SMP - Patch Management - Disable Bulletins

Published on Friday, 2 November 2018
SMP

SMP SMP

Patch Management

Disable Bulletins

Patch Management has it's own Web Service.

http://localhost/altiris/patchmanagementcore/PatchWorkflowSvc.asmx
SMP
8.5.3073 ✔
8.1.5844 ✘
7.5.# ✘

Looks like 8.5 got a new method.

  • Disable Bulletins
http://localhost/altiris/patchmanagementcore/PatchWorkflowSvc.asmx?op=DisableBulletins

This takes two parameters

  • bulletinGuids (string)
  • deletePolicies (boolean)

bulletinGuids - This is usually a comma separated list of Guids, when the input is a string but plural.

FORUM

Automatically "Delete unused Software Update Packages" problem disabling staged bulletins
https://www.symantec.com/connect/forums/automatically-delete-unused-software-update-packages-problem-disabling-staged-bulletins

From @Sergei Kljujev

In order to disable Bulletin you can use attached script, as following:

  1. Unzip DisableBulletin.zip and copy contents to C:\Program Files\Altiris\Notification Server\Bin.

NB! Make Sure to merge NSCRIPT.NRF and NSCRIPT.EXE.CONFIG to the existing ones, if you already have them modified.

  1. Run C:\Program Files\Altiris\Notification Server\Bin\NSCRIPT.EXE DisableBulletin.cs <bulletin_guid>

Note that the script is working on Patch Management Solution Versions up to 8.1.*

  • DisableBulletin.cs

  • NScript.exe.config

  • Nscript.nrf

    DisableBulletin.cs

    using System; using System.IO; using Altiris.NS.ItemManagement; using Altiris.NS.Security; using Altiris.PatchManagementCore.Policies; using Altiris.PatchManagementCore.Resources;

    class DisableBulletin { static int Main(string[] args) { Guid bulletinGuid; if (args.Length != 1) { Console.WriteLine("Programmatically Disable Bulletin"); Console.WriteLine("Usage: nscript.exe DisableBulletin.cs "); return 1; } if (!Guid.TryParse(args[0], out bulletinGuid)) { Console.WriteLine("Error: Cannot create guid from '{0}'", args[0]); return 1; }

          SecurityContextManager.SetContextData();

      var bulletin = Item.GetItem(bulletinGuid, ItemLoadFlags.Writeable) as SoftwareBulletinResource;

      if (bulletin == null)
      {
          Console.WriteLine("Error: Bulletin '{0}' not found.", bulletinGuid);
          return 1;
      }	
      var oldValue = bulletin.RaiseMessage;
      try
      {
          bulletin.RaiseMessage = false;
          bulletin.IsDisabledByUser = true;
          bulletin.Enabled = false;
          bulletin.setAdvertStagedState(false);
          bulletin.deleteAllPendingUpdates();
          bulletin.Save();
      } 
      catch (Exception ex)
      {
          Console.WriteLine("Error: Bulletin '{0}' could not be disabled. Exception: {1}", bulletin.Name, ex);
         return 1;
      }
      finally 
      {
          bulletin.RaiseMessage = oldValue;
      }

      Console.WriteLine("Bulletin '{0}' Disabled.", bulletin.Name);
      return 0;
  }

    }

    NScript.exe.config

    Nscript.nrf

    Altiris.PatchManagementCore Altiris.InventoryRuleManagement

Or from @schnyders

$ReportsMS = New-WebServiceProxy -Uri "http://altiris/Altiris/ASDK.NS/ReportManagementService.asmx" -UseDefaultCredential
$ConsoleMS = New-WebServiceProxy -Uri "http://altiris/Altiris/NS/console.asmx" -UseDefaultCredential

$Bulletins = $ReportsMS.RunReport("9e5b8923-b02b-4702-9b44-4404fa8b6e43").table | Where-Object { $_.Available_x0020_Packages -gt 0 -and $_.Policies -eq 0 -and $_.Downloaded -eq "Yes" }

ForEach($Bulletin in $Bulletins) {
    $ConsoleMS.ItemCallback($Bulletin._ResourceGuid, "ItemAction:e6e01da7-1f2e-4716-99e0-2738c214d458:")
}

Programatically disable the staged bulletins
https://www.symantec.com/connect/forums/programatically-disable-staged-bulletins

ALTERNATIVE TOOLS

Worklfow Workflow has it's own Project

Zero Day Patch

https://www.symantec.com/connect/videos/workflow-template-zero-day-patch

This is using a previous version of the WebService but could easily be updated to take advantage of this new method.

AutoPatcher
https://www.symantec.com/connect/articles/autopatcher

PatchAutomation and ZeroDayPatch builds for 8.0
https://www.symantec.com/connect/blogs/cwoc-patchautomation-and-zerodaypatch-builds-80

Protirus