Remote Client Install for AdlAgent

Problem: Remote client install for Linux clients is not yet supported by Deployment Server.

Solution: There are many possible solutions. In this article I have detailed how to use plink.exe (command line SSH Putty for Windows) to download AdlAgent using FTP, install it on the clients, and get the clients connected back up to the Deployment Server.

Prerequisites:

1. Plink.exe (Download from here.)
2. Deployment Server 6.5+ (it may work with older versions)
3. FTP server*
4. SSH enabled on Linux clients

Instructions:

Step 1: Download and install Plink

Go to the link listed above and download plink.exe. Either add it to your path or put it in a directory called c:\adlagentinst. This is a useful tool, you may want to consider keeping it in the system32 directory.

Step 2: Add AdlAgent to your FTP

You can use any FTP server. Here I will describe how to install and use the default Windows 2003 server.

To enable the Windows 2003 FTP server:

1. Go to Start > Settings > Control Panel > Add Remove programs.
2. Click on Add/Remove Windows Components.
3. Then go in to Application server > Internet Information Services.
4. Check File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Service.
   This should check a few other things automatically.
5. Click OK - Internet Information Services.
6. Click OK - Application server.
7. Click Next - Windows components.
8. Click Finish.

Now that your FTP server is installed, you need to either add AdlAgent to its current home directory or change the server to use the Deployment Server as its home directory. I opt for the latter in case I need to update new agents or transfer other Deployment Server files via FTP.

To set the Windows 2003 FTP home directory:

1. Go to Start > Programs > Administrative Tools > Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
2. Expand (hostname) > FTP sites.
3. Right Click Default FTP Site and select properties.
4. Click the Home Directory tab.
5. Click the browse button and browse to the Deployment Server directory.
6. Click Okay.

Now double check your FTP by logging in to it and browsing to the adlagent-x.x-x.x.bin file. Make note of the full path and file name, you will need it soon.

Step 3: Download and configure files

First open "Deployment Server\agents\adlagent\adlagent.conf" and modify the settings you would like your clients to use (things like logging and the Deployment Server to connect to).

Then download the attached adlRCI.zip. It should contain the following files:

• adlRCI.bat - You will need to configure the variables in this.
• batch-adlRCI.bat - Reads data files and calls adlRCI.bat
• machines.txt - Example datafile listing Linux machines.

Extract these files in c:\adlagentinst. Open the adlRCI.bat and configure the following variables:

• ftpuser - This will be the user your linux clients will authenticate as when downloading the altiris-adlagent-x.x-x.x.bin file.
• ftppassword - The ftp password used
• sUsername - The user name used to create a ssh connection from the Windows machine running plink and the Linux clients
• sPassword - The password used to authenticate via ssh
  
  Note: This method of install is obviously highly insecure, however if you want to look in to using password keys there are utilities from the same people that develop plink that can help with this.
• adlloc - This is the full ftp path to AdlAgent. For example ftp://10.10.10.1/agents/adlagent/ (don't forget the trailing forward slash)
• adlfile - This is the specific AdlAgent file you want to install. This will change depending on which release of DS you are using and which archetype you are installing to.

Step 4: Client install

When you run "adlRCI.bat 10.10.10.5" it will now attempt to create a ssh connection to that machine and have that machine download the AdlAgent files then install them. If all is configured properly the agent should connect right up to you deployment server under the all computers folder (not new computers).

To install to multiple Linux clients simply put their IP addresses or resolvable host names in a data file. Machines.txt is a proper example, it looks like:

Machines.txt
-----------------
10.103.64.27
10.103.64.35
-----------------

Then run "batch-adlRCI.bat machine.txt". This in turn runs "adlRCI 10.103.64.27" and "adlRCI 10.103.64.35" installing the clients at the same time.

Additional Notes:

This process has been verified to work with Red Hat Enterprise 4 U3. It uses the Linux "at" command in the end of the batch file to schedule a AdlAgent restart in order to get around a bug where plink will not respond until AdlAgent shuts all the way down.

And again, this is not the only way to remotely install the AdlAgent, but it is a way. Some other possibilities are installing via telnet scripts, install via preboot and firm copying in Linux startup run once scripts.