Solus3 Updates and Deploying to Workstations

[Dirthat]

Hi All,

 

Bit of a long shot, but, is there a way to stop Solus3 auto deploying to workstations during the initial update deployments?

 

Server 1 - Summer 2021 has installed the SQL server, database, fileserver and now it's trying to deploy to 400+ workstations, most of which are off. I'm now sitting here wasting my time waiting for Solus3 to try to update machines that are turned off, it's been trying to install to a PC that is switched off for 20 minutes now!

 

Server 2 - Missing the Solus3 3.12.59.5 patch, it's now sitting there, and has been for 40 minutes, trying to deploy onto one workstation. I still have the Summer update to do on this box which will be a nightmare because of this setting.

 

Any ideas?

DH

[Boredguy]

Well Solus 3 is designed to ensure that clients always get the latest version of SIMS that is installed on the server, so as soon as you deploy the Summer/Spring/Autumn update to your server, it will attempt to wake and push the update out to all workstations with the agent as well. You can speed up the deployment by checking your Solus 3 Deployment service is not too limited (Settings -> Solus 3 -> Deployments, make sure Agents Concurrent Downloads is set high enough, Ours is maxed at 99 concurrent downloads instead of the default 5 set by Capita)

 

That same section lets you set the Auto Download option and time frame. Ours only deploys out to stations from 6am to 6pm so when we scheduled the SIMS update at 5am it doesn't take long. Stations pull the new version soon as they boot up.

 

That same fix should resolve the Solus 3 agent update deployment as well.

Edited July 14, 2021 by Boredguy

[Warwick_Tech]

My Solus install has broken completely after an attempt to upgrade to .59

 

We had to go to .50 first but this removed the service, causing the update to freeze - So now I'm stuck with a brick.

 

At least people can still use SIMS and our support company all working from home are 24hrs with no response....

 

[neilenormal]

The Solus3 deployment service can be reinstalled manually when this happens. Extract the MSI from Solus3 interface and run it manually to get the service back. You should then be able to go onwards to version 3.12.59

Server 2016 by any chance?

[Boredguy]

My Solus install has broken completely after an attempt to upgrade to .59

 

We had to go to .50 first but this removed the service, causing the update to freeze - So now I'm stuck with a brick.

 

At least people can still use SIMS and our support company all working from home are 24hrs with no response....

 

 

Thats a bit shocking by your support company then.

 

We had a e-mail from ours back near the end of June regarding the need to update to .59 and because the deployment server uninstalling was a known issue a helpsheet and the installation files were all available via their portal (we'd already done the .59 the week before to try and fix another Solus issue)

[Dirthat]

@Boredguy, All of my SIMS updates are run at night manually and it usually means having to babysit the servers. We have our workstations set to deploy 6am to 12pm as that usually covers everyone.

 

I'll change the concurrent downloads to 99 to see if that helps and speeds things up.

@Warwick_Tech, I had the same issue. I did the same thing that neilenormal suggested, extract the patch to the desktop and then ran the SOLUS3DeploymentServiceInstaller_x64 and the SOLUS3DeploymentServerUIInstaller_x64 restarted the Solus3 Deployment Service and this seemed to resolve the issue.

 

Any workstations that are still sitting on pre .59 versions of SOLUS3 we have been able to update from SOLUS3 now by clicking Environment > Agents > Reinstall agent.

 

[Warwick_Tech]

Thanks Both,

 

that has brought her back to life and she is slowly (very slowly) updating Solus agents (I think) but the update is still stuck on 'Upgrade Service' in 'install mode'

 

and any new agents are stuck in 'Install queued'

[Boredguy]

Thanks Both,

 

that has brought her back to life and she is slowly (very slowly) updating Solus agents (I think) but the update is still stuck on 'Upgrade Service' in 'install mode'

 

and any new agents are stuck in 'Install queued'

Might be worth checking the Concurrent deployment value I posted earlier, that might be bottlenecking your clients, as if it's set to only a few at a time, it has to wait for them to complete before the next one.

[Warwick_Tech]

Might be worth checking the Concurrent deployment value I posted earlier, that might be bottlenecking your clients, as if it's set to only a few at a time, it has to wait for them to complete before the next one.

 

Yes, I upped it to 99, still with a 30 minute timeout - the weird part is I'm getting a red error box 'invalid fields in SIMS.ini invalid fields in SIMS.ini' (Yes it says it twice!)

 

I've tried the old 'save and send to clients trick' but they are definately communicating

 

Also, sorry to hijack the thread!

 

EDIT: Ok, so - Reinstalled the agent from the MSI too (why not right) and restarted the services several times it's finally installing .50

 

So after this is done, V.59

Edited July 14, 2021 by Warwick_Tech

[Boredguy]

That warning is if you have set the paths in the SIMS.INI file to be "C:\Program" etc for some of it. It likes it to be empty which then causes chaos for some of the other apps, so I just ignore that warning.