mom: pending action does not show "requires patching"...

follow along with me on how disjointed this whole thing is. we've been on mom 2005 for quite awhile. after seeing some more than the usual amount of scripting errors and lock ups, i started looking into possible causes. i ran across the hotfix outlined in kb934441. that's not uncommon, really. now the reason i went with this hotfix versus some others is because of the file version. this one updates to the latest of 5.0.2911.41 (in case you were wondering.)

all that background aside, look at these instructions:

To apply this hotfix, follow these steps:

1. Copy the MOM2005-SP1-KB934441-X86-IA64-ENU.msi file to a local folder or to a shared folder on the network. If you use a shared folder, make sure that the computers that require this hotfix can access the folder.
2. Log on to one of the computers that require this hotfix by using an account that has administrative credentials.
3. Run the MOM2005-SP1-KB934441-X86-IA64-ENU.MSI file. (You can run the file at a command prompt, or you can run the file by using Windows Explorer.)
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 on each computer that requires this hotfix.

looks ordinary enough... and you would probably assumed this worked. WRONG! all this does is expand the contents of the .msi to a folder. inside that folder are .msps and a updatemom.exe. let's say you did the logically thing... and double-clicked the .msp. you go on to install the patch and then review the rest of the kb article which states the following:

Manually apply the hotfix. Or, follow these steps to use the MOM 2005 server to apply the hotfix:

1. Use the Pending Actions folder in the MOM 2005 Administrator console to make sure that the manual installation of the MOM 2005 agents is approved.
2. Click the "Agent-managed Computers" folder in the MOM 2005 Administrator console, right-click the MOM 2005 agent in the details pane, and then click Update Agent Settings.

um, no. you might think to yourself, "self, i should kick off a discovery cycle". you do that. walk off, grab coffee, run into a coworker and talk about last minute gift ideas or holiday parties... head back to your desk, refresh pending actions... and a whole lot of nothing. like a lump of coal in your stocking.

this got me interested in updatemom.exe. certainly it wasn't put there for no reason. i'm no google or live expert... but putting in a search like "updatemom.exe" should give back something, right? hmmm. not quite so. luckily, (despite the inconsistencies in different hotfixes and total lack of documentation) it wasn't too hard to figure out. if you run updatemom.exe as a command, you'll get the following pop-up box.

very friendly, i know. true to its word, you have to type in the command exactly as it states! it would look something like this:

Z:\>updatemom.exe /x86msp:q934441-x86.msp /agent /ia64msp:q934441-ia64.msp

when this is executed correctly, the following directories will be updated with the .msp file:

• <ProgramFiles>\Microsoft Operations Manager 2005\x86\Patches
• <ProgramFiles>\Microsoft Operations Manager 2005\ia64\Patches

kick off discovery... and check your pending actions. now you should see the "requires patching" actionable machines.