Symantec Management Platform (Notification Server)

I hope this is the right forum for this question....so here it goes. I am using the Symantec Management Console ver 7.0.5201 with Altiris Notification Server 7.0 to manage my Backup Exec System Recovery 2010 installations. I've noticed during my testing that I have a PC (Windows 7) that has Altiris Agent installed, but it's missing the "Options" menu, thus I cannot manage any of the tasks/deliveries for this PC. On my other test PCs (mix of Windows 2000, XP, Vista), my Altiris Agent looks like this:



But on this particular Windows 7 PC it looks like this:




Now I don't know if it's because it's Windows 7 or that just so happens to be the case for this PC, but I do know it's missing that "Option" field. I noticed when I first installed the Altiris Agents that they don't initially have it as well, but it seems once it starts deploying the Backup Exec installation, then it appears. It never appeared for this Windows 7 one though.

Also, when I go into Task History in the agents, is it supposed to show something? All of my agents have a blank history despite the fact that I know they installed things. Just curious on that one. Thanks for any help.

Oh, forgot to mention the Agent version is 7.0.3599

As far as I understand, the Options section will only appear once the Symantec Management Agent has received a GUID from the NS.

Can you click on the Settings button and make sure a GUID appears next to the Comuter ID field. It may take a few minutes after the installation for the agent to receive a GUID.

Also ensure that the agent is pointing to the correct Altiris Server and that IP communications can occur. If using the Altiris Server hostname as opposed to IP address, also make sure that you can ping that hostname from the client machine. You may have some DNS resolution issues.

AS

thanks for the reply.  I checked the Settings and yes, this agent has a GUID. Checking the the Resource Manager on the Notification Server shows that the GUID is matching up correctly with the PC in question.  I did a ping both ways and communication is fine. Firewall is disabled outside of Symantec Endpoint Protection, but all our test PCs running that as well and it's causing no problems with the Altiris Agent.

I compared the Settings page of the PC in question and my other test machines that are working properly. The only differences I see are different GUID (which is expected) and different Intervals in the Configuraion and Basic Inventory boxes. The working PCs both say 1 hour interval for configuration and 1 day interval for basic inventory. The non-working PC says 15 minute interval for configuration and 7 days for basic inventory. Maybe this is a hint as to what's going on. I don't know though.

The only other difference I can see is when you go into the Task Status tab, the Task Server listed on the working PCs says "BESR01" and the non working PC says "besr01.dlabs.com".  Basically in my environment those are the 2 same host names, but one is showing the domain name. Not a big deal I think, but again just pointing out the differences.

If I remember correctly, the default settings for a Symantec Management Agent that has yet to receive a configuration policy is 15 minute Configuration Request interval and 7 days Basic Inventory Send. It looks like your faulty machine is displaying these settings so perhaps it has not yet received a configuration.

Have you tried running the Resource Membership Update tasks? In the console click Settings | Notification Server | Resource Membership Update and then run the 3 tasks that are displayed on that page. Alternatively, open the Control Panel | Scheduled Tasks on your NS and run the task called NS.Complete Resource Membership Update.

Let me know how that goes.

AS

Ok, I ran all 3 tasks and then I ran the NS.Complete Resource Membership Update task as wellf rom the scheduler and still nothing.  Maybe unisntall and do a re-install of the agent at this point huh?

I'm getting the same behaviour and i've tried all the above.

Verify the Windows DNS setting between the two clients.  Particularly the DNS suffixes and the DNS Suffix for this connection.  It can have some impact like what you're seeing.  

Also, is the box that is not working sending basic inventory and properly sending & receiving config requests.  If not, are other boxes?

They should give an inkling as to why the client can't communicate. I'd be particularly interested in any 404 or 401 http errors.

Run default configuration policy for that client....This worked perfectly for me.

 

Thanks,

Siddharth

I resolved this by adding a registry key after the install of the agent

 

For Windows 7 32 bit:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Software Delivery]
"ShowOptions"=dword:00000001

 

For Windows 7 64 bit:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Software Delivery]
"ShowOptions"=dword:00000001

Investigated this more and here is what I've found.  I have NS6 SP3 R13.  Recently upgraded the server from R12.  I will try to explain it as clearly as I can.

 

It would appear that the upgrade from R12 to R13 did not upgrade some collections ... namely 'All 32-bit Windows Workstations'  This is an important Collection because it is part of the group of collections which eventually end up in 'All Windows Desktop Computers (excluding 'Package Servers')'.  This collection is the one used by the Altiris Agent policy 'All Desktop Computers (excluding 'Package Server')'.  With the collection not upgraded properly, all Windows 7 computers are left out of the Altiris Agent Configuration policy.

The Altiris Agent Configuration policy for desktops has a setting in the Interaction tab which says 'Show software delivery options on the Altiris Agent' which I believe is enabled by default.  Because my Windows 7 machines where not receiving any configuration policy after I pushed and installed the agent, the Options menu was not showing up on the agent console on Windows 7 PCs.  It appears that the configuration policy is how the Options menu is enabled.

To resolve this issue I exported the collection from a server where the Windows 7 PCs were part of the collection and imported it into my server.  You could also try a repair on the NS or you could add the Windows 7 collections (which work correctly) to the agent config policy.

Hope this helps

Not sure if the same problem occurs with NS7 ... I have not tested.

I had the same symtoms when no target agent settings was set for the computer.  This particular setting in the client config file is set from the targeted agent settings.