Altiris Client Management Suite
mtp1274
|
November 20th, 2009
I use PC Transplant 6.8 SP3 and lately I have been getting the following error "File I/O error while accessing s :s." I have several portable USB drives that when I run PCT it is scripted to backup the information to the portable drive. All the information is backed up, but these errors occur during the restore phase of the operations. I've checked for logs, errors, event viewer, etc. and have not found anything relating to this problem. The problems seem to occur in the same spot every time for each package during the restore, however i cannot find anything out of the ordinary with the folder/files where it errors out. I reverted to using a previous version of PCT to test and the error does not happen on any of the test scenarios. I'm not sure what is happening. I've tested the USB portables and they all check out just fine and also work using the previous PCT version.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
0 comments
pmakaveev
|
November 20th, 2009
Patch Management
Add the ability to configure software update tasks to install ASAP after the scheduled install time.
Currently, if a computer misses the schedule, it will not run / receive the update. If the schedule is 2 a.m. and the computer is always offline during this time, the computer will never receive the patch.
Cheers,
Peter
0 comments
Terry Cutler
|
November 19th, 2009
If you are new to configuring Intel AMT or have a working solution for your environment - this article is not intended for you.
If you're a service provider, consultant, or customer with unique environmental constraints which have prevented the configuration of Intel AMT - keep reading.
If you have environmental security requirements for the Intel AMT configuration - such as Kerberos, TLS, 802.1x, etc - some information in this article may not be suitable for your environment. This article focuses on customers using a "Basic" or "Standard" configuration.
The Challenge of Out-of-Band Configuration: Establishing Trust
Much has been posted regarding the configuration of Intel vPro technology. Configuration of the technology occurs "out-of-band" from the operating system, and requires a trust to be established between two untrusted entities. The two entities looking to establish a trust relation are the Intel AMT firmware and the provisionserver...
Altiris Client Management Suite, Best Practice, Endpoint Management and Virtualization, Configuring, Tip/How to
0 comments
ludovic_ferre
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November 19th, 2009
Should I say I hit a milestone today? I all cases I have to say that my migration from VMWare to Virtual Box Open Source Edition was a real success, and I can't see myself moving back away from Virtual Box for a good while.
It didn't start so well when upgrading my main test computer (AMD quad core 64-bit, 8GB RAM, 1TB disk) from Ubuntu 9.04 to Ubuntu 9.10 causes a failure in one of my 250GB sata drives. After a couple of attempts to repair Ubuntu 9.04 or install Ubuntu 9.10 from USB I resorted to install the operating system on another drive, considering that the problem had to come from the disk partition I was installing the OS onto.
This was effectively the case, as installing on another disk and partition allowed me to run Ubuntu without too much problem (apart from a disk boot order setting in BIOS that jumped a couple of times getting me to a grub dead-end).
But then installing VMWare Server 2.0, which I used for the last year, worked out with a few...
0 comments
rickyban
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November 19th, 2009
Hi
I have a strict network Policy to follow, that all Network devices are on SNMP v3.
After being told Altiris 7 would support this. I find that it only supports V1 and V2. Which for one supprises me as V3 has been the industry standard for years.
So my question is, When will Altiris support SNMP v3. Or should i knock it on the head and look for another solution.
Cheers
1 comments
ludovic_ferre
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November 18th, 2009
Currently the design of Symantec Management Platform requires the end user to download a large file (getting larger almost every two weeks). This is true of the symantec.pl.xml [1] file as well as the PMImport files for Patch Management Solution.
Wouldn't it be better and more efficient if the files downloaded were broken down into very small chunks (for patch we could have a file per Microsoft Bulletin)?
In addition using differential mechanism such as what's in use in source version control (I'm thinking about Git here, in use for the Linux kernel as well as many Gnome or open source projects). This could ensure only the changed files are downloaded which in SQL intensive process such as the PMImport is reduced to what is required only and no more.
[1] https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/idea/make-ns7-symantecplxml-file-easier-download-and-parse-splitting-it-smaller-files
Altiris Client Management Suite, Altiris Notification Server, Endpoint Management and Virtualization
0 comments
KSchroeder
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November 18th, 2009
One trick I use to speed up my daily administration involves using some IE search prefixes. Basically these allow you to type a short keyword followed by your search term and hit enter to go to a site. You can set these using TweakUI in the Internet Explorer > Search section, or manually create them in the registry. A few I use on a daily basis are "akb #####" to go to Altiris KB articles, "mskb ######" to go to MS KB articles, and "bulletin 09-062" to go to a particular security bulletin. You can save each "Code" section below as a .reg file and merge it into your own registry to set these up. So then you can type "akb 50212" into your Address bar and go directly to Altiris KB article 50212. Hopefully someone else finds these as convenient as I do.
Altiris KB: akb ##### https://kb.altiris.com/article.asp?article=%s...
Altiris Client Management Suite, Altiris Notification Server, Altiris Recovery Solution, Endpoint Management and Virtualization, Windows, Tip/How to
2 comments
Rene Kolga
|
November 18th, 2009
I’m glad to announce the first winners of the Custom Inventory 7 Challenge (https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/groups/cus...). Winners’ accounts should be credited with Connect points within the next 24 hours:
• ziggy – 1500 points (for the largest number of scripts and especially for AIX Oracle Audit Custom Inventory and HPUX Processor Information Custom Inventory scripts)
• rpoag – 1000 points (for Oracle TNSNAMES Inventory)
• dougj – 500 points (for Apple Warranty Information)
However, most submitted scripts won’t run in their original form and require some adjustments. Nevertheless, this first award is in appreciation of your active participation.
In the future, please review the guidelines once again before submitting as well as test your scripts with Inventory Solution 7.0 SP1. We will also be posting updated guidelines around the most common issues that we have noticed...
Altiris Client Management Suite, Altiris Notification Server, Endpoint Management and Virtualization
0 comments
ludovic_ferre
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November 18th, 2009
I remember some thread on the old Altiris forum when people would ask if the Altiris Agent and Notification Server was a multi-threaded application capable of spreading its workload on many CPU or cores.
My answer back then was that the NS, SQL or the Altiris Agent are always capable of creating more threads than you would have cpu cores. It still holds to this day of course.
And lately multi-threading has been biting me on the back side, so to say ;). I have been working with our developers on a quirky problem with the task synchronization agent (the COM component that handles the scheduling, execution and dependencies verification of Sequential Software Delivery tasks).
The problem encountered by a customer is show here:
When a Sequential Task is running and taking some times, we have some failure if a user logs on the computer. The task is set to run, whether a user is logged or or not, using the system account.
What happens is that the user logging triggers a run of the...
Altiris Client Management Suite, Altiris Notification Server, Endpoint Management and Virtualization
0 comments
abahr
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November 18th, 2009
I'm new to Altiris. I went to the DS training and have purchased CMS. I'm looking to use the patch management portion of CMS. I'm having trouble understanding the documentation on this... Does anyone know of any videos that explains the NS or the patch management portion?
Thank you for any help.
~Angie
5 comments
ludovic_ferre
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November 18th, 2009
One of the great design decision behind the Notification Server design was to set it to run on top of IIS. In this manner the NS team didn't have to worry about scalability: this was all done by Microsoft thanks to the improvements made from IIS 4 to IIS 5 and now IIS 6 (IIS 7 is not yet in use for Altiris).
However one of the (minor) downside to the design is that there are a number of elements that are not necessarily clear or well known about the underlying architecture and configuration items.
So in this article we will review the components involved and some of the configuration items, from a workstation or package server agent all the way up to the client config manager objects.
Here is an overview of the elements we will review today (click to open in a new windows):
Starting from the client we know that the Altiris Agent communication interfaces are provided by the Notification Server on http or https using the IIS configuration (by...
Altiris Client Management Suite, Altiris Notification Server, Endpoint Management and Virtualization, Configuring, Features, Performance, Tip/How to
0 comments
MBailey
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November 18th, 2009
New to Altiris imaging and this is the first time I've used altiris 7... Whenever my task gets to "Capture Disk Image_AnswerFile", my agent stops working. I've also had it freeze up on the BCDEdit task. Any ideas as to what's going on?
-Whenever I run a capture task, my Altiris agent crashes. Once it has crashed, it freezes up after every startup and never gives me any new log file.
-I am using the newest version (7.0.3599) of everything, checked the Symantec Instllation Manager again minutes ago.
-My capture task is just the defaults, using Ghost.
-I have sysprep.cab (renamed from deploy.cab), deploy.cab and the contents of the cab files all in c:\sysprep and I've tried all 3 of these options induvidually. I have found conflicting information as to what's actually supposed to be there.
-It's a new VM (but I've had it happen on a fresh install of Windows on a physical machine too) and I've tried it with the Windows Updates all installed (...
1 comments
Dashrender
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November 17th, 2009
I hope I'm in the correct area. I am trying to figure out how to use Backup Exec Management Solution to deploy, monitor, etc Backup Exec System Recovery. I have the Management Solution installed, but I'm totally confused on how to use it. Everywhere I look I see the word Altaris, so I'm guessing these products are one in the same.
It appears that I need to put the install files into the Management console, but I'm not exactly sure what I am suppose to do.
Thanks for your assistance.
0 comments
Terry Cutler
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November 17th, 2009
In recent weeks, a number of customer inquiries and training opportunities have focused on the OOB Site service, maintaining vPro configurations, and so forth. Those inquiries caused some searching in the Symantec Management Console. I stumbled across a few Job and Task Samples for the OOB Site Service that might be of interest. This article highlights four quick insights.
Insight #1: TaskServer Sample Jobs for Remote Management
The Out-of-Band Management solution with OOB Site Service will need to be installed, and these screens can be accessed by select Manage > Jobs and Tasks.
In the screen below, a few pre-defined jobs provide insight to the improvements made. For example - if the FQDN of a configured client system must be updated, prior to Symantec Management Platform the answer is posted at http://www.symantec.com/connect/articles/handling-vpro-amt-fqdn-issues-out-band-management-solution and required some...
Altiris Client Management Suite, Best Practice, Endpoint Management and Virtualization, Configuring, Tip/How to
0 comments
stlow
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November 16th, 2009
Hi,
Need some information if this CMS able to restrict software installation on PC? I would like to control that only legitimate software are able to be installed on the PC. There seems not much information on this and I wonder if CMS can do this. If cannot, is there any other Altiris software that can do this? Reason I am looking at Altiris is because in my company enviroment, we are already running Altiris Notification Server. I would like to see if there is any Altiris product that can run together with it to ease the support in the future.
Please give some suggestion if possible. Thanks.
Regards,
Low
1 comments
Kimberley
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November 16th, 2009
Here are a few tips and tricks that might come in handy as you get familar with Symantec Connect and the Developer community.
Logging In
You can view content in the site, but to participate, you'll need to log in. Click the Login or Register button in the top right menu and follow account creation steps. Notice that once you log in, you'll see a drop-down list of profile and account management options. This is where you can set notifications, create a custom profile, load a photo of yourself, and more.
Profile / User Information
Located under the "Me" menu item, in the upper right hand corner of the site, you can upload a photo, keep track of your rewards points and customize your subscriptions to community newsletters. Just select the "edit" tab within your profile and start customizing.
You can see a lot of information about other community members by the symbols by their content entry. In addition to the date the entry was posted, you can view user...
0 comments
Terry Cutler
|
November 16th, 2009
Sharing an experience and looking to validate some of the challenges vPro demonstration might present in markets outside of North America - especially if the original demonstration environment was created in North America.
A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to travel to Germany for a training event. The equipment for the training event was sourced locally in Germany. The result was 13 systems. (For those that are superstitious – you might quickly identify that this will get interesting).
Among those 13 systems, there were 4 different OEMs, 3 different keyboard layouts (US, UK, German), 3 different power connectors, 2 generations of Intel AMT (2.6 and 4.x), 3 different versions of Windows (XP, Vista, and Win7), 2 different versions of VMware workstation, and a single VMware workstation image created in North America. Very little standardization. A perfect recipe for disaster.
This was...
0 comments
rick_gines@syma...
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November 16th, 2009
For those who are staring at the incoming tsunami called Windows 7, here are some resources that might help get you going.
There will be more to come, but this is a good start...
Here is a link to the general philosophy around how to pull off a Windows 7 migration or namely, the 7 Steps to Windows 7.
and here is a link to a technical whitepaper on using DS 6.9 SP3 for a Windows 7 migration.
Be sure to check out general Symantec Windows 7 support site at Symantec.com.
Enjoy!
Altiris Client Management Suite, Altiris Deployment Solution, Best Practice, Endpoint Management and Virtualization, Configuring, Windows, Tip/How to
0 comments
AndyN
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November 13th, 2009
Join us for our next Altiris Philadelphia User Group meeting on Thursday, December 3 from 12:00 pm to 3:00 pm at Temple University Health System.
This meeting will include a presentation by Temple University Health System on their use of Altiris specifically software license compliance and asset management. We will also have a discussion on imaging best practices and an update by Symantec on upcoming Altiris products, integration components with other Symantec solutions and 3rd party vendors.
Lunch will be served! See you there!
Agenda:
12:00 pm - Lunch
12:30 pm - Announcements & Introductions
12:45 pm - Presentation by Temple University Health System
01:30 pm - Symantec and Altiris Update
02:00 pm - Imaging Best Practices Discussion
02:45 pm - Planning & Prizes
Where:
Temple University Health System
2450 West Hunting Park Avenue
Learning Center, Main Conference Room
Philadelphia, PA 19129
Parking:
Parking is available across the street. Make sure...
0 comments
Joseph Swenson
|
November 12th, 2009
how do I view the data saved when this is checked? I just ran a script as a task on all my macs, but all I see is success and failure when I look at the status :\
5 comments
ohzone
|
November 12th, 2009
Listed below are the top 25 most visted Download pages (thru 11.11.09). Downloads are a bit more difficult to calculate because some articles have scripts attached to them as well. You may find something you've been looking for in this list. Happy browsing!
SATA ICH9 Drivers: Windows XP Driver Injection Script
Exe-To-Msi
MSI "Run as administrator" Context Menu for Vista
SATA Drivers for Intel ICH9 and ICH10
Remote Altiris Agent Diagnostics
Uninstall MSI with VBScript
Linux AHCI Driver for Dell Optiplex 760 and HP dc7900
Format Factor Multifunctional Media Converter
VBScript to Delete Old Files
Universal Silent Switch Finder
Automating Wireless Profile Config Settings for Intel PROSet/Wireless Software 11.1.1.3 for SWD/DS
Script to Copy Files/Folders to All the User Profiles on the Machine
Uninstall Windows Installer Applications Using VBScript
Backing Up User Profiles Using a VBScript
Mozilla Firefox 3.x Virtual Software Packages (US, NL, DE) (updated)
HII Tools 3.2.1 for...
Altiris Client Management Suite, Altiris Deployment Solution, Altiris IT Asset Management, Altiris Notification Server, Altiris Recovery Solution, Altiris Server Management Suite, Endpoint Management and Virtualization, Ghost Solution Suite, Helpdesk Solution, HP Management Products, pcAnywhere, ServiceDesk, Wise Application Packaging, Wise Installation Development, Workflow Solution, Workspace Corporate, Workspace Profiles, Workspace Remote, Workspace Streaming, Workspace Virtualization
3 comments
Joseph Swenson
|
November 12th, 2009
I would like to use the Mac Patch Management solution for our systems, however I would like it to run only on system boot, when no user is logged in, and I would like a script to run as part of it.
Is this possible? I created a copy of the "Install All Available Updates" job, so I can kind of see how things could be tweaked, but I'm not seeing how to make sure t only runs on startup and when a user is logged off.
For those who are curious, the script I'd like to run is below. It keeps network users from logging in to the system while the updates are taking place.
-------------------------------
#!/bin/sh
#STEP1: Disable logins
dseditgroup -o edit -d netaccounts -t group com.apple.access_loginwindow
#STEP2: Tell the users they can't login and why
defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow LoginwindowText -string "LOGIN TO THIS WORKSTATION HAS BEEN TEMPORARILY DISABLED. SOFTWARE UPDATES ARE BEING INSTALLED. SYSTEM WILL AUTOMATICALLY REBOOT WHEN...
15 comments
dll
|
November 11th, 2009
We have installed Patch Management 6.2 . Bulletins from Microsft ware dlownloading to NS fine. A software delivery task has been created for the bulletins and the bulletins are staged and enabled. Patches from NS are not being downloaded and installed to the client computers. I tried eveything in AKB 46284 (ran the alternative download location script and deleted the software delivery xml files on the client computers) but they still do not download from NS to the client. Any ideas for a solution?
7 comments
CBaelum
|
November 11th, 2009
I have a strange problem with our Altiris NS7 installation.
I installed the management suite and some other solution packages on our server.
I have a lot of agents that I can install on my clients, but when I go to install Software Management Solution Agent for Windows, I am told that: "No package could be found for the selected agent installation policy"
The page shows no package name, and therefore also no program name to install on the clients.
The dropdown to choose a program name is empty.
Is there a way for me to get the package "back" in the installation ???
I have tried the following on the server, directly from the console of the server:
- Repair the solution "Altiris Software Management Solution SP1 (7.0.1492)" - Nothing new
- Uninstall the solution -> Install the solution - Nothing new
I dont get any errors about the repair or installation. Everything seems fine.
Every time I run the Symantec Installation...
0 comments
Terry Cutler
|
November 11th, 2009
If using Intel vPro Technology has caused you to say - "Wouldn't it be cool if the technology did...."
There is much the underlying technology and firmware is capable of doing. The Symantec Management Platform with Out-of-Band Management focuses on a majority of the manageability features. Yet there are more features around security, virtualization... and further manageability... in the platform. Plus, there are more ideas and requests coming from customers, partners, and so forth.
Did you know there is a public forum to post or review ideas? Take a look at http://ideazone.software.intel.com/communities/intel-vpro-technology/ideas/recent
Altiris Client Management Suite, Endpoint Management and Virtualization, Features, Dell Management Products, Tip/How to, Workspace Virtualization
0 comments