Client Management Suite

I installed a second task server in my environment with the intent of moving all of the agents off the NS server. I understand the Task needs to remain installed on the NS, so how can I ensure that all my clients talk to the server?

You can see what clients are checking in with which task server in the site management section of the console. Settings > Notification Server > Site Server Settings. Once you have added your site server to a site the clients on that site will start communicating with that site server. You can also manually assign the agents as well. If you click on the Task Service section under the Services section of the site server, you can see what clients have registered to that Site Server.

Actually, in the current version, the task service doesn't need to remain on the Notification Server.  Task server does, however -- don't touch that or really anything that involves an .msi for removal.  The supported method of removing task service from the Notification Server is to use Settings > Notification Server > Site Server Settings.

The proper way to ensure they talk to the task server is to assign all subnets in your environment to one or more sites, and to assign at least one site server to each site.

Does this help?

To make sure as many of your Task Agents as possible attach to the new Task Server you need to set up your sites and subnets as laid out here:

"Best Practice: Managing Task Server Communications in 7.0 and 7.1"

http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO48411

Another way of seeing how many Task Agents are on each Task Server is to look at the built in Filters under Manage > Filters > Computer Filters > Task Service Filters.

I run a "Reset Task Agent" task daily at 10:00 am on all Task Agents in the Filter with Task Agents reporting to the NS.