KACE Systems Management Appliance 10.2 Common Documents

Configure Rollback-only patch schedules

You can create and edit patch schedules that roll back selected patches. Rollback might not be available for some patches.

See Determine whether a patch can be rolled back.

Go to the Patch Schedule Detail page:

Log in to the KACE SMA Administrator Console, https://KACE_SMA_hostname/admin. Or, if the Show organization menu in admin header option is enabled in the appliance General Settings, select an organization in the drop-down list in the top-right corner of the page next to the login information.

On the left navigation bar, click Security.

On the Patch Management panel, click Schedules.

Display the Patch Schedule Detail page by doing one of the following:

▪

Click the name of a patch schedule.

▪

Select Choose Action > New.

In the Configure section, specify options for the Rollback-only schedule.

Option

Description

Name

A name that identifies the schedule. This name appears on the Patch Schedules page.

Action

Select Rollback. The page updates to the appropriate options.

The patch action behavior is dependent on the combination of reboot, detect, deploy, and rollback selections you make. Whenever a patch action does both a Detect pass and something else, as is the case with Detect and Deploy and Detect and Rollback, the action is repeated cyclically until the Detect action finds no further patches to deploy or roll back. This behavior might result in multiple Reboot actions for a single scheduled run. In addition, the type of device you are patching affects the type of patch action to use.

Device Labels

Restrict the patch actions to the devices in the labels that you select. Limiting the run to labels, especially Smart Labels, helps to ensure that patches are applied appropriately.

For example, some application patches have the ability to install applications as well as update applications that are already installed. To prevent the appliance from installing the application on devices that do not already have the application installed, you can create a Smart Label to identify devices that have the application. You can then limit the patch action to devices that have that label. The patch is then applied only to devices that already have the application installed.

To use this option, you must already have created labels or Smart Labels. See Using Smart Labels for patching.

NOTE: When a Device Smart Label is associated with a label group, the Smart Label appears available for selection, but cannot be applied by dragging it to the right. This is the default behavior for label groups. You can only select and apply Smart Labels that are based on a single item.

Any labels that you select in this section only apply to the set of devices associated with the scoped user (if applicable). Scoped users can see only those devices that are associated with their role, when the role is assigned a label. For more information about user roles, see Add or edit User Roles.

Devices

Run detect and deploy patch actions on the devices that you select. To search for devices, begin typing in the field. Scoped users can see only those devices that are associated with their role, when the role is assigned a label. For more information about user roles, see Add or edit User Roles.

Operating Systems

Select the operating systems of the devices on which you want to run the actions. The default is all operating systems.

In the Rollback section, specify options for the Rollback-only schedule.

Option

Description

All Patches

Roll back all patches on the selected devices.

Labels

Restrict the action to the patches in the labels that you select. This option is the most commonly used patch detection option. To select labels, click Edit. To use this option, you must already have labels or Smart Labels for the patches you want to detect. See Using Smart Labels for patching.

Maximum Rollback Attempts

The maximum number of attempts, between 0 and 99, to indicate the number of times the appliance tries to deploy or rollback the patch. If you specify 0, the appliance attempts to deploy or rollback the patch indefinitely.

As a last step in patch deployment or rollback, the appliance verifies whether the patch was deployed or rolled back successfully. If a deployment or rollback fails, the appliance attempts to deploy or rollback the patch again until one of the following occurs:

•

The deployment or rollback succeeds.

•

The maximum number of attempts is reached.

•

The scheduled deployment or rollback period ends and patching is suspended.

In the Notify section, specify options for the Rollback-only schedule.

Option

Description

Options

The options displayed to users when patch actions run. To perform the action without notifying the user, leave the Options field blank.

•

OK: Run immediately.

•

Cancel: Cancel until the next scheduled run.

•

Snooze: Prompt the user again after the Snooze Duration.

Timeout

The amount of time, in minutes, for the dialog to be displayed before an action is performed. If this time period elapses without the user pressing a button, the appliance performs the action specified in the Timeout drop-down list.

Timeout Action

The action to be performed when the Timeout period elapses without the user choosing an option.

Snooze Duration

The amount of time, in minutes, for the period after the user clicks Snooze. When this period elapses, the dialog appears again.

Snooze Until Limit

Select the Snooze Until Limit check box to enable the user to Snooze the patch action a specified number of times. Specify the number of Attempts.

Initial Message

The message to be displayed to users before the action runs. To customize the logo that appears in the dialog, see Configure appliance General Settings with the Organization component enabled.

Progress Message

The message displayed to users during the patch action.

Completion Message

The message displayed to users when the patch action is complete.

In the Reboot section, specify options for the Rollback-only schedule.

Option	Description
Options	The options for rebooting the managed device.
No Reboot	The device does not reboot even though a reboot might be required for the patch to take effect. No Reboot is not recommended because deploying patches without rebooting when required can leave systems unstable. Further, patches that require reboots are only shown as deployed after the reboot.
Prompt User	Wait for the user to accept the reboot before restarting the device. If the user snoozes or cancels the reboot, patching stops until a reboot occurs. Selecting a Snooze Duration in the agent dialog that appears on the target device pauses the reboot prompt for the specified snooze interval.
Force Reboot	Reboot as soon as a patch requiring it is deployed. Forced reboots cannot be canceled. Force Reboot works well for desktops and servers. You might not want to force reboot on laptops. Force Reboot works well with servers because they usually have no dedicated users. However, it is important to warn users that services will not be available when servers are being patched and rebooted. See Best practices for patching.
Automatically reboot when no one is logged in	Automatically reboot the managed device if no users are logged in.
Message	The message to be displayed to the user before the device reboots. For information about adding a custom logo to the message dialog, see Configure appliance General Settings with the Organization component enabled.
Timeout	The amount of time, in minutes, for the dialog to be displayed before an action is performed. If this time period elapses without the user pressing a button, the appliance performs the action specified in the Timeout drop-down list. When Force Reboot is selected, the timeout behavior takes into consideration the KUSerAlert and global KACE SMA Agent process timeouts. The global timeout, set through the Agent and Communication Settings section, always determines how long any agent-launched processes can run for, including the KUserAlert timeout. For example, if the KUserAlert timeout is set to two hours, and you set the global timeout to one hour, the agent will stop the KUserAlert because it runs too long. Therefore the global timeout must be set to the desired timeout that is longer than the KUserAlert timeout. This value must be set accordingly. For more information about agent settings, see Configure Agent communication and log settings.
Timeout Action	The action to be performed when the Timeout period elapses without the user choosing an option.
Reboot Delay (countdown)	Postpone the reboot using a countdown. The countdown is in minutes.
Reboot Now	Reboot the device immediately.
Reboot Later	Reboot the device later.
Number of prompts	The number of prompts the user receives before the device reboots. For example, if you enter a value of 5, the device automatically reboots the fifth time the user receives the reboot prompt. In other words, the user can delay the reboot only four times if the Number of prompts value is set to 5.
Reprompt Interval	The time that elapses before the user is reprompted to reboot.

In the Schedule section, specify options for the Rollback-only schedule.

Option

Description

None

Run in combination with an event rather than on a specific date or at a specific time. This option is useful if you want to patch servers manually, or perform patch actions that you do not want to run on a schedule.

Every _ hours

Run at a specified interval.

Every day/specific day at HH:MM

Run daily at a specified time, or run on a designated day of the week at a specified time.

Run on the nth of every month/specific month at HH:MM

Run on the nth day every month, (for example, the first or the second) day of every month, or a specific month, at the specified time.

Run on the nth weekday of every month/specific month at HH:MM

Run on the specific weekday of every month, or a specific month, at the specified time.

Custom

Run according to a custom schedule.

Use standard 5-field cron format (extended cron format is not supported):

Use the following when specifying values:

•

Spaces ( ): Separate each field with a space.

•

Asterisks (*): Include the entire range of values in a field with an asterisk. For example, an asterisk in the hour field indicates every hour.

•

Commas (,): Separate multiple values in a field with a comma. For example, 0,6 in the day of the week field indicates Sunday and Saturday.

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Hyphens (-): Indicate a range of values in a field with a hyphen. For example, 1-5 in the day of the week field is equivalent to 1,2,3,4,5, which indicates Monday through Friday.

•

Slashes (/): Specify the intervals at which to repeat an action with a slash. For example, */3 in the hour field is equivalent to 0,3,6,9,12,15,18,21. The asterisk (*) specifies every hour, but /3 restricts this to hours divisible by 3.

Examples:

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15 * * * * Run 15 minutes after every hour every day

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0 22 * * * Run at 22:00 every day

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0 0 1 1,6 * Run at 00:00 on January 1 and June 1

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30 8,12 * * 1-5 Run weekdays at 08:30 and 12:30

•

0 2 */2 * * Run every other day at 02:00

View Task Schedule

Click to view the task schedule. The Task Schedule dialog box displays a list of scheduled. Click a task to review the task details. For more information, see View task schedules.

Timezone

The timezone to use when scheduling the action. Select Server to use the timezone of the appliance. Select Agent to use the timezone of the managed device.

Run on next connection if offline

Run the action the next time the managed device connects to the appliance, if the device is currently offline. This option is useful for laptops and other devices that are periodically offline. If this option is not selected, and the device is offline, the action does not run again until the next scheduled time.

Delay run after reconnect

Delay the schedule by a specified amount of time. The time delay period begins when the patch action is scheduled to run.

End after

The time limit for patching actions.

For example, if you schedule patches to run at 04:00, you might want all patching actions to stop at 07:00 to prevent bandwidth issues when users start work. To do so, you could specify 180 in the minutes box.

When this time limit is reached, any patching tasks that are in progress are suspended, and their status on Security logs is Suspended.

These patching tasks do not resume on the next run and instead start from the beginning with each scheduled patching action.

Click Save.

The Rollback-only schedule is created. If you add devices that match the Smart Label criteria, they are automatically included in the patching schedule.

Error codes caused by patching and scripting

The following Fail error codes that can be encountered during patching (Detection or Deployment phase only) or scripting.

Table 30. Error codes encountered during patching or scripting
Error code	Description
8001	The command sent to the plugin unrecognized by the KPluginsKacePatch
8002	Failure parsing the command sent to the plugin
8003	Failure downloading a Manifest file
8004	Failure to extract the downloaded Manifest file
8005	General failure while handling the PreDetect command (for example, invalid function inputs)
8007	Failure to generate PreDetect results
8008	General failure while handling the Detect command (for example, invalid function inputs)
8009	Failure parsing the Detect Manifest file
8010	Failure to generate Detect results
8011	A reboot is pending
8012	Failure to upload a results log
8013	General failure while handling the Detect file (for example, invalid function inputs)
8014	Failure downloading a patch Detect file
8015	Checksum mismatch between the patch Detect file and the detection Manifest record
8016	Failure to create a checksum file for the patch Detect file
8017	Failure to load the patch Detect file
8018	Failure to decrypt the patch Detect file
8019	Failure to unzip the patch Detect file
8020	Failure to parse the json in the patch Detect file
8021	Detection type in the patch Detect file not recognized as a valid detection method
8100	Failure parsing the Manifest file
8101	General failure while handling the Deploy command (for example, invalid function inputs)
8102	General failure while handling the Rollback command (for example, invalid function inputs)
8103	Invalid Handler Specific Data (HSD) type
8150	Checksum mismatch between the requested file and the Manifest record
8151	Failure downloading a requested file
8152	Failure to create a checksum file for a downloaded file
8200	Invalid command scalar operation
8201	Invalid command string operation
8202	Invalid command
8250	Invalid path to the results file
8251	Failure to create a results file