Installing Software Updates via a Task Sequence in ConfigMgr 2007

I noticed that when your Site is running in Native Mode you can run into problems with installing Software Updates via a Task Sequence. The first time that your are installing your computer with your Task Sequence there are no problems, but every time after that the Task Sequence will finish successful but doesn’t install any Software Updates. It looks like that it will use existing scan results of the client from the previous scan. So when there are already scan results of your client it will not rescan during your Task Sequence.

To work around this I use the following scripts (that I run before the step Install Software Updates in the Task Sequence):

  1. Initiate Software Updates Scan: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc144313.aspx
    actionNameToRun = “Software Updates Assignments Evaluation Cycle”

    Dim oCPAppletMgr
    Set oCPAppletMgr = CreateObject(“CPApplet.CPAppletMgr”)

    Dim oClientActions
    Set oClientActions = oCPAppletMgr.GetClientActions()

    ‘Loop through the available client actions. Run the matching client action when it is found.
    Dim oClientAction
    For Each oClientAction In oClientActions
       If oClientAction.Name = actionNameToRun Then
          oClientAction.PerformAction 
       End If
    Next

  2. Refresh Compliance State: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc146437.aspx
    dim newCCMUpdatesStore
    set newCCMUpdatesStore = CreateObject (“Microsoft.CCM.UpdatesStore”)

    ‘Refresh the server compliance state by running the RefreshServerComplianceState method.
    newCCMUpdatesStore.RefreshServerComplianceState

The first script Initiate Software Updates Scan is to let the client check if it needs new updates and the second script Refresh Compliance State is to let the client report back to the server that it needs updates.

Note: It can also happen when you are trying to avoid obsolete clients by starting the Task Sequence via Run Advertised Program.

3 thoughts on “Installing Software Updates via a Task Sequence in ConfigMgr 2007”

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.