Using OS Upgrades in Patch Remedy 5

[Cubert]

How do I configure and use the OS Upgrade feature in Patch Remedy 5?

In previous builds of Patch Remedy there were areas to configure where to get the ISO files, where to cache it, what OS build it was for and so on.

Not any more!

Patch Remedy 5 has simplified the process so that you can get any Windows 10 agent to the latest builds of Windows without any knowledge of the agent. We have simplified the process down to a simple point and click action.

You have 2 options represented as buttons at the bottom of the plugin.

#1 Manually Now Option - (Upgrade Agent Button) This option will look at the agent for an logged in user, if found it will launch the upgrade in a reboot hold status which will prompt the user to allow the reboot once the process has completed stage 1 of the upgrade. If no user is logged in it will proceed with the upgrade to completion.

#2 Schedule Upgrade Option - (Schedule OS Upgrade) This will produce the same result as the manual option but allow you to automate the schedule to any time and date you like.

Each option can be executed on a per agent or per client. You can do stuff like schedule the entire client for OS upgrades then go back and adjust the schedule for a few agents.

When scheduling agents for upgrades, if the (PR) OS Upgrades is checked the Upgrades are disabled on that agent and no upgrade will be scheduled. The scheduled date will remain set but the feature is disabled so automated upgrade is disabled. This will need to be unchecked for the automated services to schedule the upgrade.

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The OS upgrade will upgrade the agent to the latest version of Windows 10 automatically with out the need for any other configurations. How does it do this? Patch Remedy defines an agent and draws down from Microsoft the correct Windows Upgrade Assistant. The same ones you use to create the ISO images needed in previous versions of Patch Remedy. We then use PowerShell to validate the agent and process the install using that software.


Once the upgrade has been scheduled and the process has been started , you can see the status of the upgrade in the agent view. The Last Attempt is the date it started executing and the Last Log is the results of the execution of the upgrade. You can see from last log that we started with a OS build of 10.0.19043.0 and now are on 10.0.19044.0. Obviously it was successful in the upgrade.

During the upgrade process we will test to see if a user is logged into console 0, if so we will ask the user if now is a good time to start upgrade. If they select yes, the upgrade continues else it will log and halt.

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"I have servers and other Windows OS types under same client, I see they get the same dates to upgrade. What happens when their turn comes up?"

Simply put, nothing.. The automation weeds out all the agents that are not viable and upgradeable agents. This includes any Windows servers, Windows 7 or 8 agents.

There will be in next builds of Patch Remedy 5 the Windows 10 to 11 upgrade followed by the Windows 11 OS upgrade options.

[Cubert]

You are getting the “OS Upgrades are currently set to be excluded” pop up when scheduling an OS upgrade.

This can be avoided by first at the client level unchecking the (PR) OS Upgrade box. This will then set all agents under client the ability to auto upgrade if set to do so with a schedule. If you do not schedule a upgrade it will not try to upgrade even with check box off. If check box is on at the time of scheduling that agent will also be skipped even though it has a scheduled date.

The only time scheduling OS upgrades does not test for this check box is if you are scheduling same day updates.

Scenarios

• #1 Set schedule today for next week upgrade
  (PR) OS Upgrade is checked and you “OK” the pop up message,
  If (PR) OS Upgrade checkbox is checked on the day that the schedule is to run the agent will not be scheduled.

• #2 Set Schedule today for upgrade later today
  If (PR) OS Upgrade is checked and you “OK” the pop up message the OS will schedule for the time requested.

You can uncheck the agent, leaving the rest of the agents checked. But the next time you load the plugin and view the client, the box for the client will be unchecked. This is because all agents must be checked for this box to be checked. If one agent is unchecked the the client is not fully checked and thus is unchecked. All agents that were checked will remain checked unless you deactivate the check at the client view.

Example: You have used the client checkbox (checked) for (PR) OS upgrade which has set all agents to disabled. You have unchecked a few single agents so now the client view shows unchecked. You want to reapply the all agents disabled, disabling the once enabled agents. Recheck the client checkbox and all agents will return to disabled.

[cwild]

I am having trouble pushing an upgrade to any computers, i find the following in the C:\temp\windows10upgrade.log file:
2022-02-24 13:13:03 - Info: Script init - User: *end users name* Machine *computername*
2022-02-24 13:13:03 - Current Windows Version: Microsoft Windows NT 10.0.19043.0
2022-02-24 13:13:03 - Info: Checking for elevated permissions...
2022-02-24 13:13:03 - ERROR: Insufficient permissions to run this script. Open the PowerShell console as an administrator and run this script again.
2022-02-24 13:13:03 - ERROR: Will terminate!

Does the end user have to have admin rights to deploy an upgrade?

[Cubert]

What version of Patch Remedy 5 are you on?

That was an issue with calling "Console Shell " script function. console shell runs as logged in user which may not have the permissions to run. We changed this to a "enhance shell" in version 1.0.5.3, I believe, so that stops happening.



Current version out now is 1.0.5.6

You can find that update here

viewtopic.php?t=5963

Once updated and you restart the DBagent on host, a new version of script will be created. Edit it and see if it says version Version 1.0.5.3

[david.bryant]

How do I enabled Windows 10 updates but not enable the windows 11 upgrade?

[techwiz2222]

How do I enabled Windows 10 updates but not enable the windows 11 upgrade?

I would like to know the answer of this as well. I see on the last line of the initial post; "
There will be in next builds of Patch Remedy 5 the Windows 10 to 11 upgrade followed by the Windows 11 OS upgrade options." So if I'm reading that right the plugin is smart enough to only upgrade to latest version of Windows 10 and not go all the way up to 11.

[Cubert]

Correct,

You can only schedule a Windows 10 to 11 upgrade. The manual and standard schedules only upgrade within the same OS. You would have to tell PR to upgrade to 11


You will need to select agents and then select Windows 11 for Windows 11 upgrades to process.

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Also FYI,, some people are reporting that the Accept EULA command line switch is not working as desired on some Windows 11 copies. You may experience limited success with 10 to 11 upgrades depending on factors.

[techwiz2222]

If an agent doesn't upgrade in time or something happens during the scheduled upgrade time does Patch Remedy try again on it's own?

[Cubert]

No,

You set a date and time and if that passes Patch remedy will not pick a new time and date for you. Now there are circumstances where the automation schedules the script on the agent at the expected time but to some other nature, the agent does not execute the script immediately. the script sits in queue and finally get to complete some time later.

In this case Patch Remedy did what it was set to do and due to the course of the agent it missed its time frame.

[cschneider]

Is it possible for Patch Remedy to perform new OS upgrades as they become available, or (better still) to set a schedule to upgrade to the latest Windows 10 (or 11, I suppose) build?