Hi,
Unattended Support computers poll our server for updates:
- when the computer/software starts up,
- once every 24 hours
If the Unattended computer finds there is a new version it will download and install it automatically. If your account has been updated and you connect to an Unattended computer
before it has checked for a new version, your Technician software will switch back to the version that Unattended computer is currently running and then connect.
In the past we would trigger the Unattended computer to update to match the Technician, however if something went wrong with the forced update (typically the service didn't restart), the Technician was left with an Unattended computer Offline. Because of this it was decided that it was better to change the behavior and have the Technician's software switch version instead, so that the Unattended computer could self update and remain online. Obviously the problem with that is if the Technician is trying to connect to multiple computers but only some of them have updated already, they will be constantly switching versions, which is also less than ideal.
The ability to control when updates are applied was added so that Technician's could have more control over the process, and set their Unattended computers to a specific build until they were ready to update:
- Frequent Updates: This setting "subscribes"
the account to receive beta builds, which will
allow users to try out new features and tools
before they are released to the general public.
These beta builds are never released as default
builds. Whenever a new beta build is released,
users with this setting will automatically have
their application updated. - Regular Updates (default): This setting leaves
the account at the default level (i.e., same as
not having the "Customer Update Settings"
check box selected). Whenever a new default
build is released, users with this setting will
automatically have their application updated
to the new default build (not including beta
builds). - Infrequent Updates: This setting prevents
applications from being automatically updated
to a newer build, even if it is a default build.
Administrators can select a specific version and
build so that users with this setting will not be
updated unless their selected build is retired,
at which point they will automatically have
their version updated to the newest default
build.
Trying to upgrade everyone as quickly as possible also has it's downfalls as too many computers polling and downloading at the same time can overwhelm the system, which is what happened yesterday.
Making the Technician's software backwards compatible is probably the next best step in trying to improve this process, but as I'm not a developer I have no idea how difficult that will be with our existing infrastructure. I expect that it would involve a number of changes to the back end systems as well in order to support it.
Glenn is a member of the GoTo Community Care Team.
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