3.12 Standalone Agent Updater

The Standalone Agent Updater is an independent executable to update Windows managed devices and Windows Satellite Servers. Even if the device is unable to connect to the server, the Standalone Agent Updater can update the device to the latest version of the agent. The executable can be generated on any ZENworks Primary Server in the zone by using the zman system-update-create-package (sucp) command for the update that is imported into the zone.

IMPORTANT:

  • .NET 4.5 full framework must be installed on your device to execute Standalone Agent Updater.

  • Only a system user with administrative privileges can execute this tool.

  • If the device is not registered to any zone, then it will automatically register with the zone from where the standalone updater executable has been created.

  • Using Standalone Agent Updater, you cannot update the managed devices which are registered to a different zone.

  • The ZENworks agent or service does not have to be in a working state for the update to be applied through the Standalone Agent Updater.

  • ZENworks supports updating only Windows platform through the Standalone Agent Updater (both 32 bit and 64 bit platforms).

  • If the zone CA or server certificates have undergone change, then the existing Standalone Agent Updater executables need to be created again.

The Standalone Agent Updater contains the following sections:

During certificate update, if you ignore any device, then after successful activation of certificates, the ignored devices will not be able to communicate with zone. After the certificate update is baselined, the certificate updater tool will be removed from the download location (https://<server-address>/zenworks-setup). To overcome the communication issue on ignored devices, all devices should be updated with the certificate update using certificate updater tool. Hence, we recommend to back up the relevant certificate updater tool from the download location before ignoring any device.

3.12.1 Creating the Standalone Agent Updater executable

Standalone updater package is created by using the zman sucp command.

To create a system update package for a specific device:

  1. Run the following zman command:

    zman sucp <System_Update_Name or SystemUpdate GUID> <device path relative to /Devices or Device GUID> [-n|--package-name=Standalone update package name]

    For example, zman sucp 5011030000fc50000000002013052716 /Devices/Workstations/managed-device1 for generating package for the managed-device1 workstation.

  2. (Conditional) If the package-name (or -n) is not specified with a Standalone Agent Updater Package name, then the package is created as <deviceName>[<deviceGUID>].exe and stored.

To create a system update package for a platform:

  1. Run the following zman command:

    zman sucp <System_Update_Name or SystemUpdate GUID> -p=<OS Platform> -a=<Architecture>

    -p, --platform=<OS Platform>: OS platform for the standalone update package. Valid value is Windows.

    -a, --arch=<Architecture>: Device architecture for the standalone update package. Valid values are "32" and "64".

The created standalone updater package is stored in the following path:

  • For Linux: /opt/novell/zenworks/install/downloads/system-update/

  • For Windows: %ZENWORKS_HOME%\install\downloads\system-update

3.12.2 Executing the Standalone Agent Updater

To execute the Standalone Agent Updater:

  1. Copy the EXE file to the agent device.

  2. Log into the managed device as an administrator.

  3. Double click the EXE file to start the upgrade. Running the EXE from a command prompt with -v provides verbose output while upgrading or if any errors occur.

3.12.3 Viewing the Standalone Agent Updater log files

While creating the standalone update package on the Primary Server by using the zman sucp command, if any error displays, then see zman.log and loader-messages.log files.

While executing the standalone agent updater on the managed device, if any error displays, then see %zenworks_home%\logs\system-update\<SU_GUID>\system-update.log file.