Troubleshooting ZCM System Update to version 10.0.3

  • 3156703
  • 25-Mar-2008
  • 27-Apr-2012

Environment

Novell ZENworks 10 Configuration Management

Situation

Problems trying to use System Update to upgrade ZCM to 10.0.3

Resolution

  • See Section 11.0, ZENworks System Updates in the ZENworks 10 Configuration Management documentation for how to initiate System Update.
  • If you are upgrading from 10.0.0 it is vital that you follow TID 3407754"Upgrading from ZENworks 10.0.0 to 10.0.3" before attempting the upgrade to 10.0.3
  • If your server needs to go via a proxy to reach the internet, check TID 3087025"Unable to retrieve ZCM system updates through a web proxy"
The System Update process:
We can separate this into three stages when we are troubleshooting systemupdate
  1. Download Update
    During this stage the files will be downloaded and entered in the system as a system bundle
  2. Authorize Update
    At this stage the database will get updated
  3. Apply Update
    During this stage the update files will get installed on the device
Download Update:

What happens:
  1. Once you initiate the download for System Update, ZENloader checks the queue and will pick up the download task.
    ZENloader runs on each Primary server, any of the primary servers could pick up the download task.
  2. ZENloader will contact the Novell Customer Center servers with the license key and request the location of thesystemupdate.xml(via https)
  3. NCC will verify your license, and if allowed, will return the location of thesystemupdate.xmlfile, which will be onyou.novell.com
  4. ZENloader will download thesystemupdate.xmlfile.
  5. Based on the contents of this file, ZENloader will now download the contents of the update, again fromyou.novell.com, and will put these files in%ZENWORKS_HOME%\temp
  6. When the download is complete, system bundles will be created.
  7. These bundles will then be synchronised to all Primary servers and Content Distribution Points
    Be aware that the Content Synchronisation is done based on the content replication Schedule, if the Content Replication schedule is modified to be a few hours it might take some time for the servers to start the sync.
  8. ZENloader will wait for the sync to finish, and when this is complete, the status will change to"Downloaded"
troubleshooting:
  • ZENloader produces a great deal of output in theloader-messages.logfile
    %ZENWORKS_HOME%\logs\loader-messages.logon Windows
    /var/opt/novell/log/zenworks/loader-messages.logon Linux
  • Problems with downloading: If the update does not download, check to see if there were any errors downloading, bundling, or syncing. If the process gets stuck, then you can clear the update on the Status Details page(Configuration->System Updatestab, click onStatus Details, select the update, click onAction...Clear Update). Then retry. Also check that the ZENloader service is running.
Authorize Update:

What happens:
  • When the update gets authorized, one of the primary servers will update the database
Apply Update:
CheckSection 11.1.1, Creating System Update Staging Groupsin the documentation to learn about staging groups before attempting the next step
What happens:
  1. The system-bundles will get assigned to the devices in the staging group
  2. Next the device needs to do a refresh (if needed a manual refresh can be done on the device)
  3. At the refresh, the device will download the system bundles and extract the bundles to:
    ZENworks\work\system-update (Windows)
    /var/opt/novell/zenworks/work/system-update (Linux)
  4. On Windows the systemupdate service will be installed to ZENworks\work\system-update
    On Linux zenupdate will be installed to /var/novell/zenworks/work/system-update
  5. The SystemUpdate Service (or zenupdate) will perform the install based on the details in systemupdate.ini (zenupdate.ini on Linux)

Troubleshooting:

  • Remember, the agent will not get the update until its next refresh, so it could take some time. You can always do a manual refresh. Check to see if the agent got its assignments in the service-messages.log (same location as loader-messages.log). There should be log messages saying that device has assignments. If not, then there is a problem with registration or assignments.
  • If the assignment happened, then the agent should be pulling down files. Check the zmd cache directory
    %ZENWORKS_HOME%\work\zmd\cache\ZenCacheon Windows,
    /var/opt/novell/zenworks/zmd/cache/ZenCacheon Linux.
    Look in the subdirectories for the update files, if they are not there, then the bundles are not being downloaded
    Look in the system update work directory to make sure all the files are there.
    Look at the SystemUpdate.log file in the logs directory.
    Look at the SystemUpdate.ini. file.
  • Look at theloader-messages.logfile to see if status is being loaded and that the update status action is happening.