Contents

Method Notes

Extracts duplicated in multiple methods and functions.

Apologies if you have arrived here because of a search. These are excerpts used by other pages. Links to those other pages are provided below. 

Registry methods excerpts

HKU

If information is retrieved from the .DEFAULT key or a _Classes key, the Username will be reported as "Unknown". It is possible to determine the owner of a _Classes key from the SID that precedes it (which will have a correct Username).

HKU_EXPAND

Registry values of type REG_EXPAND_SZ are not expanded, so for example the variable with Name "TEMP" in the subkey "ENVIRONMENT" usually has a value of "%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Temp". This is because the Tachyon Agent does not have sufficient privilege to impersonate user accounts for security reasons.

REG_MULTI_SZ_values

From v4.1, REG_MULTI_SZ values are displayed with a '|' between each string; up to v4.0 only the first string was displayed.

Get Value Strings

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Return values are always strings. If you need to perform comparison or mathematical operations on numbers then you need to CAST the string.

Limit 8192 For All Users

There is a limit of 8192 values being returned. This limit applies to all users in total, not per user. This is currently not changeable.

AdSidToUserName

This method may attempt to call AD to translate a SID to a username.

HiveParameter

Hive (string): The registry hive which has to match one of the following long or short names, ignoring case:

Long NameShort Name
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTHKCR
HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIGHKCC
HKEY_CURRENT_USERHKCU
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINEHKLM
HKEY_USERSHKU

HiveParameterNotHKU

Hive (string): The registry hive which has to match one of the following long or short names, ignoring case:

Long NameShort Name
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTHKCR
HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIGHKCC
HKEY_CURRENT_USERHKCU
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINEHKLM

SubkeyParameter

Subkey (string): The registry key to look for.

ValueTypeParameter

ValueType (string): One of these supported types: "REG_SZ", "REG_EXPAND_SZ", "REG_BINARY", "REG_DWORD", "REG_QWORD", "REG_MULTI_SZ".

On this page:

Datetime Strings

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Datetime is UTC. The datetime string is formatted YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ which is in IS0-8601 standard format, in which the timezone offset is always Z because Agent time is always presented in UTC. For more information see the page about datetime handling.


Execution excerpts

AsUser

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AsUser (string; optional; default 1E.Client service user) Windows only: The "domain\user" (down-level logon) account name that the Agent will attempt to impersonate on the local machine.

If this parameter is absent the command will be executed in the Tachyon Agent process's user context.

It is not an error if the specified user is not currently logged on (and this includes accounts that are not even defined). In this case execution is deemed successful but the method does nothing and returns no data.

The specified user must be currently logged on and running explorer.exe (Windows Explorer).


Users module excerpts

User types

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The following is ignored:

  • Service accounts on Windows
  • Daemon usage on non-Windows

Root logins are not ignored. 


Patch module excerpts

Patch Source Parameter

The following 5 excerpts are variously used in:

Source (string): The source of patch meta-data, typically the installation mechanism used to handle patch(es). One of:
Source (string; optional; default is to deduce the source): The source of patch meta-data, typically the installation mechanism used to handle the patch(es). One of:

  • CAB: A file with a .cab extension and appropriate binary structure containing update metadata, located somewhere in the file system available to the local agent. The file is used directly by the local Windows Update agent, without SCCM or WSUS being involved.
  • SCCM: System Center Configuration Manager.
  • WSUSL: A local (to the enterprise) corporate Windows Server Update Service server.
  • WSUSR: The remote Windows Server Update Service feed over the internet at microsoft.com .

If this parameter is not specified, the Tachyon Agent attempts to deduce the source as follows:

  1. If a CAB-file is specified and exists (although is not necessarily valid), the source is implicitly ' CAB '.
  2. Else if the SCCM client is enabled for software updates, the source is implicitly ' SCCM '.
  3. Else if a local Windows Software Update server is configured, the source is implicitly ' WSUSL '.
  4. Else if the remote Windows Software Update Service is configured, the source is implicitly ' WSUSR '.
  5. Else the source is unknown and must be specified explicitly; this causes an error.
Case is not significant.

Patch CabFilePath Parameter

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CabFilePath (string; default empty): The full path of the location of the .cab file if Source is 'CAB'.

This must be specified if Source is 'CAB' and should not be specified for any other Source value.

If the path is specified it must be to a local CAB-file. Shared, i.e. remote, CAB-files are not supported by Windows Update Agent.

Patch SourceId Return Column

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SourceId (string): The identity of the source of updates. E.g. for a 'SCCM' source the site ID, or for WSUS the URL.

Storage module excerpts

Name of Persistent Storage table

Name (string): The name of the persistent storage table. Maximum length of 128 characters. The first character must be alphanumeric, and the remainder can be alphanumeric, '.' or '_'. Case is not significant.


RegExp excerpts

ECMA262

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Uses ECMA262 format for regular expressions:


WMI Excerpts

Select * WMI Query

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Avoid using " SELECT * FROM... " in your WMI query for instructions, especially when used as the last statement in an instruction. Instead, you should SELECT specific columns, which you would use in the instruction schema.

This is because:

  • WMI queries may return a different number of columns depending on circumstances, which may cause a conflict with the instruction output schema
  • WMI structure may change in future
  • Returning specific columns is more efficient as the Agent will need to process less data
  • Specifying column names is easier to understand.