SMS 2003: Monthly Recurring Advertisement Schedule incorrectly skips the month of November

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Here's a heads up on a particularly odd issue we've begun to see with SMS.  If you're wondering why your recurring advertisements haven't run since the Daylight Savings Time updates then this is probably why.  Special thanks to our own Buz Brodin for his work and for writing this up:

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Issue: After applying the Daylight Savings Time related hotfixes in your SMS 2003 SP2 or SP3 environment you may see that monthly reoccurring advertisements fail to run during the month of November 2008.

Steps to reproduce the issue:

SMS 2003 SP2 or SP3 Site server with Advanced client installed and  KB941214 or KB941395 or KB952939

Advertise a program using a reoccurring Monthly schedule for a day in November in the future:

Steps:

In the Admin console:

1. Right click on Advertisements, choose New/Advertisement.

2. Name the Advertisement, choose Package, Program and a collection that contains the test client.

3. On the Schedule Tab: Click on the icon to create a new mandatory assignment.

  a. Click on the Schedule... button.

  b. Choose the radio button for Monthly.

  c. Set the start date for a day in the future in the month of November. Example, Saturday 11/8.

  d. Choose the corresponding day of the month. Example, Second Saturday. (This must match the start time value.)

  e. Click OK.

4. Wait a few minutes for the offer to be created on the site server.

On the client:

1. Refresh the Machine Policy.

2. Review the Scheduler.log for the next SMS Trigger.

Result: The trigger is missing for November. The package is set to run on the correct day in December.

Example from scheduler.log on client:

Sending activation message for schedule 'Machine/SRV2060A-SRV00100-E470C43E'.
SMSTrigger 'C0EAB98007E21400' will fire at 12/13/2008 07:48:00 AM.
Successfully activated schedule 'Machine/SRV2060A-SRV00100-E470C43E'.

Note: December 13th is the second Saturday in December

 

Workaround: We are aware of this issue and are working to provide an update as soon as possible.  For now, the recommended workaround is to create a second schedule on the advertisement to trigger either on an interval or weekly or to create a new advertisement for the package and configure it to fire one time in November.

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As Buz mentioned, we're working to get an update out as soon as possible and I'll be sure to post here once more information is available.

J.C. Hornbeck | Manageability Knowledge Engineer