How to troubleshoot SmartDeploy client upgrades from V2 to V3

We've made a variety of bug fixes and performance improvements to SmartDeploy V3, and our expectation is that your client-console communications will be much more reliable on the new version. To help make this process work more smoothly, we've built the SmartDeploy V3 console so that it can be installed side-by-side with the V2 console, and you can upgrade a subset of your clients prior to upgrading all of them to make sure that the new, simplified communications protocol (which uses standard http/https ports, 80, 8080, and 443) is working properly in your network and security environment.

This may raise a question for you: If your V2 client-console communications were experiencing issues in your environment prior to the V3 upgrade, how will your V2 console be able to reach out and tell your V2 clients to upgrade to V3?

The answer, unfortunately, is that they may require some troubleshooting or may require the V3 client to be pushed out separately, using Group Policy or some other method. SmartDeploy Support is available to assist with any questions or issues you have during the upgrade process, and we recommend that you retry the upgrade or try these troubleshooting steps: 


  1. In the Computer Management console, select the client(s), and click Cancel All in the Actions pane.
  2. Allow 2-3 minutes for the SmartDeploy client to re-establish a heartbeat. It should appear in regular black (nonfaded or not gray) text, and the heartbeat should be current (visible at far-right column in Computer Management..
    • If a client does not return to a current heartbeat status, verify that the V2 client is still installed. If it is not, perform a manual client installation. 
  3. Verify that the C:\Windows\Temp\!sdspk\ and C:\Windows\SysWOW64\SmartDeploy\Sources\ folders on the target machine are empty. (Delete the contents if they are not empty.)
  4. Verify that the time and date on the client match the time and date on the console host. 
  5. Click to select one or more of the clients you want to migrate to V3, click Upgrade to Version 3 in the Actions pane, and then click OK to confirm.
    Note: We recommend doing clients in groups of 10-20 to make any potential troubleshooting easier, at least when you first start, or migrating clients as the need to perform a deployment arises.



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