Installing Software Updates via a Task Sequence in ConfigMgr 2007

I noticed that when your Site is running in Native Mode you can run into problems with installing Software Updates via a Task Sequence. The first time that your are installing your computer with your Task Sequence there are no problems, but every time after that the Task Sequence will finish successful but doesn’t install any Software Updates. It looks like that it will use existing scan results of the client from the previous scan. So when there are already scan results of your client it will not rescan during your Task Sequence.

To work around this I use the following scripts (that I run before the step Install Software Updates in the Task Sequence):

1. Initiate Software Updates Scan: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc144313.aspx
   actionNameToRun = “Software Updates Assignments Evaluation Cycle”

   Dim oCPAppletMgr
   Set oCPAppletMgr = CreateObject(“CPApplet.CPAppletMgr”)

   Dim oClientActions
   Set oClientActions = oCPAppletMgr.GetClientActions()

   ‘Loop through the available client actions. Run the matching client action when it is found.
   Dim oClientAction
   For Each oClientAction In oClientActions
      If oClientAction.Name = actionNameToRun Then
         oClientAction.PerformAction 
      End If
   Next

2. Refresh Compliance State: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc146437.aspx
   dim newCCMUpdatesStore
   set newCCMUpdatesStore = CreateObject (“Microsoft.CCM.UpdatesStore”)
   
   ‘Refresh the server compliance state by running the RefreshServerComplianceState method.
   newCCMUpdatesStore.RefreshServerComplianceState

The first script Initiate Software Updates Scan is to let the client check if it needs new updates and the second script Refresh Compliance State is to let the client report back to the server that it needs updates.

Note: It can also happen when you are trying to avoid obsolete clients by starting the Task Sequence via Run Advertised Program.