rtcqmaagent

OCS 2007 R2 + Microsoft Update breaking boxes

Bret Fisher

• 1 min read

Update 6/22/09: KB972041 is out with a hotfix that resolves this issue.  I guess you install it before, or in lieu of KB967831.

OK so this blog post explains it well but it has gotten worse since that post a month ago.  Here’s an update and shorter version of what’s going on:

There’s a optional monitoring feature of OCS that many small shops likely won’t install. That’s fine, cus it’s optional right?  Well turns out it’s now required (actually just part of it, the MSMQ service) for a hotfix to successfully install.  That hotfix is now on Microsoft Update and is likely already on your box, WSUS, SCCM, SMS, etc: (KB967831).  The patch is not smart enough to either:

  1. Do pre-check’s and prevent install unless you have MSMQ
  2. Roll back it’s changes to leave you in a running state
  3. Or ignore the fact that you don’t have something optional installed in the first place and just keep patching
So it leaves you a nice broke server to repair in the morning.  Front-End and Edge Services service stopped, with cryptic misleading Event Log messages.  So multiple boxes are down.  Crazy thing is this happens in a “default install” scenario as if no one full tested the patch or something.  I would give a pass for a hotfix, but a MU patch… fail!

Quick fix: install MSMQ (even though you don’t need it unless you setup RtcQmaAgent for OCS Monitoring) via this script (win2003 servers), then re-run the update either via MU or downloading and running it manually.