Systems Management

You have several options:

1. Remove the appropriate key from 'HKLM\Software\Microsoft\SMS\Mobile Client\Software Distribution\Execution History\System.' and do a machine policy retrieval and the advertisement will re-run.

2. Right click on advertisement and Re-run it (Note: affects entire collection)

3. Add a second mandatory assignment time to the advertisement, though this will only re-run it on machines that it it failed on the first time.


There are tools available to point option #2 at a single machine as well.

and do a machine policy retrieval and the advertisement will re-run.
when you say this, can i substitute with "and wait until group policy runs, and the advertisement will re-run" ?
so once you delete the reg key, you don't have to do anything but give it some time?

Not group policy, rather 'Machine policy initiation and retrieval' from the Systems Management icon in the control panel. It basically forces the client to check in with the server.

And yes, your second assumption is correct, you could also just give it time and it will eventually reinstall (it's dependent on your client polling interval.)

try this tool http://www.myitforum.com/articles/8/view.asp?id=7099
allows you to re-run advertisements on any PC regardless of the state it is in. saved my bacon many a time!

ORIGINAL: Bladerun

1. Remove the appropriate key from 'HKLM\Software\Microsoft\SMS\Mobile Client\Software Distribution\Execution History\System.' and do a machine policy retrieval and the advertisement will re-run.

Sorry to dig up an old thread but does anyone know how to force an advert to rerun from a client? I've tried the suggestion above but it didn't work - unless I'm missing something...

Scenario:

SMS has sucesfully run an advertisment on a machine - package is installed
Package is then uninstalled manually via add or remove programs
I want the advertisent to run again from SMS without doing anything in the SMS console

If I rollback the test machine to the baseline snapshot the advert runs again automatically so there is obviously data stored locally which can be removed to get the advert to run again... anyone?

Maybe it's just not that straighforward...

Thanks,
Rob.

Try removing the package name (subkey) under "Execution History" or "Presented Programs" (can't recall which one) located under "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SMS\Mobile Client\Software Distribution\". The SMS client should then perform its magic next check.

Thanks for the reply Kim.

The "Presented Programs" key just contains a user SID (nothing else) so I assume it's the "Execution History" key - which contains adveristment ID keys - e.g. PPH0011B - each with a unique GUID subkey - e.g. cf7f3bbd-76de-11de-b438-00248191c017 with a reference to the program name within it.

I've tried deleting the advertisment key (and subkeys) but still nothing happening. I wonder if there is also something stored in the C:\Windows\System32\CCM folder structure?

It's annoying me now [:@]

From what I recall at my last client, SCCM only uses files for logging: all the "history" type stuff is held in the registry. Dont quote me, though...

Removing the associated programs from the execution history combined with a machine policy refresh should do what you're looking for. Here's a few things I can think of off the top of my head that might be preventing a program rerun:

1) Is the program chained to anything else? I believe you have to remove all chained programs from the execution history key before an advertisement will rerun
2) Are you allowing users to initiate the advertisement? I have no idea if this would affect a rerun or not, but it might!
3) Does this happen on more than one client? I sometimes have this issue if WMI is broken on one or two systems.

Provided you're using a right click toolkit of some variety, you might try forcing a program to rerun through that UI, and see if the behavior is the same.

Thanks guys..

1) No there are no prerequisites
2) The advertistment is mandatory so users don't initiate it via control panel
3) I've only been testing on 1 client - I guess it could be a WMI issues, but if I rollback the snapshot and login with the same test account the advert runs again no problem.

There is literally no activity in the execmgr.log file (unless I logoff and on again!)

Can you ellaborate on a decent "right click toolkit" ? I've seen this but haven't tried it...

Cheers,
Rob.

fwahh? How is it that you live with SCCM's limitations? Anyway, I'm using this one at the moment, but that was more the luck of the google draw rather than any conscious choice, I'm sure the other toolkits out there are just as good. The function you're looking for on this one is right click on an asset --> SCCM Client Tools --> Rerun Advertisement.

That's at the console, though, and Mr Packager did say that he wanted to avoid the console (for whatever reason).

We use this but again it is from Console

http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/rhouchins/archive/2008/04/09/sccm-right-click-tools.aspx

Regards

Andrew

Well, I wouldn't want to use the console for anything either if I was using the default interface. That thing's for masochists only.