[SIMS] Solus 3 Agents Stuck

[MrPARRman]

Hi All,

 

Recently began moving towards Solus 3, and naturally assumed I could add all of my teacher machines in one fell swoop. This of course resulted in the deployment service crashing and once restarted, I cannot do anything with the machines listed apart from Check Agent Status which fails as no agent is installed.

 

The options to do anything are greyed out, with all of the client Agent Status being listed as: Install Active but I cannot stop, restart, remove, or do anything.

 

The one way around it I have found is to manually go to the client, install Solus3 Agent manually, refresh the agent status so Solus UI can see it, try to uninstall from Solus UI which fails, this then allows me to remove computer, I can then manually remove the agent from the client, and finally re-add the computer to Solus and the Agent pushs out. A solution, but a very bad one on 150 computers.

 

Is there some way to forcefully remove Agents from the Solus 3 Deployment UI?

[Rawns]

Not when they have a status of Install Active. They are essentially stuck in limbo. Capita ESS have a tool that contains a number of SOLUS3 tools, one of them being a button that will modify the database entries and reset all 'Install Active' agents to 'Install Failed' allowing you to either remove them manually or use the reinstall function.

 

http://i.imgur.com/Q0AOz27.png

Edited October 2, 2013 by Rawns

[MrPARRman]

Hmm. I did have a good search, and the ESSUpgrade tool does not appear to still be live on any links. Also phoned Capita and am now stuck waiting another indefinite amount of time. Do you have a link for that piece of software?

 

At this point I am starting to wonder why I bothered upgrading... Solus 2 always seemed to just work. Tell staff an upgrade is going to occur, remote in and run upgrade overnight on the server, staff come in next day and SIMS takes a extra few minutes while it upgrades, the world keeps on spinning.

 

We don't run any POL, and users use machines at varying times each day so it would be almost impossible to get all computers with one update - Is there any real advantage to upgrading to this new system?

 

My only reason thus far was being told that we need it to install SIMs Discover... now I read Capita provide a MSI. One more issue away from a downgrade I fear.

[Rawns]

I got it from @matt40k who kindly shared a link in this post: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/mis-systems/102286-solus3-rage.html#post878255. If the link is dead, I would imagine that Capita could provide you with a copy.

 

SOLUS2 End of Life is Spring next year and it will be no more. Though it really would not surprise me if it gets extended again...

[MrPARRman]

That's the thread I found and the link is dead. :-(

 

I am really at a loss - maybe I am jumping the gun but are there any advantages to this new version? Can I use Solus3 like I do Solus2, and just use it to upgrade the server and have the clients upgrade on there own? Seems like madness to have a system with so many points of failures. If the updates need to be pushed to each client, and the clients cannot be set to automatically update when first ran, every update would need me to run around and turn on every machine on site.

 

Think I have had enough SIMS for one day.

[matt40k]

Looks like Capita ESS removed it, guess Capita CS got too much flack for it. Pretty sure it's on SupportNet??

 

S3 better in the long run, especially as permissions get worse - no more giving staff local admin rights, running batch files, turning off UAC.

[MrPARRman]

Can anyone with this little application upload it for me please?

 

Phoned Capita again and the only people available are their first line support who sound like they know Solus only in name.

[Rawns]

Can anyone with this little application upload it for me please?

 

Phoned Capita again and the only people available are their first line support who sound like they know Solus only in name.

 

Sorry, but I don't think we are allowed to as it's a in house Capita product. We we provided with a copy to fix a few SOLUS3 issues on condition we keep don't pass it on. The fact that it's also been taken down suggests that they no longer want it shared. I'd guess the Capita help desk is your best bet.

 

I can tell you though which table and values it changes in the SOLUS3 database so you can manually fix it through SQL management studio? Obviously not a "supported" procedure though.

[MrPARRman]

That would be fantastic if you could! :-)

[Rawns]

You can run this SQL script via SQL Management Studio:

 

USE solus3_deployment_server
GO
UPDATE solus3.agent
SET agent_status='16'
WHERE agent_status='8'

 

It resets all agents with a status of '8' (Install Active) to a status of 16 (Install Failed) allowing you to remove/reinstall. If you do this, back up your SOLUS3 database first as back end editing like this is unsupported by Capita (I would imagine).

Edited October 3, 2013 by Rawns

[MrPARRman]

Woohoo, that fixed the issue. All stuck users now showing as Install Failed and can be removed... one by one, but they can be removed! Thank you for the help!

 

I think this thread now has the only solution on the internet to this issue that is active.

[Rawns]

Be warned that 'some' devices may have actually had the agent successfully installed and when (or if) you re-add them and the agent has installed, it may return a message saying an unknown agent is already on this workstation. You'll have to uninstall the agent manually off the workstation, remove the workstation from SOLUS3 UI and then re-add it.

[Rawns]

Also if you do re-add the devices into SOLUS3, as @matt40k reiterated to me many a time in previous threads, add a handful of devices at a time (10 max I'd say). There is less chance of the SOLUS3 Deployment Service becoming "overloaded" again when deploying the agents.

[MrPARRman]

It looks here like the service failed almost instantly as I have yet to come across any where it had installed. I found with ones it did manage to install but didnt show, I could request the agent information and it would respond eventually and the remaining Install Active clients returned could not be contacted.

 

Think the issue is due to the UI waiting for install confirmation from the Agent, and on a failed install never receiving anything back as if I manually visited the machine and installed the agent - it would suddently reply and show as ok. (Altho not able to check status of any installed roles.)

 

Its all sorted now though, with those 5 lines my sanity returned and I am up to 90 clients successfully installed doing 10 at a time. Only another 100 to go.

[Rawns]

@MrPARRman - For info, @matt40k has created a utility to reset 'Install Active' agents: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/mis-systems/124621-solus3-reset-install-active-agents-utility-matt40k.html

[MrPARRman]

Excellent. :-)

 

Also just got a call back from a fella named Billy on the second line support who was going to run that exact command and confirmed that the Tool is no longer available for general use and is now a technician only tool.

 

Really nice guy, explained how Solus works and its best practices and really put some of my worries to rest. Was very impressed - first time I have had someone who sounded like they wanted to help.

[MattGibson]

Does anyone know a way to manually uninstall the Agent?

 

I have removed it by using the uninstaller however I'm unable to reinstall. No error messages nothing!

[pageig02]

hi I have been trying to get the latest ver of ESS but Capita have stopped the web page is there any who knows another source please as it would help with out Solus3 3

thanks

ian

 

Not when they have a status of Install Active. They are essentially stuck in limbo. Capita ESS have a tool that contains a number of SOLUS3 tools, one of them being a button that will modify the database entries and reset all 'Install Active' agents to 'Install Failed' allowing you to either remove them manually or use the reinstall function.

 

http://i.imgur.com/Q0AOz27.png