Client Management Suite

Hello,

We are running Altiris 6.9 and need inventory information.  After numerous issues with 6.9 we decided to setup 7.1 to be used for inventory and reporting only.

I installed the Altiris Management Suite 7.1 SP2 along with Altiris Inventory Solution 7.1 SP2.  I deployed 10 Management agents to my test machines, which worked.  Later I checked the machines and they have the following error:

I looked at the list of Agents under the about screen and this is what is listed:

I then went to one machine and removed the Altiris aclient 6.9.430 and the errors went away.  This is what is listed:

I need the AClient in order for my altiris 6.9 deployments to work.  Is there any way to get these two pieces of software from the same company to work together?

There's a command line switch for Inventory that turns on verbose logging, if you turn that on and watch the log on the client you'll see the error pops up just as AeXAuditPls scan fslib.dll or similar, part of the Software Virtualisation Agent. I had the problem with both the 2.1 and 6x version of the Software Virtualisation Agent.

We had that problem and support said it was a known issue.

On a side note, you need to change your agent upgrade method - you shouldn't have the App Management or Metering 6x sub agents.

Actually I believe this was being caused by having the 6.9 agent installed and then installing the 7.1 agent on top of it.  When I did that I got the error.  After uninstalling the 6.9 agent, the error stopped.

I'm trying to run a report.  I'm having issues with my 6.9 NS server but I like using 6.9 for deployment.  I created another 7.1 server a few weeks ago and installed the Altiris Asset Management Suite 7.1 SP2 on it. 

Is there a way to use the 6.9 agent to gether inventory data for 7.1, or do I need to somehow run both agents at the same time?

I have another thread on this here:

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/altiris-console-reporting-showing-inaccurate-data#comment-7424761

I have 2,500 clients with 6.9 Aclient that I've used to upgrade and install v7.0 and 7.1 Altiris Agents.

The Exception I get comes up when AeXAuditPls scans fslib32.dll, part of the Software Virtualisation Agent.

It may be that all 3 can't co-exist.

I have one machine where I uninstalled 6.9 and ran 7.1.  The reporting works correcty and I get no errors, but my 6.9 DS can't see it or deploy software to it.  When I try to reinstall the 6.9 agent via aexnsc.exe I get this message:

Installed agent's version is the same or newer.  Install will be aborted.

It would appear these agents cannot coexist.  If there is a way to make them I would love to know how.

It looks like these people were able to somehow do it:  https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/does-ns-71-work-ds-69

Edwimb,

I've also seen this error but not consistantly and never worked out why, but it was after SVS was installed or after having problems with an SVS layer usually. uninstalling and reinstalling SVS sorted it however i only knew about those problems because of the issues with the SVS Layers we were using.

I also run SVS 2.1, DS6.9 SP4 and NS 7.1.

I don't beleive its just to do with the NS Agent though. I can understand that you are consistantly seeing this when you are installing it.
Have you had a look through the logs to see what is occuring in those? You can't presume the issue is this even though there is some consistancy to it without digging through the logs as there are multiple agents and plugins that could possibly causing this effect.

I would recommend installing just the Aclient and NS Agent on a fresh build as part of the build and see what happens on that to see if its just happening on established machines.

I definitely recommend getting the log files from the install of NS and also the aclient logs from the time that you are installing it up until the error occurs and slowly go through them to see if anything stands out.

Also try uninstalling the SVS and NS agent, restart and just install the NS agent and see if you get the error then.

i know its a fair bit of digging about but hopefully we can help you work this out.

Jim

Hi as far as I can tell both products 6.9 and 7.1 SP2 work together, guarantee. I have several customers that have such configuration.

Regarding the error message that you have here is a link that my help. In there, you also have a link to Microsoft to diagnose the other soft that might cause this problem.

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&pmv=print&impressions=&viewlocale=&id=TECH168047

Best Regards

I got in touch with Symantec support Friday and the rep told me uninstalling the agent removed all other agents.  I didn't really believe that.  Tried it anyway, reinstalled the 7.1 agent, reinstalled the 6.9 aclient, but when I came in today 4 machines out of my 10 test machines had the error.

It does look to be happening when the inventory is run, as I have it set to run nightly and the error only seems to come up when I come in to work and check the machines.

Right now the SVS agent doesn't even appear on the list of installed software under the agent, but it may still be on there with the silent installs and hidden icons and whatnot.  I'm all for just getting rid of the SVS agent.  How do I uninstall it, if it's even running on the machine?  It's not listed in add/remove programs, but the guy who I took this over from was always a big fan of hiding the icons/program listing.  What service would it be running as if it is running on the machine?

I have the .msi he used to install the svs agent.  I guess I could just run it with a /uninstall switch over the entire network?  Is there a better way to do this?

If you have the MSI file you could run:

msiexec.exe /x MSIFILENAME.msi /qn

If not i beleive SVS 2.1's guid was this:

msiexec.exe /x {7D8DBB7C-1C55-4950-A107-043C164F379A} /qn

I tried the first one from the command line and got "This action is only valid for products that are currently installed".  I assume this means it's not installed. 

The error seems to randomly pop up now.  Sometimes at the ctrl alt del screen, sometimes after logging in.

Good to see the that SVS agent isnt installed. you should be able to tell from the agents installed details as shown in the pictures above.

You said in your other thread that you were installing the 6.9 Agent instead of the aclient.

If you were installing the old NS6.9 agent there may also be other legacy agents installed on your device. it may be worth seeing if any are installed and removing them incase they are causing some sort of conflict.

This is everything my test machine lists in the 7.1 agent:

The machine only has the 6.9 aclient and the 7.1 agent according to this.

Legacy agents?  How do I check for those?  Does symantec make some sort of uninstall all agents program?  I just want everything gone.

and watched the log as the error pops up. You should be able to run the software audit manually from the command line:

AeXAuditpls.exe /I InvSoftwareScan.xml /xmlcomments FileScan /DetailedNSE /nods /CPU /Visible true 

How would I go about turning on verbose logging?

I tried running a svs agent uninstaller on my test clients earlier today.  It worked, but it also uninstalled all of my 7.1 agents...  The funny thing is it left my 6.9 aclient intact.

I tried reinstalling all of my 7.1 agents, it says it completes successfully but no agent icon shows on the taskbar, even though I didn't uncheck the option to view it.

I ran an uninstall then a reinstall and the 7.1 agents came back.  I guess by uninstalling the SVS agent it messed up the 7.1 agents.  I'll see if I get the error tomorrow morning when I come in. 

If this works the correct order to resolve this is:

1. Uninstall the 2.1 SVS agents

2. If 7.1 agents were on the machine, uninstall them.

3. Install 7.1 agents

4. Install 6.9 aclient

5. Cross your fingers and hope the clients don't get an error.

uninstall SVS -

msiexec.exe /x MSIFILENAME.msi /qn

Uninstall 7.1 Agent plus Plugins -

CD "c:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\"
AexAgentUtil.exe /Clean /UninstallAgents

Uninstall 6.9 aclient

if exist "c:\Program Files\Altiris\AClient\aclient.exe" (
cd "c:\Program Files\Altiris\AClient"
start /wait aclient.exe -remove -silent
)

Check nothing is left in the altiris directorys and then restart and reinstall aclient

If the SVS agent uninstaller uninstalled all of your 7.1 agents it was the wrong command.

I uninstalled all the 2.1 SVS agents in our environment just using:

msiexec /x {GUID} /qn

It would leave your 6.9 Client intact - you should think of the 6.9 AClient and the Altiris Agent as two separate products.

But the GUID needs to be the GUID of the SVS agent, not the Symantec Management Agent.

What does the Agent Policy say?

I came in today and none of my machines had errors.  The inventory ran overnight.  The 7.1 agents and the aclient are running on the machine and are showing in the taskbar.  It loooks like uninstalling SVS did the trick, but it needs to be done in the order I listed.  If you attempt to just uninstall SVS with the 7.1 agent on the machine it will hose it and cause you to uninstall and reinstall it.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the SVS agent was still installed on the machines even though it wasn't showing up in the 7.1 agent.  Pretty tricky.  Also if you script the SVS uninstall to run on a machine it has already been removed from the program throws an error telling you it's not present. 

Thanks for listing all of that stuff out Jim.  I did the SVS uninstall that way via altiris yesterday and it worked. To uninstall and reinstall 7.1 I just did it via the console. 6.9 aclient I just installed right on top of the old.  I'll most likely uninstall everything like you listed above then reinstall just to be safe.

Do you happen to know the uninstall command for the 6.9 agent?  Our users all have 6.9 agent at the moment, which I will need to remove.

From what you were saying about the SVS uninstall hosing the NS packages i would guess that they may be caught in an SVS layer and being partially screwed with when you uninstalled the SVS client as the NS Software / files / registry may have been caught in the SVS layer itself.

Unfortunately i dont know the Agent Install / Uninstall guids or things as i never really played with NS 6.9 but i would see if you can find the old agent / plugin files from the old NS Server or old client devices and use them to get the GUIDs from.

Glad you're in and working though thats always a good step forward :)

I recommend starting out slow with the new plugins for NS7.1 add one at a time get them setup and checked and go through the motions until you're happy. otherwise you may get swamped with things and possibly problems due to misconfiguration.

Please remember to go through and thumbs up helpful posts and solutions so your posts get closed off and everyone wins.

It was the right command.  The SVS agent uninstall "messed up" the 7.1 agent.

Whatever the default is.  I haven't touched it since I set this server up a few weeks ago.

And see if it's working once an agent update has been performed.

any other Altiris Agents or plug ins unless they were installed originally as SVS layers, that would be unusual but might account for why it doesn't show up in the Symantec Management Agent.

You can script the uninstall using an IF EXIST before the uninstall command so the uninstall only runs if the agent is installed. Or put the msiexec exit code that you get when the product isn't installed (1605) as a success code (remember to put '0' in as well)

I'd keep the AClient - it's useful for when the Symantec Management Agent has problems.

Otherwise I think the uninstall is just aclient.exe -remove.

I never intended to not keep the aclient.

The agents were not originally or at any point installed as SVS layers.

The only 6.9 Agent is the AClient.

The best way to remove the 6.x Altiris Agent and sub agents is to use AeXAgentUtil.exe /clean. This will remove everything (except AeXAgentUtil.exe) from the Altiris Agent directory, but not the Software Virtualisation Agent.

I do this by setting up a Filter in DS to show me all machines with a 6.0... Altiris Agent and run a batch file on it to uninstall the 6.x Altiris Agent and then install the 7.1 Symantec Management Agent. make sure you run:

start "" /wait aexagentutil /clean

So that the 6.0 uninstall finishes before the 7.1 install starts.

I have a job on the 7.1 NS to uninstall SVS 2.1 wherever it is found by Basic Inventory.