Client Management Suite

I read a long time ago that there was an SP5 in the works for Deployment Server 6.9.  Does anybody know if that is in the works?  If so, any idea on when it might be released?  We are just now in the process of getting around to upgrading from NS 6 to NS7.  We still heavily depend on Deployment Server still, though.  While we are in the beginning stages of the NS upgrade, I just wanted to know if there was a new SP being released for DS. 

The current version (6.9 Build 453) does not seem to support Windows 7 machines...another of the "in the works" plans we have.  It will not get any data in an inventory (no drive, services, or applications information).  The DS remote control is also completely non functional.  I have seen that DS remote control is supposed to work when somebody is logged in, but it does not.  Remote desktop works fine on the Windows 7 machines when nobody is logged in, but DS remote control does not work on any Windows 7 machine.

There's been Windows 7 support since DS 6.9 SP3.  Are you using the DAgent or the AClient on these Windows 7 systems?  Do you use UAC in Windows 7?

SP5 has been mentioned, not sure if it's real or a myth.  Maybe someone else can weigh in.

All of the effort currently is going to making DS7 catch up with DS 6.9, not fixing a product that, for the most part, is working.

What do you gain from remote control that you don't have in remote desktop?  That's a really really old service.

Pretty sure Win7 inventory for DS should be working fine.  Be sure you send DAgent to your Win7 systems though or you'll be in trouble.  Vista/Win7 is why we re-wrote it.

What I can tell you for sure is that SP5 will not "create support for Win7".  As mClemson said, that support is already there.  We'll need to work your specific issues separately.

Yes, DAgent is installed on the Windows 7 machines.  AClient does not even want to install when attempting.  It always says that you don't have permissions to check the services.  UAC has been turned off on the Windows 7 machines we currently have.

The issue with remote desktop is being able to view actively logged in users.  We use it to walk users through items while they are logged in.  Although Remote Desktop can be used for that, it takes a lot of configuration work on the 8,000+ clients we have to enable it.  DS remote control is much quicker and easier to deal with on those.  That is why we use DS remote control so heavily.  We also use Carbon Copy in NS, but that will be going away once we upgrade to NS7.  I understand we can get PCAnywhere to replace that solution if needed, though.

My understanding is that DS7 is part of NS7, though.  We have our current NS and DS as separate servers.  Is DS7 going to allow for upgrading of our current DS6.9 server so it can remain separate?  My understanding was that it was going to be totally integrated into NS7 like Deployment Solution currently is in NS6.

So you won't have the "option" of getting pc anywhere, it's just there if you get the Client Management Suite.  It works very well - better than CC or DS Remote Control, more secure, more configurable, easier to configure, the works.

DS7 is more integrated than it was in NS6.  Not even close.  NS6 was a plug-in to manage the 32bit version that worked...  well, that's a bit of a stretch, but it sorta worked.  In CMS7, DS7 is another solution like Software Delivery.  All of the functionality is in the same DB, shares features with other products, relies on some of those (i.e. task management), and is 100% managed from that console.

After DS 6.9, no more 32 bit console - probably ever.

Currently, if you upgrade to NS7, you can have both DS 7 and DS 6.9 still running, since they're completely different and separate apps.  There is however, no upgrade "path".  There is a tool to import images, but that's it.

However, because the two products are in fact 100% separate, yes, you could keep DS 6.9 up and running on a different box.  On the same one technically, but I'd recommend against that pretty strongly.

As for your remote control issue - I've not personally heard of it and think it should be working.  That said, there's no work being done on it because 1) we have remote desktop and 2) we have PCA.  If you're getting errors, be sure to look them up in the KB.  Pretty helpful.  :D

Thomas, thanks for that info. What are your strong recommendations against DS6.9 and CMS 7 being on same box? Currently ours live together and I'm having a weird issue on the off-box eXpress database (beefy server specs) where it consumes 100% of the CPU. Still awaiting response to support case I submitted.