If I target a single SCUP update in a software update group via a deployment to a collection with one machine in it, WOL wakes the machine just fine.

However the same machine isn't waking up for monthly software updates (using SCCM 2012 R2) with WOL set to yes for the deployment for the monthly software update group.  The machine hasn't been on for a few weeks and won't have scanned against the wsus catalog since the updates were released.

I saw this comment: 'Wake-up packets are sent only to computers that require the software updates and have not already installed them'

Does that mean that the machine has to have done a successful software update scan before a WOL packet will be sent for monthly updates ? (we use the default of every 7 days).  Nb can you tell from the server console when the software update scan has completed for a particular client without reading the client windowsupdate.log?

What's the best way of managing rarely switched on pcs?

Thanks

David

Hi,

Have you check log files of WOL?

wolcmgr.log and wolmgr.log on the site server

nothing hugely informative I thought - stuff about starting wol and ending wol activity

Along with the log files you could also run the report to find the computers targeted for WOL activity. Since you have one PC then it should show up the same in the report.

Report: "All computers targeted for Wake On LAN activity"

As a part of testing could you try adding a new computer to the collection and see if that has WOL issues ?

Yes the software update scan cycle should have run before the updates are to be installed. For software update scan cycle, you could check the below mentioned log files.

WUAHandler.log - Check this log file to know if Scan is succeeded or not.

UpdatesStore.log - Check this log file to know the status of patches like missing,installed,

Scanagent.log - Check this log file to know scan requests for software updates.

I had tried that report but it never returns machines- do you know what the 'time zone' entry is all about -  very weird and I can't see it documented.

So as an example we have a machine which is not due any updates because the software update scan has not run - when the due date is reached WOL packets are sent to machines that do need updates but not this one.  Two days later this machine is switched on and the software update scan is run, the machine is then switched off - will the WOL packets be sent after the site server has processed the update scan information? [ or are they only generated around the due date - I think I've read they are sent up to three times in a short space of time?]

Also if a software update scan is overdue when a machine is switched on after say two weeks will it start asap?

Thanks

David

I now intend to run a powershell script via a task sequence to wol all pcs some hours before the updates go out.  This will force clients to do a software update scan so that they have reported back requirements before the main software update deployment kicks off. 

http://www.systemcenterdudes.com/configuration-manager-2012-client-command-list