This article will capture all possible steps for installing Notification Server and troubleshooting NS installation. A must read for everyone, I hope to be informative for you.

Article Information

The basic intention of this article is to take care of installation and troubleshooting that one can encounter while performing the below mentioned tasks. You will get all possible information from this article - no need to refer any multiple articles. However some steps has been taken exactly from Altiris KB article (For e.g.-Troubleshooting Installation of NS as the same needs to be followed while troubleshooting so the information is exact) so that the flow of this article should also be maintained.

Steps for Installing the Notification Server Manually

If you have ever had to install NS server manually, your questions will be answered when you go through this article.

Note: The article Applies to NS 6.0

Prerequisites:

1. First download NS 6 from http://www.solutionsam.com/solutions/6_0/ and download the file called Altiris_NS_6_0.exe.
2. After downloading the files Install NS6 depends upon you to evaluate or licensed in your scenario

Installation:

1. Select Next as per below screenshot and Accept licensing terms and select Complete option as part of installation.
   

   Click to view.

   Steps for configuring Setup Pages

   1. (a)The User Identity Settings page appears first. Enter credentials with administrator rights. This account is used to access Notification Server.
      

      Click to view.

2. The E-mail Settings page lets you set up an e-mail address that will receive administrator alerts from Notification Server when system events are generated. These settings depend upon your environment and accordingly it has to be adjusted.
   

   Click to view.

   Tip: Enter IP address of your SMTP server. You must also enter a valid user name and password to log on to the SMTP server if the server requires authentication. Click Send Test E-mail to send a test e-mail and verify that Notification Server is sending e-mail to the correct address.
3. The SQL Database Settings page lets you set up credentials for Microsoft SQL Server and the installed Notification Database.

   Enter the name of the server running Microsoft SQL Server or MSDE. You can install the Notification Database to a specific SQL 2000 instance by entering the server name and SQL instance. For example, SQL server name\SQL instance.

   Select Create new database and enter the name of the database to be created. Generally default name is Altiris which can be seen in below screenshot.

   

   Click to view.

4. After finishing all above steps click finish and your settings for NS have been configured.

Installing Client Management Suite

Depending on your requirements, you have purchased either CMS1 or CMS level 2 suites. I will just run through the steps that are important and that need to be understood.

What are CMS level 1 and CMS level 2 suites- Well these are suites that have been purchased and involve licenses as purchased. What it contains? Refer to this article as it’s been explained in detail, Very informative article and a must read for everyone.

See KB- Article ID: 34917

There are two ways to install a suite or solution, depending on whether you have already installed Notification Server, which is required by the suite or solution:

If Notification Server is already installed, use the Solution Center to install the suite or solution:

1. In the Altiris Console, click the Configuration tab.
2. In the tree view pane, click Upgrade/Install Additional Solutions.
3. In the content (right) pane, click the suite or solution you want to install.
4. Follow the steps in the wizard to install the suite or solution.

Getting the .exe files from http://www.solutionsam.com/solutions/6_0/ directory. This method is a little more complicated because there are some Solutions that require certain order to install. As well you may have already downloaded all the files for the Suite that you need. Usually those files are located at C:/Program Files/Altiris/AICM directory.

Here we go, NS solutions are installed. Now the question comes if the server has no internet connectivity and we need to install solution, follow along with this below.

Install a Notification Server or Solutions Suite on a server without Internet

There is a way for downloading all the necessary components for installing the Notification Server and a specific Suite and then use them in an environment without Internet access. If your server does not have an Internet connection, you can access the installation files from a different computer and save the files to a destination accessible by the server (CD, network storage, USB drive, and so on). However, an Internet connection is required for product upgrades.

Altiris Installation and Configuration Manager has the option for Download Only. See the following steps for getting the files that you need for installing Notification Server and the Suite/Solution that you need.

To download and extract the installer files:

1. Go to the Altiris Web site download page (http://www.altiris.com/Download.aspx).
2. Enter your email address.
3. Select the product you want to install (for example, Client Management Suite 6.0).
4. Click Submit.
5. Read and accept the license agreement.
6. Click Download Altiris Installation and Configuration Manager.
7. Click Run.
8. Specify a location for the installer files and click one of the available options:
   • Extract & Execute App. The files will be extracted to the specified location, and the Altiris Installation and Configuration Manager will be launched. The Wizard will walk you through the installation of the product.
   • Extract Only. The installation files will only be extracted to the specified location. Choose this if you intend to copy the installation files to another computer or if you want to run the installation at another time. Then start the installer by running Setup.exe.

To install an Altiris Suite/Solution and Notification Server:

1. Start the installer program if it is not already running. When you extracted the installer files, if you selected Extract & Execute App, the installer is already running. If you selected Extract Only, you can start the installer by running Setup.exe in the file extraction location (by default, the location is C:\Program Files\Altiris\Setup Files\AICM\product name\Data\Downloads).
   Note: If Notification Server is already installed and you run the install program, the Altiris Console will open to the Solution Center.
2. Choose a product download option.
   Note: The first option is given as a reference, but the one that you need for an installation without Internet access is Download Only:
   • Download and install on the computer. You will be prompted for information needed for the installation and configuration of the product and Notification Server. At the same time, the needed files are being downloaded in the background. You can see the download progress at the bottom of the page.
   • Download only. This option can be used to copy the setup files to another computer for installation, possibly a computer without an Internet connection. To install the product on a different computer, copy all of the setup files onto a CD or the computer on which you want to run the installation. The setup files are located in the location specified when you extracted the installer files (by default, C:\Program Files\Altiris\Setup Files\AICM\product name\Data\Downloads).

When you are ready to install the product, run Setup.exe again and continue with the installation.

Troubleshooting issues with Altiris Installation

This troubleshooting for installing Altiris has been derived from Altiris article since troubleshooting for this particular problem should be followed exactly.

See KB Article 34652 the same as I am reproducing below.

The following steps are provided as basic troubleshooting suggestions for the most common issues with the Altiris Installation and Configuration Manager when it fails.

1. Don't skip Altiris Installation and Configuration Manager Process when an error occurs, even though it is a lot easier to install the Notification Server by using the Altiris_NS_6_0.exe as article 28249, "Steps for installing the Notification Server manually," suggests. Errors like "Configuration of Altiris Notification Server failed. Installation cannot continue. Exiting..." are fairly common; it means, in most cases, that the Notification Server Core failed to install with an error Altiris Installation and Configuration Manager couldn't trap.
2. In case that you have issues installing the Notification Server with Altiris Installation and Configuration Manager, don't press any buttons (as that will trigger an uninstall that will delete all the installation log files). What you should do is leave the screen alone and verify/collect the following files:
3. Make sure that the actual error is captured. A screenshots can help.
4. Check Data, Data\Downloads, and Data\Licenses directories and ensure the files are present. Usually you can find those under C:\Program Files\Altiris\Setup Files\AICM\
5. Collect the following:
   • a.logs (usually the Notification Server logs are created under C:\Program Files\Altiris\Notification Server\Logs)
   • AICMLogs\InstallLog.xml (usually under C:\Documents and Settings\%Administrator%\Local Settings\Temp) xxx.productConfig.xml files
   • \AICMUserConfig\AICMUserConfig.xml (usually under C:\Documents and Settings\%Administrator%\Local Settings\Temp)
6. Get the exact steps that the customer or user has done to help reproduce the problems
7. Save the files mentioned on step c (under step 2 above) into a ZIP; clean all of the above off; start again.