Symantec Management Platform (Notification Server)

Hello,

We have two offices, which both belong to same AD site.

There's only NS server assigned to this site, which will deliver software packages for workstations.

I want to create new Package Server, which will serve clients only in remote office. I don't want to create new AD site only for these clients in remote office.

How I should configure Package Server settings to achieve my goal? How clients select which Package Server they use if there's more than one PS in same site?

version of NS you are using. However, basically, you would create a new site, and manually populate the subnet configuration to only use select subnets. Then manually assign a package\site server to that site.

If you are auto importing sites and subnets from AD, it's possible the subnet range is already included within a site, which might complicate this a little. There isn't a 'weighting' recommendation as to what package\site server is selected, but I believe the most common method would be speed testing for downloading of the codebases.

So if the remote site server is in that site, the clients should pull from it first, if there is some of the confusion listed above.

So steps
1) Create a new site (Manual)
2) Populate with Subnets
3) Assign Package Server to that site (Manual)

Hello Jim,

We're running NS 6.0 SP3 and we're auto-importing sites and subnets from AD.

Subnet range of the remote office is listed in same site as others.

If I create new site to 'Site Maintenance' and define subnet, is this information over-written by next AD import synchronization?

Site settings modified in NS console does not change anything in Active Directory, right?

If you manually create a site, it is not overwritten by an AD import, nor does it modify AD information in anyway.

If you only have 1 site in AD, you may consider NOT importing sites (but still import subnets) and then setup two manual sites in Altiris.

Importing sites from AD, in my opinion, is more useful for larger enterprises.

See, we have two different offices connected with slow WAN link. And these belong to same AD site, but we have a lot more sites in AD.

One last thing, this one site contains one large subnet (this small subnet is included to that range). Before I create new site manually to Altiris, should I edit that one site NOT to include that subnet range, I'm going to create own site for?

I mean, does it matter if I have two sites in Altiris, which both contain same subnet.

Well...I know answer to my last question. Of course I should remove that subnet from other site, but this is going to cause extra subnet calculating.

in v7, for example, if you have already selected a subnet for a site, it doesn't display as an available subnet the next time you create a site. I can't honestly remember if v6 has the same behavior (hangs head in shame).

Do you add and remove sites/subnets a lot?  if not, I would suggest doing as Jim says and just manually manage them.  We have over 160 sites defined in our NS, and each one was set up one by one.  This is mainly because our AD Sites are only defined for sites which have a DC (most of the sites are small and come back to HQ for domain authentication services). 

Jim: NS6 will still show the site as selectable if you uncheck the "only show unassigned subnets" (errr...something like that!) checkbox in the subnet selection window.  This allows you to easily re-assign a subnet from one site to another.

Kyle: I think this is the first subnet I have had to add in past 3 yrs. I think about your suggestion.

Now I need to re-calculate subnets and modify my site settings in NS.

I removed a big subnet from Site 1, now when I try to add same network address with different subnet mask, I get error:

"The specified subnet already exists."

The AD Site or from the site in Altiris? If you removed it from AD, you would have to run an import (delta at least).

From Site Maintenance in Altiris, I selected Site 1 and choose "Edit a site" and deleted the subnet.

Now I can't restore original subnet, because I get this same error.

The automatic collection updating is how NS makes itself 'aware' of changes. Try running that and then assign the subnet again.

Subnet I attempted to add was listed in Subnets tab. I deleted it from there and tried to add it again to a site. It worked.

Subnets are automatically added to the "Subnets" window when machines post basic inventory.  This can be a real pain with laptop users who connect to the VPN from numerous different locations, junking up our Subnets database with 14,000 entries!  You didn't need to delete it from the Subnets tab, you could use the "pencil" (edit) icon to add it to the existing site.  I would also suggest disabling your Sites import functionality, just in case it might overwrite the existing configuration.