Migration of sequential software delivery tasks to Software Management Solution 7.0 SP1 might fail.

In some instances, the migration of sequential software delivery tasks fails during an upgrade from Software Delivery 6.1 to Software Management Solution 7.0 SP1. When the upgrade process updates an assembly file named altiris.profiling.dll, it corrupts the file.

Workaround:

Perform this task before you run the 7.0 SP1 upgrade or migrate the sequential software delivery tasks.

1. Open knowledge base article 48858 and download its attachment file (policy.6.1.Altiris.Profiling.dll) to the following location on your Notification Server computer:
   program files\altiris\software delivery\GAC
2. On the Windows Start menu, click Run.
3. In the Run dialog box, in Open, type: cmd
4. In the command window, type the following command:
   cd “program files\altiris\software delivery\GAC”
5. Type the following command:
   gacutil.exe /i “Assembly path\policy.6.1.Altiris.Profiling.dll”
6. After the last command runs, close the command window.

During an off-box upgrade, the Software Delivery Package File Importer in the migration wizard might fail.

When you copy the software package migration data during an off-box upgrade, you must place both the PackageFiles folder and the data store (ADB) file in the same location on the 7.x Notification Server computer. Otherwise, the migration fails.

A software package that is migrated from Software Delivery Solution 6.x might lose its package server associations.

In certain cases, a package server's GUID is changed during the upgrade from 6.x to 7.0 or 7.0 SP1. As a result, when you migrate a software package that was assigned to that server in 6.x, the package loses the server association after the migration. Because the package cannot be downloaded to the package server, any legacy software delivery tasks or policies that deliver that package cannot be run.

Workaround: After the upgrade and data migration, check the server assignments of the migrated software packages and if necessary, edit the packages to reassign the package servers.

The data replication of software publishing information was not supported.

Information about software resources that were published to the Software Portal could not be replicated.

The Managed Software Delivery wizard could not deliver a software resource that contained dependencies.

When you used the Managed Software Delivery wizard to deliver a software resource that contained dependencies, one of the following things happened:

• The wizard hung frequently and re-prompted for credentials. The dependencies at the end of the wizard did not appear.
• The following error occurred: Error saving SWD Wizard Policy: Specified cast is not valid.

In a Package Delivery task, the predefined command lines did not appear for packages that you selected by browsing.

In a Package Delivery task, if you selected a package by browsing, any command lines that were defined for the package did not appear in the Command Line drop-down list.

Legacy Software Delivery policies that were located in subfolders were not replicated.

If you migrated 6.x Software Delivery tasks to 7.x policies, and those policies were organized in subfolders, they were not included in the replication of Software Management Solution policies. Any policies that were in the root of the Legacy Software Delivery policies folder were replicated correctly.

Software requests were missing after upgrading to 7.0 SP1.

Any software requests that were created from the Software Portal in Software Management Solution 7.0 were not available after an upgrade to 7.0 SP1.

Assigning a 6.x package to an existing software resource created a duplicate software resource.

After a data migration from 6.x, when you assigned a 6.x package to an existing software resource, a duplicate software resource was created.

The Software Delivery task or policy execution event data is not replicated up the hierarchy by default.

The replication of the Software Delivery task or policy execution event data is disabled by default. As a result, the Software Management Solution reports on a parent Notification Server do not show any information from the child Notification Servers.

To be able to view the reports from the child Notification Servers on the parent Notification Server, you must enable the AeX SWD Execution, AeX SWD Package, and AeX SWD Status data classes for replication.

To enable the replication of the data classes:

1. In the Symantec Management Console, on the Settings menu, click Notification Server > Hierarchy.
2. In the right pane, on the Hierarchy Management page, on the Replication tab, under Events, check the Software Package and Delivery Event Replication Rule.

Note: In some large environments the enablement of these data classes for replication may impact the performance of the parent Notification Server. It is recommended to evaluate the impact before the full-scale rollout.

To successfully accomplish a Software Virtualization Command task that imports a VSA file, you must specify the same Layer name that the VSA file contains.

When you want to create a Software Virtualization Command task that imports a VSA file, you must specify a layer name. The problem is that the VSA file already contains a layer name and therefore specifying it once more should not be necessary. Furthermore, when you specify a different layer name, the Software Virtualization import task fails.

Workaround:
Find out the layer name that the VSA file contains and type it in the Create new task dialog box, in the Layer name box.

Some MSI files don't install the software for the whole computer but only for the user under which the installation runs.

The problem can appear when you run any software delivery task or policy, because the problem is related to the nature of the MSI file.

For more information, see knowledgebase article 51393.

The configuration of a Quick Delivery task can cause Source Path Update tasks and Windows Installer Repair tasks to fail.

When you install software with a Quick Delivery task, the MSI package is downloaded to and run on the client computer. In some cases, the way the Quick Delivery task is configured and installed can cause the Source Path Update task or the Windows Installer Repair task to fail.

For more information, see knowledgebase article 51396.

The default Advanced options for the software delivery task and policy are changed.

The changes in the Advanced settings dialog box, on the Run Options tab, are as follows:

• In the Run As section, the option is set to "Altiris Agent credential"
• In the User run conditions section, the Task can run option is set to "Whether or not user is logged on"
• In the User run conditions section, the option Allow user interaction is disabled

Note that with these settings the installation runs without user interaction. To run an installation with user interaction, you must set the Run As option to "Current logged-on user" and enable the option Allow user interaction.

A sequential Managed Software Delivery policy does not continue when an applicability rule fails, if the "Upon failure" option is set to "Abort".

When you add a software resource to a Managed Delivery policy, you can set an option to abort the execution of the policy if the delivery of that software resource fails. This option is located in the Advanced options, on the Results-based actions tab, under Upon failure.

This option applies to both the applicability check and the execution. Therefore, if an applicability rule fails for a software resource that is set to abort upon failure, then the policy does not continue, even if other applicability rules succeeded. Also, any subsequent tasks and software resource deliveries that are in that policy do not continue either.

Workaround: Change the Upon failure option to Continue for all the software resources in the policy.

The Software Virtualization Agent 2.1 that is shipped with the Software Management Solution 7.0 SP2 does not support Windows 7.

We suggest you not to install the Software Virtualization Agent 2.1 on Windows 7.

The Software Portal shortcut might not appear on the client computer. (Mac OS X only)

If the Altiris Agent window is open on the client computer when the Software Management Solution plug-in for UNIX, Linux, and Mac is installed, the Software Portal shortcut does not appear on the client. To prevent this problem, restart the Altiris Agent on the client computer after the plug-in is installed. After the Altiris Agent restarts, the Software Portal shortcut becomes available to the user.

Some Managed Software Delivery settings do not work for non-Windows software.

Because the client-side user interface (on the Altiris Agent) is not available on UNIX, Linux, or Mac computers, the following Managed Software Delivery settings do not apply to UNIX, Linux, or Mac delivery policies:

• Power on if necessary (using Wake-On-LAN, Intel, AMT, ASF)
  Appears on the Managed Delivery Settings page, on the Schedule tab, under the Compliance section.
• Only perform check if…Computer is available at the exact scheduled time
  Appears on the Managed Delivery Settings page, on the Schedule tab, when you click the Advanced button.
• Upon success run
  Appears on the Managed Delivery Settings page, on the Run tab, under the Results-based actions section.

Launching a GUI application via Software Delivery on a Mac computer is not recommended.

To ensure the highest security, we recommend that you do not launch a GUI-based application through a Software Management or Inventory task. If the computer is at the login window, you may inadvertently provide root access to the computer through the application.

Solaris 10 zones are not supported.

A Solaris 10 global zone that has non-global zones installed is not supported. However, Solaris 10 that does not contain any non-global zones is supported.

SLES 9 RPM packages cannot be delivered.

You cannot use Managed Software Delivery or Quick Delivery to install RPM packages that were created with RPM Package Manager 4.1.1 or earlier. For example, those used on SLES 9. Because those packages cannot be imported into the Software Catalog, they do not have software resources that you can deliver.

A software delivery task or policy installs the Wise Toolkit only for the user under which the installation runs.

When you create a software delivery task or policy to install Wise Toolkit and run it with the default settings (Run as option is set to "Altiris Agent credentials"), then Wise Toolkit items are not visible in the “Add or Remove programs” tool and in the “Start” menu for any user.

Note, that adding an option ALLUSERS=2 to the command line does not solve the problem, because the Wise Toolkit package is an EXE file and not an MSI file.

Workaround:
Set the Run as option of the task or policy to "Currently logged-on user" or set it to "Specific user" and specify the credentials of the user who will use the Wise Toolkit on the computer.

Software Management Solution 7.0 SP2 is not configured properly after you upgrade from Software Management Solution 7.0 SP1 and recreate the Configuration Management Database.

After you upgrade from Software Management Solution 7.0 SP1 to Software Management Solution 7.0 SP2 and recreate the Configuration Management Database, the Software Management Solution 7.0 SP2 gets the status “Product is not properly configured“ in the Symantec Installation Manager.

Workaround:
You can resolve this issue in either of the following ways:

• After you reconfigure the database and the problem appears, run the following command line:
  
  "InstallDir\Altiris\Notification Server\bin\AeXConfig.exe" /configure "InstallDir\Altiris\SMSUNIX\Config\SMSUNIX.config".
  
  
• To avoid the problem, before you reconfigure the database, change the following registry value:
  
  "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Altiris\eXpress\Notification Server\ProductInstallation\{ce1600b0-d9be-4602-a597-57c3d3efea2d}\InstallationFilePath"
  
  from: "InstallDir\Altiris\SMSUNIX\Config\SMSUNIX_SP.config"
  
  to: "InstallDir\Altiris\SMSUNIX\Config\SMSUNIX.config"

You cannot import a software resource, when you open the Symantec Management Console remotely from the computer that is not a member of the same Active Directory domain as the Notification Server computer.

When you open the Symantec Management Console remotely from the computer that is not a member of the same Active Directory domain as the Notification Server computer and then want to import a software resource, you get a "Failed to process package manifest" error.

The problem appears when the Configuration Management Database (CMDB) is a Microsoft SQL Server 2008 database.

Workaround:
You can resolve this issue in either of the following ways:

• Connect to the Notification Server computer using Remote Desktop connection. On the Notification Server computer, open the Symantec Management Console and import the software.
• Open the Symantec Management Console remotely from the computer that is a member of the same Active Directory domain as the Notification Server computer and import the software.

Software that requires a restart during installation cannot be installed with Software Management Solution.

You cannot use Software Management Solution to install software that requires a restart during installation. An example of such software is MS SQL Server 2008. Because the Software Management Solution agent cannot handle the restart, the installation task or policy does not complete successfully.

A workaround is available. See knowledge base article 48740.

Quick Delivery tasks might time out if you run them immediately after upgrading.

After you upgrade to Software Management Solution 7.0 SP1, wait approximately 15-30 minutes before you execute a Quick Delivery task. If you try to execute a Quick Delivery task immediately after the upgrade, the task might encounter a timeout failure.

The Software Management Solution tasks do not support multicasting.

The Package Delivery, Quick Delivery, Source Path Update, and Windows Installer Repair tasks do not use multicasting. Therefore, even if the multicasting option is selected in the global Altiris Agent settings, and you use those settings for the task, the multicasting does not occur.

Command lines are not available for selection in a Package Delivery task.

If command lines are added to a software resource before the package is added, those command lines are not available for selection when you create a Package Delivery task for that software resource.

Workaround: Use Quick Delivery to deliver such software resources.

When you assign permissions for a software resource on a parent domain, you cannot search for users and groups on a child domain.

When you publish a software resource to the Software Portal on parent Notification Server computer, you cannot search for and select local users and groups of a child domain. You can assign permissions for users and groups that are visible on the parent domain only.

Workaround:
The software publishing in hierarchy works properly when the parent Notification Server computer and its children are in the same domain.

When you create a detection rule for a migrated software resource, the default product code is invalid.

By default, the software resources that you import from Software Delivery Solution 6.x do not have detection rules. When you add an MSI Product Code standard rule, an invalid MSI product code appears instead of the software package’s product code.

Workaround:
Use a tool like ORCA to find out the correct product code of the MSI and apply it to the detection rule manually.

Replicated Managed Software Delivery policies failed.

A replicated Managed Software Delivery policy failed to execute when the installation file was an MSI and resource and item replication rules were used to replicate the software resource and the policy.

The Source Path Update task does not work properly in the hierarchy environment, on the child Notification Server computer.

When you run the Source Path Update task for a software resource that is replicated from a parent Notification Server computer to its child, the task runs successfully but it does not update the source path.

A Managed Software Delivery policy that contains an .msi software resource and that you have replicated with a "Replicate now" option, fails to run on the child Notification Server computer clients.

You can create a Managed Software Delivery policy, add an .msi software resource to it and replicate this policy from parent Notification Server computer to its children. When you run the replicated policy on the child Notification Server computer clients, the policy stops after running the detection rule.

Workaround:
The problem does not occur when you run complete replication of a Managed Software Delivery policy.

Software Portal requests from a child Notification Server computer cannot be managed from the parent server.

Software Portal requests from the clients of a child Notification Server computer are not replicated up the hierarchy. As a result, those requests cannot be processed from the parent Notification Server computer in a global hierarchy scenario.

Workaround: Software Portal requests on a child Notification Server computer can be processed in either of the following ways:

• The administrator of the child Notification Server computer can process and manage the requests.
• The administrator of the parent Notification Server computer can assign users or groups to the Software Portal manager role. Anyone who has the Software Portal manager role can process and manage the requests from the Software Portal Manager page on the child server.

Execution data is not replicated up the hierarchy.

The information about the success of a delivery task or policy is not replicated back up the hierarchy. For example, when a Managed Software Delivery policy runs on a client computer, information about the success of the execution is sent to the server. If a policy runs from a server that is a child in the hierarchy, that execution information is not passed up to the parent server.

Legacy Software Delivery policies that are located in subfolders are not replicated.

If you migrated 6.x Software Delivery tasks to 7.x policies, and those policies are organized in subfolders, they are not included in the replication of Software Management Solution policies. Any policies that are in the root of the Legacy Software Delivery policies folder are replicated correctly.

It is not possible to replicate the Software Portal Company logo settings.

When you specify Software Portal settings on a parent Notification Server computer and want to replicate these settings to its children, not all data is replicated properly. The company logo is not replicated because it is a physical file that is stored on the parent Notification Server computer. It is not possible to replicate physical files.

Workaround:
You can manually replace the "SymantecLogo.png" image file on the child Notification Server computer, in the C:\Program files\Altiris\Software Management Solution\Software Portal\Web\Images folder.

The Software Portal user rights of the local users do not replicate properly from the parent Notification Server computer to its children.

The Software Portal user rights of the local users are replicated correctly from the parent server to the child servers only when a user with the same name already exists on the child Notification Server computer. This problem does not occur for the domain user accounts and user groups.

A Managed Software Delivery policy that is created with the wizard does not install the software update.

When you use wizard to create a Managed Software Delivery policy for a software resource that contains updates and run the policy on the client computers, the software update is not installed. The problem appears only when you use wizard to create the Managed Software Delivery policy.

Workaround:
After you create the Managed Software Delivery policy, open it for editing and click Save without making any changes.

Managed Delivery Settings to download the package to a specified location

For more information, see the Software Management Framework 7.0 SP3 Release Notes article 48303.

Problems occur when you delete a Managed Software Delivery policy that is published in the Software Portal.

When you delete a Managed Software Delivery policy that is published in the Software Portal, the following problems appear:

• You cannot select and delete multiple Managed Software Delivery policies at once. You must select a single Managed Software Delivery policy, delete its item references, and then delete the policy.
• When you delete an item reference of a Managed Software Delivery policy, the Item References list is not automatically refreshed. You must refresh the Item References list manually to see which of the items have been deleted.

An imported Managed Software Delivery policy can be incorrectly marked as compliant.

When you import Sequential Software Delivery tasks from 6.x to 7.0, they become Managed Delivery policies. When such a policy runs in 7.0 SP1, its status in the Altiris Agent is always set to Compliant, even if one or more of its sequential tasks fails. This status does not apply to an imported Managed Delivery policy, because its tasks always execute even if a preceding task fails.

When Sequential Software Delivery tasks are migrated to Managed Software Delivery policies, they do not download packages to the alternate download location.

When you upgrade from Software Delivery 6.1 to Software Management Solution 7.0 or 7.0 SP1, you can migrate Sequential Software Delivery tasks to Managed Software Delivery policies. When you run those migrated policies, their packages are always downloaded to the default location on the client computers. If you specified an alternate download location in the download settings, it is not used.

Package subfolders are not created in the alternate download location.

In Managed Software Delivery, when you specify a destination download location for a software package, the package is supposed to be placed in a subfolder of that location as follows:
download_folder\package_GUID

Instead, the subfolder is not created and the package is placed in the root of the download folder. This was an issue in 7.0 and is not fixed when you upgrade to 7.0 SP1. However, this issue does not occur in a new installation of Software Management Solution 7.0 SP1 or 7.0 SP2.

Workaround:

1. In the Symantec Management Console, on the Settings menu, click All Settings.
2. In the left pane, under Settings, click Software > Managed Delivery Settings.
3. On the Managed Delivery Settings page, click Save changes without making any changes.

The Install command of a Managed Software Delivery policy for Symantec Endpoint Protection 11.0 returns false even if the installation is successful.

The Symantec Endpoint Protection 11.0 installation returns 1 as a successful exit code, but in Software Management Solution delivery tasks and policies are considered successful only when the installation is completed with exit code 0. When you install Symantec Endpoint Protection with a Managed Software Delivery policy, a successful installation is marked as a failure.

Workaround:
Specify 1 as a success code for the Symantec Endpoint Protection 11.0 installation command line, as follows:

1. In the Software Catalog, double-click the software resource for Symantec Endpoint Protection 11.0.
2. On the software resource page, click the Package tab.
3. On the Package tab, in the Command Lines list, select an Install command line and click Edit.
4. In the Edit Command Line dialog box, in the Success codes box, type 1, and then click OK.

The Altiris Agent does not receive a Managed Software Delivery policy that is applied to Active Directory user in the Default user organizational group.

When you create a Managed Software Delivery policy, apply it to the default Active Directory user, and then login to target computer with the same user credentials and open the Altiris Agent, the Managed Software Delivery policy is not available.

Workaround:

1. Use the Microsoft Active Directory Import task to import Active Directory users.
2. Open the Managed Software Delivery policy and set the imported Active Directory user as a target of the policy.

In certain configurations, a Managed Software Delivery policy does not wait until the next maintenance window to run the remediation.

You can set the Managed Software Delivery policy to run the compliance check before maintenance window and to run the remediation at the next maintenance window. However, in some cases when the Managed Software Delivery policy finds any incompliance, it does not wait for the next maintenance window and starts the remediation immediately. The problem occurs, when the repeat schedule of the maintenance window is set to “No repeat” and the start date of the maintenance window is set to past.

Workaround:
When you are planning to run the maintenance window only once, check the value of the start date of the maintenance window in the Advanced Options.

Managed Software Delivery policy that has its Compliance schedule set to 00:00, is often delivered without schedule and does not start to run.

When you create a Managed Software Delivery policy and specify its Compliance check to run at 00:00, the policy is delivered to a client computer without schedule and it does not start to run. The status of the Managed Software Delivery policy is "Unknown or not started". This problem also applies to the Managed Software Delivery policies that are published in the Software Portal and require approval.

Workaround:
Specify any other time except 00:00 for the Managed Software Delivery policy.

When you log in to the Software Portal as a manager and want to open and edit a Software Request that is sent by a user that belongs to a user group, you get an unauthorized user error.

When you log in to the Software Portal as a manager, you can add a group of users that report to you. After you add the user group, you can see the software requests of the users that belong to this user group. However, when you want to open and edit the software request that is sent by a user of this user group, you get an unauthorized user error.

This problem does not appear when you add the same user directly to the list of users that report to you.

In the Software Portal, after you edit the status of a software request, other software requests disappear from the Requested Software list.

In the Software Portal, on the Administrator Portal page, when you select a single software request and edit the status of that request, all other software requests disappear from the Requested Software list. The list appears again when you refresh the browser.

The problem occurs when a large amount (more than 1000) of software requests is displayed in the Requested Software list.

Filtering software requests does not function in the Software Portal, on the Manager Portal page.

When you specify filtering parameters and click Search, all the software requests disappear from the Requested Software list.

Workaround:
To make software requests visible after specifying the search results, you must refresh your web browser.

Virtualizing Windows applications during a software delivery requires a specific version of the Software Virtualization Agent.

The Install this policy’s software into a virtual software layer option in the Managed Software Delivery wizard can only be used with the version of the Software Virtualization Agent that is shipped with Software Management Solution or a later version. Earlier versions do not support this feature.

A Managed Software Delivery policy cannot correctly install software into a Symantec Workspace Virtualization 6.1 layer.

Workspace Virtualization 6.1 is the new version of Software Virtualization Solution 2.1. Normally, a Managed Software Delivery policy can install software into a virtual layer on a client computer. However, if the client computer contains the agent for Workspace Virtualization 6.1, the software is installed and the layer is created. However, the layer does not contain any files and therefore cannot be used.

Workaround: If you plan to use Managed Software Delivery to install software into virtual layers, use the agent for Software Virtualization Solution 2.1. It is included with this version of Software Management Solution. Do not upgrade to Symantec Workspace Virtualization 6.1.

When you install software into a virtual software layer with a localized layer name, the localized name does not appear in the SVS Admin on the client computer.

In a Managed Delivery policy, if you choose to virtualize the software during installation, you must provide a name for the virtual layer. If you enter a localized string as the layer name, the software appears in the SVS Admin with the default layer name "SWD" instead of the localized layer name that you provided.

Managed Software Delivery does not virtualize software whose installation file is in EXE format.

Managed Software Delivery does not virtualize an EXE package when you select the Install this policy’s software into a virtual software layer option. The software is installed normally instead of in a layer.

The Software Portal icon does not appear on Mac 10.3.9 hosts

After you install the Software Management Solution Plug-in for UNIX, Linux, and Mac on a Mac 10.3.9 host, the Software Portal icon does not appear in the Mac user interface. This prevents you from launching the Software Portal on that computer.

You cannot execute Managed Software Delivery policies from the client side on non-Windows computers.

The client-side user interface (on the Altiris Agent) is not available on UNIX, Linux, or Mac computers. Therefore, you cannot execute Managed Software Delivery policies from those client computers. This issue occurs because those policies do not appear in the utility "aex-swdapm" on UNIX, Linux or Mac clients.

User Guide

Information about how to use this product, including detailed technical information and instructions for performing common tasks.

This information is available in PDF format.

• The Documentation Library, which is available in the Symantec Management Console on the Help menu.
• The Documentation Web site, which is available at the following URL:
  http://www.altiris.com/Support/Documentation.aspx

Help

Information about how to use this product. This information is the same as in the User Guide.

Help is available at the solution level and at the suite level.

This information is available in HTML help format.

The Documentation Library, which is available in the Symantec Management Console on the Help menu.

Context-sensitive help is available for most screens in the Symantec Management Console.

You can open context-sensitive help in the following ways:

• The F1 key.
• The Context command, which is available in the Symantec Management Console on the Help menu.

Implementation Guide

Information about how to install, configure, and implement this product.

This information is available in PDF format.

The Documentation Web site, which is available at the following URL:
http://www.altiris.com/Support/Documentation.aspx

Symantec Management Platform Release Notes

Information about new features and important issues in the Symantec Management Platform.

This information is available as an article in the knowledge base.

https://kb.altiris.com/article.asp?article=45141&p=1

You can also search for the product name under Release Notes.

Installing the Symantec Management Platform products

Information about using Symantec Installation Manager to install the Symantec Management Platform products.

This information is available as an article in the knowledge base.

https://kb.altiris.com/article.asp?article=45732&p=1

Altiris 7 Planning and Implementation Guide

Information about capacity recommendations, design models, scenarios, test results, and optimization best practices to consider when planning or customizing an Altiris 7 Infrastructure for your organization.

This information is available as an article in the knowledge base.

https://kb.altiris.com/article.asp?article=45803&p=1

Knowledge base

Articles, incidents, and issues about this product.

http://kb.altiris.com/

Symantec Connect (formerly the Altiris Juice)

An online magazine that contains best practices, tips, tricks, and articles for users of this product.

http://www.symantec.com/connect/endpoint-management-virtualization

Online Forums

Forums for users of this product.

http://forums.altiris.com/