How to add software to caching location repo

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calvinv
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How to add software to caching location repo

Post by calvinv »

I am having an issue and I think I missed a step.
There isn't a how to guide anywhere that I could find for the setup of Chocolatey for Automate besides the Quick Start Guide.
I set up a system at a client location as the Caching Agent.
I defined a caching location using the location console to define a drive with a username and password.
The problem is how do I get software moved into a caching location repo? Do I manually copy and paste in the software?

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Cubert
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Re: How to add software to caching location repo

Post by Cubert »

The Caching agent should look at the approved software list and will auto populate the share. It will then periodically check for updates and maintain the share. The caching agent only caches approved software so if there is a dependency needed make sure to add that to the approved software list.

This is all automated and will start to happen with in 24 hours of the settings in place.

If you share does not auto fill after a couple of days then you should have a look at the server logs and the caching agents script logs to see if there was any failure events to speak of.


If you want to manually seed the cache folder to get it rolling and to verify that share permissions are working you can select a caching agent from list then select to update the cache from menu. This will assign a script to run on that agent immediately where you can then monitor the progress of that script and look for errors like failed to copy to share. This is the most common error we see and it tends to be permissions set on domain shares. Local NAS shares and workstation shares tend to have less permissions sets to overcome and are simpler to get setup.

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PL-MSTech
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Re: How to add software to caching location repo

Post by PL-MSTech »

I believe I missed a step or two with the quick guide as well...
I onboarded 1 client 3 days ago...
1. I setup the share and designated the caching agent
2. I manually propagated the cache with approved apps
3. The caching agent is showing green for 'current' and 'enable'

The caching agent has all the apps under 'Installed Software', but is the only machine NOT showing anything in 'Managed Applications'
There are no apparent errors in the event log... other than several like this, and I assume they are normal??
L145 F70 Value (P1): myVersion Comparer (P2): 8 To (P3): Thread Failed Jump (P4): :SKIPMASTERSQL T: 105.1035639
L146 F70 Value (P1): myVersion Comparer (P2): 8 To (P3): is not recognized Jump (P4): :SKIPMASTERSQL T: 105.1035639

The documentation (and other threads) seem ambiguous... am I supposed to setup ONE machine at each location - first - as a standalone - THEN change it to the caching agent to get things going, or is all of this supposedly done automatically w/ the scripts?

Also, once the caching agent is up to date with the 'Global Apps', do I approve and disapprove additional apps on that agent, which then affects the machines set to 'Normal Agent' - then make granular changes per agent?

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Cubert
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Re: How to add software to caching location repo

Post by Cubert »

#1 The caching agent should work like a normal agent with the added responsibility of keeping cache up to date. If it does not show an active list of packages installed then there maybe a error in the SQL causing it to skip over agent save of package data. I would add a script log statement to the script just above the 2 tests lines (145/146) to see what SQL is returning.


#2
The documentation (and other threads) seem ambiguous... am I supposed to setup ONE machine at each location - first - as a standalone - THEN change it to the caching agent to get things going, or is all of this supposedly done automatically w/ the scripts?
By default an agent is set as standard agent expecting a cache but it is not a requirement to get started. In a location where you want to use caching the order of setup is as follows: Enable client workstations and or servers, Setup the location desired with a valid share and username, Assign a caching agent, Add packages to to the approved list (enabled or disabled), either allow automation (daily) to seed cache or use the manual menu item to update cache now which will schedule the script with caching agent and starts the downloads. This process is automatically repeated daily to see if any updates can be downloaded.


#3
Once the caching agent is up to date with the 'Global Apps', do I approve and disapprove additional apps on that agent, which then affects the machines set to 'Normal Agent' - then make granular changes per agent?
Not on the agent, you add or remove from the global (client approved list). If you disable an application it will still download to cache and continue to update but will not be installed automatically to any agent.
This allows you to support pre-existing or one off package installs without distributing the package globally.

You can push out disabled packages manually to any agent which will then use any caching to update same package.

if you remove a package (delete) from approved list then it will be removed from cache on next update.

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