Upgrade/Retire Campaigns

[dbeckner]

We are looking at implementing upgrade and retire campaigns at our customer. The documentation and steps seem pretty straight forward. I am looking for any best practices for this that the community may have, as well as, what the process is under the hood.

1. How quickly does App Portal kick off an upgrade or retire campaign after configuration?

2. I don't see any scheduled tasks for this...does the ESD service handle it?

3. On our 2018 R1 instance when i configure an upgrade campaign and select  View targeted devices the website encounters an unexpected error. This occurs for license reclamation..i imagine the code for both sections are related so it would have been handled in future releases? -- "IOJ-2068842: Performance issues with My Apps - targeted devices link times out."

Any other pertinent information relating to this process would be helpful.

[CharlesW · Accepted solution]

Upgrade and Retire campaigns are tied to the same scheduled task as the "standard" reclamation campaign.. As such, they will run once a week by default, but you can kick off the scheduled task manually for testing.  They are quite similar to what you have already been working with, so you can usually take the same steps when testing.

There is a know issue with the "targeted devices" link in 2018 R1.. This was fixed in 2019 R1 for campaigns under My Apps, but it still existed for the Retire Campaign and Upgrade campaign.. The issue should be fixed for upgrade and retire campaigns in 2021 R1.

[dbeckner]

@CharlesW For this to work does the presence of the old and new version of the application need to exist in StoreFront or just the new version?

[CharlesW]

@dbeckner - With regards to the upgrade campaign, it is the "old" version that My Apps is looking for in FNMS.. Basically, all it cares about is whether or not the FlexeraID is installed.. If installed, then it will create a new alert which will install the "target" catalog item displayed under the upgrade campaign summary...

[dbeckner]

@CharlesW So the application does not even need to exist in App Portal...it just checks FNMS to see if the FlexeraID for the old version is installed on a machine? 

[jdempsey]

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@dbeckner wrote:

@CharlesW So the application does not even need to exist in App Portal...it just checks FNMS to see if the FlexeraID for the old version is installed on a machine? 

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@dbeckner, When setting up a retirement campaign, you need to have a catalog item with a matching Flexera ID configured and an associated uninstall package tied to it.  The uninstall option for the catalog item must be enabled.  It is technically possible to do a retirement campaign without a corresponding catalog item, but then you'd have to set up the SmartUninstall package (which is limited on what it can uninstall).

When setting up an upgrade campaign, you need to have a catalog item with a valid install package.  The Flexera ID of that catalog item does not matter, because you select that upgrade catalog item when you configure the campaign properties.  The Flexera ID you select to create the upgrade policy will be checked in FNMS, so you don't need a catalog item in App Portal that matches that Flexera ID.  Please note that an upgrade campaign only runs the "new" install on the target machine.  It does not first run an uninstall of the previously detected application.  You must make sure that the installer for the "new" application is able to uninstall the old application first, or you need to set up a supersedence relationship in the SCCM application model such that targeting the new application will automatically target an uninstall of the old application first (all done within SCCM, transparent to App Portal).

Hopefully, this makes it a little clearer.

@CharlesW, keep me honest if I'm blowing smoke.

[melinda_atkeisso]

Would this explain why we are not seeing the targeted devices on a retirement campaign? The user/computer relationships exists but even several days after setting up a retirement campaign, we are not seeing the devices listed under view devices in App Portal WebUI.

Thanks,

Mel

[CharlesW]

@melinda_atkeisso Unlikely that this is related.. The known issue with the "targeted devices" that I mentioned is only a UI problem.. It has nothing to do with the alerts which actually get created. 

[melinda_atkeisso]

When we look in the App Portal UI for targeted devices for a retirement campaign or an upgrade campaign, we are not seeing the devices we are expecting to see. I want to confirm that this is not what the known issue is about.

Thanks,

Mel

[dbeckner]

@melinda_atkeisso Are you seeing devices at all? The UI issue causes an unexpected error/timeout when trying to view the target devices page and you cant see anything.