Task sequence stuck on 'installing'

[epoch71]

Hi all

 

We have a task sequence that performs some tasks for a migration of our RAS product (from one vendor to another).
Basically, it installs the new product and then uninstalls the old one.

The deployment is set to 'required' with a scheduled run date far in the future (1st August 2016), and is also set to "allow user to run outside of assignments".

This allows us to cache the job, and then at the appropriate time we'll modify the deployment schedule to 'run now'. Connected users will receive the update to the deployment and the TS will begin. Remote users, who will not be able to connect using the old deployment our go-live date can launch the cached deployment from Software Center.

This has all been tested time and again and has worked without issues. Until our dry-run testing today!

If I try to manually start the job from Software Center on a machine that is offline, the entry in Software Center says 'installing' for about a minute, then it stops and reverts back to displaying the scheduled run time. I've checked the cache and can confirm all the content is there. If I subsequently connect this machine to the network, and try to run it again, it does so immediately (and I see no changes to the cache so I'm confident there was no missing content).

Likewise, if I remove the machine from the deployment collection, update policy on the machine to observe the Software Center entry disappear, then delete the cache I can re-add the machine to the collection, watch the content cache, and then disconnect from the network and successfully run the job. (sorry for the long sentence!)

I'm really at a loss to understand why these cached, offline installs are not working. Again - this was all tested without issues leading up to this critical testing day!

Any advice on why these deployments are not running would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

 

(Note: I felt compelled to cross-post this on a couple of support forums).

[anyweb]

what version of ConfigMgr are you running, and what CU's are applied.

[epoch71]

Hi there. It's 2012 SP1 CU2.

 

I have a bit more info.

 

I think this is a policy/MP issue. If we deploy the task sequence and then take a machine offline soon after, the job will run successfully from Software Center. However, if a machine is offline for a 'length of time' then it fails to run as described in my first post. I suspect the length of time is the machine policy retrieval interval (1hr).

 

I've had a look at the execmgr and locationservices logs and I can see it successfully speaking to a MP when the job works, and failing to contact a MP when it doesn't.

 

Could this mean that a cached deployment will not work offline outside of the machine policy window? If so, this is not the behaviour I was expecting!