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How to Force Altiris Patch Management Solution for Dell Servers to Download Updates for Distribution 

Jan 23, 2007 05:06 PM

This article explains how to modify the Altiris Patch Management Solution for Dell Servers to force current updates to download (when necessary) so they may be distributed from within the Altiris Console. This article also provides a brief orientation of the Dell Patch Solution. Read on for more information.

The Altiris Patch Management for Dell Servers product relies on a manifest (catalog) obtained from Dell. This catalog defines which individual Dell Update Packages (DUP) and system bundles (group of DUP's designed to update all components on a Dell Server) are certified to run on all supported operating systems and Dell Server models. These updates are designed to patch the various Dell hardware and software components such as the BIOS, DRAC, BMC, ESM, RAID, NIC's, etc.

This catalog is then parsed into a format readable by the Dell Patch Solution. Altiris creates and maintains a "PMImport_Dell.cab" file which is hosted on one of Altiris' websites for download and allows the import of the Dell bulletins from the catalog to populate the Dell Patch Solution. This file is initially downloaded manually from within the Notification Server console after the product has been installed, but downloaded automatically on a user defined schedule thereafter. To initiate the download:

  1. From the "Tasks" view, browse to the Software Management > Patch Management folder. See Figure 1.
  2. Click the "Manage Software Updates" tools link. See Figure 1.
  3. Click the "Run Dell Patch Management Import Task Now" button. See Figure 2.

Figure 1

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Figure 2

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To modify the download schedule:

  1. From the "Configuration" view of the Altiris Console, browse to the Solution Settings > Software Management > Patch Management > Server Settings > Dell Settings > Windows folder and click on the "Dell Patch Management Import" link. See Figure 3.
  2. On the right side of the console, click the blue link below the Custom Schedule drop down box and make the appropriate changes. See Figure 3.

Figure 3

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Once the Dell bulletins have populated, the user can now stage for distribution by right mouse clicking on the bulletin and selecting "Stage". See Figure 4.

Figure 4

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When viewing the "Downloaded Software Updates by Bulletin" from the Manage Software Updates tool, you may notice that the number of updates in the Available column does not match the number of updates in the Downloaded column. This is due in part to an inconsistency in the catalog obtained from Dell and the check built in to the Dell Patch Solution can not verify the authenticity of the downloads. See Figure 5.

Figure 5

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As a result, when the user tries to distribute the system bundle by right mouse clicking, the menu item "Software Update Task Wizard" is not available. See Figure 6.

Figure 6

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To circumvent the problem, there is an option available in the configuration of the Dell Patch Solution to disable the built-in checker. To do this, simply uncheck the "Verify authenticity of downloaded Software Updates" checkbox and apply the settings. This will disable the Dell Patch Solution from verifying the authenticity of downloads. See Figure 7.

Figure 7

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Go back to the Manage Software Updates page in the Altiris Console, and right mouse click on the bulletin and select "Recreate Packages". This will now force the updates to download. When complete, the number of Available updates should match the number of Downloaded updates. See Figure 8.

Figure 8

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When right mouse clicking on a completely downloaded bulletin, the menu option "Software Update Task Wizard" is now displayed and the Dell updates can now successfully be distributed. See Figure 9.

Figure 9

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Altiris Product Management has acknowledged this to be a problem and is working expeditiously with the Dell Product Group to correct the problem with the Dell catalog and to prevent this from occurring with subsequent catalog releases.

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