Collection Library Not Updating

Purpose

The Collection Library is inaccessible, membership is inaccurate, or the application version System Variables are not updating.

Resolution

This guide covers the most common causes and the recommended troubleshooting for an inaccurate Collection Library.

Collection Library Membership Not Updating

The Collection Library is a set of Dynamic Collections, pre-configured and maintained by PDQ, that matches the packages found in our Package Library. Membership of the Collection Library is updated automatically when the Applications Scanner discovers changes to a target computer's installed applications.

The most common causes and the recommended troubleshooting for Collection Library membership not accurately updating, after successfully deploying a new application / application update, are:

The PDQ Inventory Console is waiting to refresh

Refreshing the PDQ Inventory Console can be done from any menu. To refresh your PDQ Inventory Console, perform one of the following actions:

• Press F5 on your keyboard with the PDQ Inventory Console as the active window
• Navigate to View > Refresh (F5)

Target computers not being scanned with the Applications Scanner

Verify, in PDQ Deploy, that the deployment was configured to scan the targets with PDQ Inventory after the deployment. This setting can be modified per-package, per-deployment, per-schedule, and in Preferences.

The order (lowest to highest priority) in which this setting applies is: Preferences > Package > Deployment / Schedule

• Preferences:
  • Located in Options > Preferences > Deployments
  • If checked, PDQ Deploy will initiate a PDQ Inventory Scan on your targets after each deployment. The Default PDQ Inventory Scan Profile will be automatically selected, unless otherwise defined
• Package:
  • Located in the Options Tab of a Package's Properties
  • Packages default to the setting configured in Preferences, unless defined on the package-level
• Deployment:
  • If using Deploy Once, this option is found in the Scanning section
  • This will over-ride both the package-level setting as well as what is configured in Preferences
• Schedule:
  • Located in the Options Tab of a Schedule
  • This will over-ride both the package-level setting as well as what is configured in Preferences

Broken integration between PDQ Deploy & Inventory

PDQ Deploy and PDQ Inventory are heavily integrated and, occasionally, it is possible for integration between the two applications to fail.

To troubleshoot integration errors between PDQ Deploy & Inventory:

• Verify PDQ Deploy & Inventory are in the same Server Mode
  • Options > Central Server
    • Verify both applications are either in Central Server or Local Mode
• Verify the Background Service Accounts are properly configured
  • If you use the same account as the Background Service User for PDQ Deploy & Inventory:
    • Options > Background Service > verify the same account is configured for both applications
    • In Services.msc, make sure the PDQDeploy & PDQInventory services have the same account configured in the Logon Tab, and that they are using the same format
      • Or you can use this PowerShell One-Liner:

        • Get-CimInstance win32_service -Filter "Name= 'PDQDeploy' OR Name= 'PDQInventory'" | Select-Object Name,StartName,StartMode,State,Status | Format-Table

  • If you use different accounts as the Background Service User for PDQ Deploy & Inventory:
    • • Verify that the Background Service User for each application is a Console User in the other application
      • Verify that the Background Service Users are configured with the same name format in Services.msc
        • Or use this PowerShell One-Liner:

          • Get-CimInstance win32_service -Filter "Name= 'PDQDeploy' OR Name= 'PDQInventory'" | Select-Object Name,StartName,StartMode,State,Status | Format-Table

Collection Library Variables Not Updating

The application version Variables in the Collection Library are updated along with packages from the Package Library. Both PDQ Deploy & Inventory phone home every two hours to check for Library updates. The most common causes for Collection Library Variables not automatically updating with the related packages in the Package Library are:

The PDQ Inventory Console needs to refresh

Refreshing the PDQ Inventory Console can be done from any menu. To refresh your PDQ Inventory Console:

• Press F5 on your keyboard with the PDQ Inventory Console as the active window
• Navigate to View > Refresh (F5)

PDQ Inventory needs to sync with the PDQ Library

If refreshing the PDQ Inventory Console doesn't populate the correct variable data in the Collection Library:

1. Select the root of the Collection Library in the tree
2. Select Sync Now

The required PDQ external exceptions are being blocked

If all of the above fixes fail, verify that you are able to reach our required external exceptions, from our Firewall Ports and External Exceptions Knowledge Base article

Firewall Ports and External Exceptions

License Validation Issues

On rare occasions, PDQ Inventory may fail license validation when syncing with the PDQ Library. This can typically be quickly spotted if PDQ Inventory is not allowing access to the Collection Library and other licensed features.

If you are able to access the Collection Library, but the Variables for the collections within the Collection Library do not match the version available in the PDQ Deploy Package Library, this could also be due to a failed license validation.

The fix for both scenarios mentioned above is to re-apply your licenses and restart the PDQ Inventory service:

1. Retrieve your license key for PDQ Inventory
   • Log into portal.pdq.com and download your license keys
   • Retrieve your license key from the license email sent after purchasing PDQ Inventory
   • If you don't have access to either of the above, submit a new support ticket and one of our Solutions Engineers can assist with providing your license keys (identity verification may be required)
2. Input your license key by navigating to Help > License > Enter a New License
3. Paste the entire license key into the empty field
4. Close the PDQ Inventory Console
5. Restart the PDQ Inventory Service
6. Open the PDQ Inventory Console and check to make sure the variables are updated
   • It may take a minute or two before everything updates within the Console

See Also

Article - Firewall Ports and External Exceptions