Symantec Management Platform (Notification Server)

I've recently experimented with ways of allowing the user some control over when a reboot occurs after installing software. In this case, SP3 for Windows XP, which requires a reboot to complete installation, but this can be (and is in our case) suppressed from the command line in the installer to allow for a silent install without impact on the user. The problem then is you can't determine reliably when a reboot will take place.

So, I've tried the "After Running: Restart Computer" option. The user can then defer the reboot up to a maximum period set by that option. So far so good, BUT, the dialog has a countdown timer that defaults to 60 secs and then forices a restart of the computer if there's no response within that time. This countdown can be extended, but only up to 1 hour maximum, which is not long enough for our purposes. Ideally, if there's no response, the dialog should remain on screen for the maximum deferral period (as set by us in the package) and only then force an immediate reboot. If the user responds, the maximum deferral period should start from when the dialog first appeared.

So, my question is, is there a way to extended the dialog countdown beyond 1 hour? Any help appreciated. Thanks!

Hello GDK,
Not natively within the application. A similar topic here (also about SP3) - http://forums.altiris.com/mess...id=53460&enterthread=y, provides some ideas. If you don't see it in the application (Altiris), then it's not available. So creating your own command dialogue is the best option.

HTH,

Jim

It may be simplest, and most effective in the long term, to write your own restart nag program, which you can call at the end of the install, in place of SHUTDOWN.EXE
This program can then be passed a maximum restart delay in hours, and be set to nag the user every hour, until the timeout, when it will call shutdown.exe with a 60 second delay (or no delay if you aspire to BOFH status). Shouldn't take too long to knock something up in winbatch, vb, or whatever your chosen scripting language is.

This countdown, as well as the countdown before running a task, are controlled in the Altiris Agent settings policy.  I don't have a console here in front of me, but there is a drop-down (maybe on the Interaction tab?) that lets you select how long this is available for.  The default is 1 minute, you can extend it to 60 minutes I believe (though I woudl like to see a numeric entry box with a time unit selector (minute/hour/day) instead.