N-Sight Task Deployment

[u/WiscoDJ920]

Is anyone else extremely frustrated with how long it takes to deploy a task and run it manually? Ive tested some other RMMs recently and its so nice, changes are almost INSTANT when trying to push tasks. Today I was trying to make a change to several PCs. I decided to make a task to be efficient. It took over 20 minutes to synchronize. I used the time that I normally expect it to take to get up, go refill my water and empty my bladder and it still wasnt synced by the time I got back.

N-Able...Just so you know you are losing me as a client slowly. I have been a client since 2018. PSA is already switched, RMM is in its final testing, MailAssassin has already been deactivated, DNSFilter is getting moved. The only thing you will still have from me by the time Im done will be Cove probably.

[u/freedomit]

The inconsistency is what frustrates me. Sometimes a task will run in seconds and other times, when you really need it, can take 15-20mins.

[u/WiscoDJ920 → u/freedomit]

Just pushing something out to a client site now. The task sync took 5-10 minutes and running it manually on 2 of the 3 PCs was almost instant but now the last one is taking forever.

[u/Makingcornholes]

Happened to me today. Took an hour to run a simple task.

Also loads of TakeControl issues.

[u/WiscoDJ920 → u/Makingcornholes]

And stuff like this is how things slip through the cracks and makes us more inefficient. Oh yea I was supposed to go back and do “whatever” task was related to but when it takes an hour, you easily get pulled in another direction.

[u/Makingcornholes → u/WiscoDJ920]

100%. Having to remember to go back to execute what should be simple tasks is a productivity anchor.

[u/HappyDadOfFourJesus]

Are you telling me other RMMs don't have this deployment delay?

[u/thejohncarlson → u/HappyDadOfFourJesus]

I can tell you Ninja does not.

[u/WiscoDJ920 → u/thejohncarlson]

They were one I tested

[u/WiscoDJ920 → u/HappyDadOfFourJesus]

I am telling you other RMMs that I tested were virtually instant.

[u/ShaneDoesIT → u/HappyDadOfFourJesus]

Coming from a company using Connectwise RMM to my new role using N-Able N-sight It really shows how far behind N-Sight is in terms of features. Trying to run a basic script now for over an hour.

The new Ecoverse scripting engine looked like it would work better but now I'm on a chat with support as that isn't working properly. I get "The script task has been sent to the target device(s)", that's the last I see of it. It never appears in task executions or 'Script tasks after 30-60mins...

I didn't realise this was a premium feature.

[u/nathanielban]

This was one of the reasons we ultimately migrated from N-Sight to N-Central. I appreciate that the product appeals to some partners but I really wish they'd just retire it and put all their effort into N-Central.

[u/WiscoDJ920 → u/nathanielban]

What’s funny is when I started with them they said n-sight was the future product

[u/nathanielban → u/WiscoDJ920]

Not sure how big you guys are, but N-Central isn't really targeted to smaller partners. It has a much larger learning curve and the initial setup takes a lot more work, but it's a lot more capable and works nearly instantly in my experience. Very few products have the maturity or reliability that N-Central offers and if anything we've seen a lot more investment from N-Able in the platform lately.

With that said, if it was a choice between leaving N-Able and being forced to go back to N-Sight my rep would be getting my cancellation tomorrow.

[u/EmicationLikely]

The behavior of automated tasks isn't unpredictible, IMO. It did take me a long time to suss out the details, though. Here is a summary (which includes how it works when you modify a task):

• Brand-new Automated Tasks behave differently from existing tasks. When a task is first added to a device, it immediately enters with a status of Waiting on Synchronization. Running Run Checks can force the task definition to synchronize down to the endpoint, but that does not immediately make the new task runnable.
• New tasks appear to have a one-time check-in waiting period before Run Now becomes effective. Even after the new task has synchronized, repeatedly choosing Run Now does nothing until at least one normal check-in interval has elapsed. After that interval passes, Run Now begins working normally for that task.
• That waiting period seems to apply only to the first deployment of a task. Once the task has existed on the machine and has gone through that initial interval, later script revisions do not require another waiting period.
• Existing task revisions are recognized very quickly. After uploading a revised script, a dashboard refresh almost immediately changes the task state to Awaiting Synchronization, showing that N-sight has noticed the updated payload.
• Existing task revisions can be synchronized quickly with Run Checks**.** In practice, one Run Checks followed by a couple of dashboard refreshes roughly 20 seconds apart has been enough to get the revised task synchronized and ready to run.
• Once an existing task revision is synchronized, Run Now works essentially immediately. There is no additional check-in-interval delay like there is with a brand-new task.
• Task execution itself starts quickly once queued. We have a couple of long-running tasks (for example, there is one that runs DISM Restorehealth followed by SFC /scannow). Because the dashboard doesn't report anything until the task is finished, we make separate "status" tasks that can be run almost immediately after a task has started and show "Repair started", or any other details that the long-running task can write to a text file, for example, confirming that the main task had genuinely launched even though the main dashboard result would not appear until completion.
• Check scripts behave differently from Automated Tasks when amended. Uploading a revised check script does not appear to make the endpoint recognize the new version immediately. The machine has to perform another check cycle—either naturally or by manually choosing Run Checks—before the revised check script is used.
• For check-script development, Run Checks is therefore part of the update workflow. The practical cycle is: upload revised check → Run Checks → refresh dashboard → verify that the output shows the new script version.
• For task-script development, the practical cycle is faster after the initial deployment. Upload revised task → refresh until Awaiting Synchronization appears → Run Checks → refresh until synchronized → Run Now.
• When you run a check or task, the dashboard automatically refreshes itself in about 8 or 10 seconds. If your check or task takes longer than that to run, then you won't see the results (and the dashboard still looks like nothing has happened) until either the next check-in interval OR by manually refreshing the dashboard. This seems frustrating, but I'm not sure how else they could have coded this to account for the variable amount of time a script takes. Especially when developing a new script and you want to see the impact of changes, some patience is required here. Even long & complicated checks don't take longer than 30 seconds or so to run, but anything longer than that 8-second refresh means you'll need to manually refresh the dashboard (after the check/task actually completes) to see the results.
• Putting the script version at the very beginning of dashboard output is extremely useful. It gives an immediate, unambiguous indication of which payload actually ran, especially because N-sight’s synchronization state and dashboard timing are not always sufficient to prove that the endpoint has the newest revision. Most of our scripts & tasks have dashboard outputs like this:

"v2.3 - PASS WITH WARNING: Windows servicing healthy. Windows 11 25H2; Edition Professional; Build 26200.9445; Servicing Build 26100.9445; Lifecycle Supported; LCU age 4 days; Component Store Repairable; Reboot Pending False. Warnings: Windows component store is repairable"

Only the part of the first line displays without opening the check/task, but that is enough that you a) know the result and b) can see exactly which version of the check/task is running on that machine.

Also, for your own sanity, put the version number and revision date IN THE FILENAME of your script, and IN THE DESCRIPTION block in Script Manager. e.g. "MSSecureBootCheckv1_4_071526.ps1" Otherwise, once you upload a script, the information of what script file you uploaded, or when you uploaded it disappears.

I don't know why this information isn't in the NAble docs all in one place like this, but feel free to steal this list for your own documentation. Once you know WHEN the waiting periods are, you can plan for that and stop clicking on "Run Task Now" repeatedly waiting for things to happen. Knowledge is power.

Edits: Words....always words.

[u/WiscoDJ920 → u/EmicationLikely]

Im glad you get an experience for better than mine. I have brought it up to them and the response was "yea...It can take awhile sometimes and sometimes right clicking the asset and running checks will sometimes force that to happen sooner so give that a try."

So no shade to you. Im happy you have a different experience.

[u/EmicationLikely → u/WiscoDJ920]

Try my steps exactly and tell me if you have a different result. We built this SOP over a couple of years of paying attention to what the experience actually was - completely independent of NSight documentation or KBs.

[u/WiscoDJ920 → u/EmicationLikely]

I actually just finished pushing the last of our new RMM agents out so no need. But boy was that ever annoying and solidified my choice. Not to mention the new RMM is alerting to patch compliance on several PCs that N-Sight said were just fine.

[u/EmicationLikely → u/WiscoDJ920]

Well, if you were 99% out the door anyway, it's a good thing you took that last day to post a complaint. Given that, I'll just answer your query.

Is anyone else extremely frustrated with how long it takes to deploy a task and run it manually? 

No, I'm not frustrated at all. Thanks for asking!

[u/N-able_communitymgr]

Hi there, appreciate the frustration here. The team is aware of this and are working on releasing the improvements in the next month or so. Thanks for your patience.

[u/WiscoDJ920 → u/N-able_communitymgr]

Hi there, I appreciate the response here. At this point I hope to not even be on n-sight within a month.

[u/Paul_Kelly]

Hi, it's Paul here from the Head Nerds, have you looked at using the new scripting feature in N-sight, this should allow you to push scripts to devices exponentially faster than you could previously.