SMS 2003 - Troubleshooting - Advertisement Hangs
If you run an environment with several LOB's (Lines of Business), you may have done as we have and created collections for each LOB for full layered application installations. For us, this is a convenient method for ensuring that each new machine receives every necessary application for its particular LOB. If you do something similar, you may encounter a situation where a particular series of installation "hangs" and will not proceed. Here is one possible scenario.
As I've said in the past, execmgr.log is your friend. Learn to check it regularly for any problem dealing with packages or advertisements. For a hung series of installations, you can look for the following as a possible cause: (Notice the portion in bold.)
Content is available for program Windows Update Agent x86 (5.8.0.2694). execmgr 11/28/2007 12:00:31 PM 3932 (0x0F5C)
Raising event:
[SMS_CodePage(437), SMS_LocaleID(1033)]
instance of SoftDistProgramWaitingForAnotherProgram
{
AdvertisementId = "CEN20007";
BlockingPackageID = "CEN00008";
BlockingProgramName = "Bloomberg-Open_Bloomberg-V6.08-R1";
ClientID = "GUID:B7185999-454D-4F27-ACCA-B275CD0C6F03";
DateTime = "20071128180032.002000+000";
MachineName = "AST64G10F1INTR";
PackageName = "CEN00037";
ProcessID = 452;
ProgramName = "Windows Update Agent x86 (5.8.0.2694)";
SiteCode = "AST";
ThreadID = 3932;
};
execmgr 11/28/2007 12:00:32 PM 3932 (0x0F5C)
Successfully raised SoftDistProgramWaitingForAnotherProgram event for program Windows Update Agent x86 (5.8.0.2694). execmgr 11/28/2007 12:00:32 PM 3932 (0x0F5C)
This section can aid you in narrowing down the causes of the hangup by identifying which package and program is causing the problem. In this case, we had a particular application which would only install (within SMS) via a wrapper. We hand changed the deployment method to "Run from Distribution Point" and the app blew chunks. After switching it to "Download... " it went through without a hitch. If, in the interest of time, you need to layer the remaining applications while you figure out how to fix your particular hangup, just open Task Manager, and end the process which is related to your hung app installation. The remaining advertisements will queue up and finish.