Deployment Solution

Well, I am in a pickle here, nothing I can do will get my computers importing. This worked fine under the previous versions of DS. The message I am getting is:

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Altiris Deployment Solution
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(!) Error importing computer number 1, in the field 'NIC 1 alternate WINS'.

[ OK ]

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This was using a previous known-good XLS file I fill in, then export as CSV for the import. Also note, I am using Excel 2007, so I don't have the 13 row issue with failed commas. I used the same process in January 2008 and it worked a treat.

I keep all my previous import files... so I went into my "2008" folder, grabbed the CSV file I used for the import saved it as a new file. I then deleted all but one "test" row and proceeded to change the computer name, serial, MAC address etc to make a test computer. I tried an import and got the exact same error.

I then went into my "samples" folder and tried using both the "ImportComputers55" and "ImportComputers61" files (both CSV and TXT just to make sure). Neither of them worked. The v5.5 file reports that a MAC address is wrong, but managed to import some of my computers. The v6.1 files give me the same error I have now.

So is there a new "ImportComputers69" file I can get, or something? Anyone have a working CSV file for DS 6.9 SP1?

Help appreciated. I don't have much time left and I would hate to create a few hundred computers by hand.

EDIT: By the way, the "NIC 1 alternate WINS" column is empty, as we don't use it.

So, without any replies and Google hits for my problem, I decided to use the new import/export in DS to create a test computer, export it, and see if I can generate a file for import. As this is XML my hopes were high.... but dashed quickly after:

1) I got the XML data and attempted to load it into Excel 2007 so I can add all my other computer details... and ... it gave me a XML/schema error. This appears to be related to the export XML file containing the following:

xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="computers.xsd"

Seems Excel could find it... no worries I thought and continued.

2) After searching and searching, I still could not find the "computers.xsd" file on our server, so I thought I'd try removing it from the XML and giving it another bash. Excel said there was an issue with the XML (obviously, it has n o schema), but let me import the data anyway. Excellent I thought...

3) Until I immediately tried to export the data via the "Developer" tab and it said that the Excel "Cannot save or export XML data. The XML maps in this workbook are not exportable." Wow.... okay.

4) I used the "Source" panel and checked all the mappings, (which were already correct). I even resorted to the manual... nothing. Validating the data indicates there is a problem with normalization. Wonderful.

5) So unless I get the "computers.xsd" or a new "ImportComputers" CSV, then I seem to be looking at a hand import of my systems... lucky me.

Ideas?

Well this is now sorted. Eventually we just created a basic CSV file that contained "Name", "Mac0", "IP0", "Mac1", "IP1", and "GroupName". We then use this as a data-source for a "Crystal Report" we made, and that fills out the rest o the XML data and structure we have/need. From there we generate the import XML. Worked a treat.

It did turn out though, that the import detected a bad MAC address on the ninth computer... and sure enough it had an 11-byte address (oh oh). I fixed this and then the import worked a treat. This means that the "ImportComputers55" file may have actually worked... however the newer v6.1 file is definitely broken - and it was that template I used in previous years. I maintain that "something has changed", but at least I have a solution or two for my imports.

The "CSV" and "Crystal" solution is definitely neater than the old CSV way though... you don't need to worry about setting "DHCP" and "RunScript" Booleans and replicating the "ComputerName" three times etc. Even if the "ImportComputers55" template works now, I think I'll stick with the XML format because it is far easier to both fill in data and read.