Update of inactive computers within a system, subsystem, or group

Computers in the Prinect environment are tagged "Not active" if the PMC cannot reach them at present, so that the PMC cannot access them for update checks and installations. A non-active state can have the following reasons, for example:

​•​The network connection between the PMC and the computer is interrupted,

​•​The affected computer is turned off or

​•​The Computer is in the "sleep mode". See also "Wake up" a computer in sleep mode for an update.

Background

The Service Tools or Local Information Services (LIS) report to the PMC every 30 seconds. In this way, the PMC receives regular information for all registered computers as to whether they can be reached or not. If a computer is unreachable, it is checked when it was last active. If a computer has been inactive for more than 60 days, it is removed from the PMC registry, i.e., its entry is deleted from the PMC Repository. When a remote computer becomes active at a later time, that is the local information Service (LIS) of the computer reports to the PMC again, the computer is automatically registered as "active" again in the PMC. If this is a movable computer, it must then be manually assigned to its original group or system again if applicable. See What are movable computers?.

Normally, all computers within an update group, i.e. within a system, subsystem, or group, should be active to ensure that all updates are consistent within that update group.

However, there may be times when you want to update an update group with one (or more) computer(s) in that group being inactive. In this case, the update is still possible under certain conditions.

Prerequisite: To prevent inconsistencies during the update, the following requirements must be met:

​•​All inactive computers to be updated must have already been registered to the PMC so that the PMC has a list of the Prinect products installed on those computers. This is the only way to correctly determine interdependencies.

​•​A product cannot be updated on an active computer within an update group if there are interdependencies to other products installed on inactive computers within the update group. Such interdependencies cannot be resolved subsequently.

​•​A product that is installed on both active and inactive computers within an update group can be updated on the active computers. This also applies if the product versions on the active and inactive computers are different.

Procedure

If an update group containing inactive computers has been updated, the active computers have a newer software version than the inactive computers. If the inactive computers become "active" later by restoring the network connection to the PMC and the Local Information Service (LIS) of these computers logs in to the PMC again, it is essential that any pending updates are made to these computers.

To do this, the version of the update packages of the reactivated computers is transferred from the LIS to the PMC and compared with the current version of the PMC. As a result, all pending update packages for the reactivated computers are offered and selected by default.

It is strongly recommended that you install all offered update packages immediately after re-activation to ensure all computers within the update group have a consistent software version.