Ok, this appears to be a silly question - but it is based on a change in work flow - with the new version The funny thing is that “the change” from v6 to v7 is exactly what myself and others at my site have grumped about for some time. And now that it has changed - I’m not sure what the new best method should be - as I got so used to the old way.
Scenerio:
In v6 you could open a computer and look at all the Relevant Fixlet Messages. Then you could highlight all the fixlets you wanted and select “Take Default Action”. Now the old pain was that if you only wanted that one computer to receive the fixlets - you would then have to select the same computer you just said to take the action on again - from the big list. But I got used to that and used it as a way to then deploy multiple fixlets to multiple computers - that I knew were similiar in need. I would select a server that I knew had relevent needs as other servers. Then select all the fixlets from the one and deploy to the many that I wanted.
Now - when you say “Take Default Action” - only the single computer you were viewing is in the relevant list. Which is cool. So, the question is - what is the best way to take multiple fixlets that you know numerous computers need and then deploy to them? Handpicking out of Fixlet Messages is a bit cumbersome. Is there a way to look at one system (knowing that many more are in the same boat of patches) - and then use what that one computer needs to then deploy to many? Basically using one system as a template of "patches needed?
Once you have selected ‘Take Default Action’ on a set of relevant Fixlets, in the ‘Take Action’ dialog you can switch to the second radio button for targeting. Than target the set of machine you are interested in by any criteria you want using the filter tree. Note that you’ll be targeting any machines that match the criteria, so if you want to ensure that only specific machines get that Fixlets, you can always use the ‘By Retrieved Property --> By Computer Name’ path to select only machine that have a specific name.
Generally speaking, if you are targeting more than a handful of names, for efficiency reasons it is much better to use the second radio button (Target all computers with the property values selected in the tree) vs. the first (Target specific computers) or third (Target by list).
I see how that works - however, typically we slowly roll-out patches - just in case there are issues that don’t come up till a few days later. As well, we have sytems that have to be patched seperately - or even can’t be patched - due to vendor control. Choosing the second radio button - means I really can’t see who I am targeting (visually). I do have retrieved properties for many systems to isolate them - but sometimes you want to just manually pick a handfull of random systems.
It’s funny - because this is the procedure we always wanted as a default action. And now that it is in place - it is awkard doing it differently.
Yes, we’ve gone back and forth on this behavior a few times ourselves.
Here’s an alternate technique… Select the specific computers you’d like to patch. Right click and select ‘view as group’. Alternatively, simply open an existing group. The group document opens and you can see on the computer group’s Fixlet tab all Fixlets that are relevant on at least one member of the group. Right-click ‘Take Default Action’ on the Fixlets you are interested in deploying, and the take action dialog will be populated with all computers from the group.
That’s a good one. View as Group is actually a great idea and works well. I will try using that method. The only thing I can see as a potential pain is if the agents you want to target are not near each other in the full list and you have to scroll through thousands of systems to find the particular agent. But there are ways to alleviating (or lessen) that scroll search. That’s basically what I was looking for - a more simple way to modify my work flow. Thanks as always.
Sigh… people specifically ask us to change the behavior and we explain why we originally implemented it that way… but people demand the change… then, we change it, and now everyone wants it back the old way… building software is hard!
Hopefully Jesse’s behavior works well for you, but also note (for everyone who might not realize) that you can always select the Fixlets from the main Fixlet list and when you take default action, the computer list will be all computers that need any one of the Fixlets. The only change from 6.0->7.0 was if you select Fixlets from a single computer view.
I will put in a feature request to allow an option to specify which behavior you want to use… we can start a new forum thread to discuss which should be the default.
A better way would seem to have been to show the list as before, but with the one you targeted highlight, with the ability to select others. Or at least a bullet that would show the complete list.
Maybe you need to expand the beta group to catch changes that impact the interface as much as this one does. The other one we are having pains over is the minimum 15 minute delay for a reboot. We have cases were a client will stay logged in over lunch to allow us to uninstall an application, reboot, install a new version and then reboot again. Now with the 15 minute delay on both reboots, what used to take maybe 10 minutes takes 40 minutes.
We patch by manual groups setup up by locations. I’ll try the View as Group option to see it that works any better.
I’d also like to see a radio button to show all PCs or just the single PC. For now I’m using the “view as group” as you suggested.
As for which should be the default, it would be nice if we had an option under “file->preferences” so we can choose which to default to. But leave a radio button so we can still easily switch while deploying.
