Could you post more of the zmd-messages.log(in debug) from the satellite server? (taking out anything that's perhaps sensitive and should be kept internal, IPs, hostnames)

Depending on where/when it's failing, sometimes there's a file attempting to be download unsuccessfully and if so, you can grab the URL from the log, and plug into a browser and sometimes that will give more information (Firewall/Security issue or give a 404/403 error, etc) 

It's me again:

As said before - there's a general problem with replication of ZPM content to satellites (other bundle replications work well):

I do not have any idea where to start because of some general questions:

What processes are responsible for that kind of distribution? When does it happen?

Regarding ZPM content the satellites contents looks somewhat "random"

Thx again & Best Regards

Dirk

For Starters...

If you are getting this...

"Unable to write data to the transport connection: An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host. (CDP.UnexpectedError).", then you are most likely experiencing lower level OS network connection issues.  

Maybe networking, Maybe your primary server is running out of HTTP connections, other...But the Sat was trying to pull down content and its network connection was closed.  So that is less about scheduling....

For Scheduling.....One KEY fact to keep in mind, that new content may be downloaded daily based upon your ZPM patch server scheduling.  So depending on your Content Replication Schedule, there will be Windows were it is on your Primary but not yet on your satellites.

ZCC->Configuration->Bundle, Policy, Content->Content Replication 

ZCC->Configuration->Bundle, Policy, Content->Satellite Server Replication

are two places for generic settings for replication settings.

https://www.novell.com/documentation/zenworks-2020-update-1/zen_sys_servers/data/bmk8phb.html

Shows where you can specify content replication schedules for Sat Servers on the sat server itself, even down to the type of content.

And the timing for Patch Content can be tricky if your Sat Server is only configured to download from One Primary and that primary is not the ZPM Server.  Primary to Primary replication is hourly by default.

Let's say your ZPM Server1 downloads Content at 2:00AM.   Sat2 Tries to replicate the content for a new patch bundle at 2:30AM, but only points to Server2 for it's content.  It will get a download error, since the content may not be there until 3:00AM.  When the Sat Tries again at 3:30AM it will come down.  If your sats are set to only replicate once a day at 2:30AM, this normal condition could cause issues and setting the schedule to perhaps 3:30AM would be wiser......or allowing a Sat to pull content from the ZPM server directly.

Thx Craig,

(even for the "for starters" , I don't have major replication problems - sometimes errors may raise because of large packages but in general it works fine and corrects itself ;))

About the replication schedules: They may be still some kind of aggressive , I didn't touch them for a long time... (and just "Default" is used)

Anyways there seems to be a general problem with "cache to satellites" right now (BTW if I forgot, running 2017U4), only a few patches are visible at satellites:

IMO I should be successful using zac cdp (even cvc before) to get a satellite updated... ??

Right now I'm going to visit your new post...

Also check your Zone, Bundle Folder, and ZPM Bundle Folder to ensure that Satellites are configured to get New Bundle Content by default.  If its off by default at zone or bundle folder level, you can enable at the ZPM bundle folder level.

Also check your Zone, Bundle Folder, and ZPM Bundle Folder to ensure that Satellites are configured to get New Bundle Content by default.  If its off by default at zone or bundle folder level, you can enable at the ZPM bundle folder level.

Note: And to re-enforce the prior post, the prior is how you control if patches do or do not replicate to satellites.

The following options in the ZCC are very old legacy settings and have no impact:

Wow - some kind of telepathy? ....

It's a little bit strange because I NEVER touched the settings for ZPM folder, so I really do not understand why there were any patches at satellites... how did those manage to break through?

I'll take a look into it.

Dirk

Hi Craig,

thx for all information and suggestions, it seems to work in general, some questions remaining:

Just to be sure: The Patch System Bundles (from your pic) is the right selection for ZPM? Because I have to review the very (very, very) aggressive schedules. Right now I'm starting with default but adding some special for patch bundles seems to be very useful.

Policy versions: I was always irritated about Versioning at ZPM policy page, as there's no "Delete older versions" like known from regular bundles/policies. However, I found the corresponding bundles in ZPM\Policy: Is it ok or even needed to clean them up there?: My guess would be the corresponding old patch bundles (replaced) couldn't get deleted (?).

(BTW - "of course" I messed up the system yesterday, forgot about the disk space... so instead of replicating everything at once I started again, removing all replication of ZPM and adding them one-by-one after adjusting the disk space and changing the schedules...)

Thx in advance

Dirk

Normally, nothing is specified for patch.....All Content....Patch and otherwise...are treated the same unless otherwise defined.

However, for this very reason admins may get themselves in a hole if they set Satellites to "Not Get New Content By Default" or start excluding bundle folders, etc.. etc....

Then they may need to go back and remove those restrictions.

If they have very conservative replication values because they don't care if a newer copy of a software install is on a remote satellite so it may take a day or two...However, they want any Windows patches to be there ASAP.

#1 - Make sure Sats Receive all New Content by Default.

#2 - If at some point that was never true, you may need to go back and explicitly set the ZPM folder to replicate to your Sats.

#3 - If your Sats are pulling content from Primaries that are not the ZPM Server, when looking at your replication schedules be mindful that the content may on Non-ZPM primaries up to an hour later than the ZPM server itself....So if you have a simple daily schedule that runs around the same time as the patch download...you could be adding a delay.

#4 - Careful about throttling settings, I've seen very low settings set causing replication to never be able to complete....