't have a reference to creating tasks!

[deano3693]

Hi,

You right click on a batch of machines and then under then under Tasks you have Start/Shutdown etc. The same can be applied at the top level of Computer folders.

 

Dean.

[AlanD]

..I think you can only apply it to folders on the later versions of CC4. If you are still with 2008R2 (CC4.3) I think you can only apply tasks to selected computers.

[TomHD]

Like Deano, I bunde mine into working groups so all students, all teachers, all admin etc. You can use the location lists or smart lists to assist with this

[DrBeaker]

How do the Smart Lists work Deano3693? I'm still pretty new to the RM setup compared to Vanilla Windows systems and certainly find it a bit limiting in some ways!

[AlanD]

How do the Smart Lists work Deano3693? I'm still pretty new to the RM setup compared to Vanilla Windows systems and certainly find it a bit limiting in some ways!

Didn't RM show you this as part of the training for CC4?

[DrBeaker]

Didn't RM show you this as part of the training for CC4?

 

No.

 

I had a quick "This is your CC4 training" which was more about the software assignment rights than anything else. I'm trying to get on a course for this ASAP though. Everything so far has been found out through exploring the console itself, settings, available options etc or just ringing them up every 5x minutes or so. I've always used Vanilla AD, networks etc so you could figure it out yourself but obviously with RM CC4 it's a different beast entirely.

 

To add some background to this I replaced a previous tech where there was no documentation on systems, processes etc with no handover or crossover period between us. Which may explain the haphazard way things have been handled so far.

Edited October 22, 2018 by DrBeaker

[AlanD]

RM has had a lot of bad press - and sometime deservedly so. And I always feel somewhat uncomfortable when I raise my head above the parapet to defend them.

 

Letting even an experienced, capable and knowledgeable MCSE qualified manager loose on an RM system without a reasonably full understanding of how their system work is likely to end up with a very unsatisfactory user experience and a very frustrated manager who can't understand why adding this GPO or changing that script doesn't produce the result they expect.

 

And yes, there are maddening limitations and shortcomings - but it is these same limitations which provide a relatively safe solution for schools. Too often, I see an inexperienced RM network manager doing their best to undo and remove the various lock downs because they want to get something to work - and they haven't bothered to find out how it should be done within the RM solution.

 

Sometimes schools stop paying for RM support - although perversely still pay for MIS support, AV support, and a host of other support services - and there then surprised when things start to fall apart.

 

There are various "selection" capabilities within RMMC console - such as search filters at the top of lists. I have always argued with RM that there should be a way to turn such a selection into a smart list. I'd also like a smart list to be dynamic - so it recreated itself each time its accessed (using the same selection rules). Smart lists are also only one level deep (on one field) - and are maddening limiting because of this. Looks great - but in the real world you often need something more complicated.

 

I would recommend you start a support call to RM and ask them for a remote session so they can step you through the process.