Deployment Solution

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Upgrading DS 6.8 to 6.9 

Jul 14, 2008 03:05 PM

This morning I was refining an image I have been working on in my test environment. I noticed that my AClient silent install file needed to be udpated. Then it dawned on me that I needed to update my Deployment Solution from 6.8 to 6.9. I have read some good things about 6.9, so I decided that I would go ahead and upgrade my Deployment Solution. This update is a pretty simple process. It is always nice to have a reference though. If you think it is about time to get your Deployment Solution up-to-date, take a gander at this article.

Upgrade Steps:

When I first installed Deployment Solution 6.8 I submitted the following article: Installing Deployment Solution for Clients 6.8 using MSSQL 2005. This article went through each step to preparing the server for Deployment Solution 6.8. This article is the base for the upgrade. You will need to make sure that you actually have Deployment Solution installed and running before you proceed with an upgrade to 6.9.

First, you will need to download the install files. Here is how you do it:

  • Go to www.altiris.com
  • In the upper right hand corner there is a "Download" button, click it.
  • In the "Select a product to download" drop down, select "Deployment Solutions for Clients 6.9". Click the submit button
  • A screen with load with all of the "Terms and Conditions". Once you have carefully read all of these terms, click the "I AGREE" button to continue
  • The next screen will ask you to log in, once you have logged in you will see the following screen:
  • Click on the "DOWNLOAD NOW" button next to "Deployment Solution for Clients 6.9"
  • I also downloaded the "Linux and DOS Automation Environment for Deployment Solution 6.9" and "WinPE Automation Environments for Deployment Solution 6.9"

Once your files are downloaded you will need to extract the file titled: "Altiris_DeploymentSolutionWin_6_9_client.zip" to a known location. I decided to do it on my Desktop.

Now that your files are downloaded, you will need to make sure you have your license file. Here is how you can find it:

  • Navigate to the "License Management Portal"
  • Log in to the site
  • Once you have logged in you will see a list of products that you have purchased. Find "Deployment Solution for Clients" and click on it
  • Up above, you will see information about this product, including a "download license" link
  • Click on that link to obtain your license

Alternatively, you can also find your "eXpress.exe" file and rename it to "eXpress.lic". That should contain your license file inside of it.

We have done all of the prep work, now we can upgrade to Deployment Solution 6.9. Here is what you do:

  • Find your extracted files and double click on the file titled: "Altiris_DeploymentSolutionWin_6_9.exe"
  • A window will appear asking you where the Altiris files should be extracted

    Click on the "Extract & Execute App" button

  • After the files are extracted, the following screen will appear:
  • I want to update Deployment Solution and PXE, so I choose the "Simple Install" radio button and checked the box next to "Include PXE Server"
  • Now, click the "Install" button
  • A window titled "Software License Agreement" will appear, after carefully reading the agreement click the "Yes" button
  • You will see this window:
  • As you can see, it has already picked up my previous install path, which is good, but there needs to be a few changes.
    • First, I want to use the license file I just downloaded, so I select the radio button next to "License file" and browse to find the correct one
    • Next, when I installed Deployment Solution I created a "Deployment Service" account, I will use that for the "Service user name"
    • Here is what the screen looks like after the changes I made:
    • Click the "Next" button to continue
  • You will see the following message:
  • I want to use my "previous installation of Deployment Server 6.8", so I selected the "Yes" button
  • On this screen we can choose the Pre-boot Operating Systems we want to use. Here is how I configured this screen:
    • First I selected the radio button next to "DOS"
    • Then I selected the "FreeDOS" check box
    • After that I clicked on the arrow in the far right, and found the DOS Preboot environment file I downloaded earlier ("BDCgpl_6.9.8853.frm")
    • I did the same thing for Linux and WinPE
    • When everything was configured correctly, I made sure to select WinPE was selected and I clicked the "Next" button
  • A screen titled "Altiris Deployment Server Installation" will appear. It lists everything that will happen during the update process:

    Click the "Install" button to get started

  • Immediately I received the following message:
  • I would like to use the same share, so I want to select the "Yes" button. Before I did, I copied all of my critical files to a safe location
  • While everything is installing, the window will look like this:
  • After a few short minutes the install is done. You will see the following screen:
  • I usually don't use Sysprep because do a scripted install of Windows. Just to be safe I checked the "Remotely install Deployment Agent"
  • Click the "Finish" button to continue

Now that we are done (and we decided to check the "Remotely install Deployment Agent") we need to configure this setting. Here is how:

  • On this screen:

    You can choose the radio button that best suits your situation

  • I decided to select the "Use this username and password for all clients" radio button. Once I entered the username and password, I clicked the "Next" button to continue
  • On this screen, you can start to configure the Agent settings:
  • I clicked the "Change Settings" button, this window will appear:
  • Let's spend a few minutes configuring the client:
    • Server Connection Tab: (pictured above) I generally leave all of the settings alone. I did decide to check "Enable key-based authentication to Deployment Server" because of this clip from the help file: "Enable key-based authentication to Deployment Server. Select this option to specify mandatory authentication for client computers to connect to the Deployment Server. This helps keep rogue computers from connecting to unauthorized Deployment Servers."
    • Access Tab: I want to remote controll my computers, so I check the box next to "Allow this computer to be remote controlled". I also want the user to approve the remote control session, so I checked the the box next to "Remote Control" in the "Prompt the user before performing actions" section. I usually change the default time to 15 seconds just to give my users enough time to accept the remote session. I also select the "Abort the operation" radio button to make things extra safe. If I want all remote control sessions to be approved first, it doesn't make sense to have it automatically continue if they don't accept.
    • Security Tab: I like to "Encrypt session communication with Deployment Server", so I check that box. I also want to lock the user out of the admin tray, so I check the "Password protect Admin properties from user" and I set the password. Finally, I like to "Hide client tray icon"
    • Log File Tab: I want a log file, so I check the "Save log information to a text file". I check all of the different logs I can and I change the location of where the log file is saved
    • Proxy Tab: I don't change anything on this tab.
      Note: If you check the "Forward Wake-On-LAN packets" check box, and it gets pushed to all of your machines you will kill your network
    • Startup/Shutdown Tab: On this tab the only setting I check is "Synchronize date/time with Deployment Server"
    • Now we are all done, you can click the "OK" button to continue
  • Now the AClient settings are configured, click the "Next" button to continue
  • I leave this screen the same and click the "Next" button to continue
  • On this screen I found the security key path and clicked the "Next" button
  • On the final screen I simply selected the computers I wanted to update and clicked the "Finish" button

Conclusion:

The upgrade was pretty straight foward, but it is a necessary diversion. You will want to make sure that all of your clients are checking in and that all of your jobs are there. It may take a few minutes for everything to sync up again.

Now that we are upgraded, we are of couse up-to-date. But, there are other new features that are compelling. For instance, you can use UltraVNC for Remote Controlling. This is an essential step towards the Notifiacation Server 7 release this fall. Most of the Deployment Solution will be incorporated into Notification Server (over time all features will be rolled into Notification Server. At ManageFusion they suggested you keep your Deployment Solution up and running until everything can be moved over. I was also told that there will be regular patches and hotfixes for Deployment Console, so it is worth the time to keep it running well.

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Comments

Jun 03, 2013 03:58 PM

I ran through this upgrade and when the the installation is finished I'm unable to access the console because of an unknown username or bad password. We have security enabled on the console, Iam able to access the DB directly through SQL Management Studio. Do you have to disable security prior to upgrading? Has anyone had this issue before?

Jul 19, 2008 10:30 PM

One thing that I failed to mention is a database backup. It is not a critical thing, but I ended up recreating the DB and lost all of my organization. If I had a backup I would have saved myself a lot of time.

Jul 18, 2008 09:37 AM

regarding your sedond issue, I ran into this issue once a while back.
What I found in my case was that both the Aclient (xp/w2k/w2k3 agent) and the Dagent (Vista/W2k8 agent) were installed on the systems at the same time… after removing the Aclient or the Dagent my problem was resolved.
Rodney

Jul 18, 2008 05:27 AM

Thanks for the write-up.
I don't tend to upgrade my Deployment Server installations as our organization requires concurrent testing of new servers before we release into Production.
I've encountered a couple of issues with DS 6.9 which I want to open up to the floor if anyone else has encountered them.
Our Deployment Server is running rully hotfixed.
1)Users with restricted rights cannot load up the console when the 'Hide objects in console for which users do not have permission' option is enabled.
Users who do not have Admin rights in the console get a never-ending stream of errors from the console all of which seem to relate to sql procedures '##wc_last_effective_rights' etc.
Has anyone else seen this?
2)DAgent on Microsoft Windows Vista machines removes machines from their domain upon installation.
As soon as the DAgent has been installed on a Windows Vista SP1 machine, it kicks the machine out of the Domain and restarts it as a Workgroup client.
This is especially dangerous as by default, machines connecting to AD disable their local administrator account leading to a machine with no active Administrator account.
Those are the two main issues, both of which I raised during the BETA testing cycle, both of which have failed to be followed-up on by Altiris(Now Eaten By Symantec).

Jul 17, 2008 03:59 PM

First of all this was a great write-up. I followed the steps above and my DS updated to 6.9.
So far I have one seen one abnormal thing with respect to the Remote Control.
If I go onto the DS server itself and launch the console and want to remote control a client, I'm given 2 options now: DS Remote Control and Remote Desktop.
But I also have an icon on my desktop which launches the DS console but on that console I only have the DS Remote Control option.
Any idea why that is and how I could fix it?

Jul 15, 2008 01:59 PM

Please be certain that your current support covers Upgrade Protection.
And another is the various issues in 6.9 that have come up. Please check the known issues for 6.9 before upgrading. https://kb.altiris.com/article.asp?article=41786&p=1
There are three that we ran into, and two are causing us mild problems still.
Deployment Console Refresh issues as mentioned before.
Copy directly from file source then execute: AKB23887
https://kb.altiris.com/article.asp?article=23887&p=1
And issues with PXE redirection, there is a workaround, but no long-term fix yet: AKB41019
https://kb.altiris.com/article.asp?article=41019&p=1

Jul 15, 2008 10:31 AM

We recently did this upgrade and ran into problems with the console refreshing and jobs appearing to disappear. This kb article was recently updated to include a hot fix.
https://kb.altiris.com/article.asp?article=41648&p=1
Craig

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