SMS: PCM May Not Change the Status of Executed Package Commands When the Installed Application Issues a Harsh Shutdown (175652)

CAUSE

Systems Management Server PCM changes package command completion status when the command has completed execution. PCM determines that a command has executed by periodically checking the process handle from the command executed until it is no longer running. If the system is shut down before the process handle can be checked, PCM updates the completion status after receiving the WM_ENDSESSION message that was sent to all applications that were running during a "graceful" shutdown.

Systems Management Server PCM will fail to change the completion status of an executed job if the application installed issues a "harsh" system shutdown. Applications that use the ExitWindowsEX() call with the EWX_REBOOT and EWX_FORCE flags issue a "harsh" system shutdown.

The reason Systems Management Server PCM cannot change the job status during a "harsh" shutdown is that the EWX_FORCE flag does not send the windows messages WM_QUERYENDSESSION and WM_ENDSESSION, to applications that are running. Without the WM_ENDSESSION message, Systems Management Server PCM does not detect that it is about to be terminated. Because Systems Management Server PCM relies on the WM_ENDSESSION message to detect termination and change the package command completion status, the status is never changed from pending to executed.

RESOLUTION

Systems Management Server PCM was modified to change the job completion status when an application that requires a system shutdown has been successfully started. This change requires that packages must be created on the server using a package definition file (PDF) with the entry SynchronousSystemExitRequired=TRUE.

For information about how to create PDF files and use the SynchronousSystemExitRequired entry, refer to the Microsoft BackOffice Resource Kit, Microsoft Systems Management Server Resource Guide, Chapter 4.

For information about installing PDF files, see your Microsoft Systems Management Server documentation.

An example PDF file is included below:

Example.pdf

[PDF]
Version=1.0

[Package Definition]
Product=Example
Version=1.0
Comment=PDF Example
SetupVariations=Typical

[Typical Setup]
CommandLine=Setup.exe
CommandName=Typical
UserInputRequired=FALSE
SynchronousSystemExitRequired=TRUE
SupportedPlatforms=Windows95

Obtain one of the following files, as appropriate for the version of the operating system that you are running, or you can wait for the next Systems Management Server service pack. To ensure that you have the correct version of the file, make sure that the files have the following timestamps:

   Pcmwin16.exe  12/04/97  04:04
   Pcmwin32.exe  12/04/97  04:03

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Systems Management Server version 1.2. This problem has been corrected in the latest U.S. service pack for Systems Management Server version 1.2. For information on obtaining the service pack, query on the following word in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (without the spaces):