Endpoint Management Community Blog

trb48 | 19 Jul 2007 | 4 comments

I really wanted a way to silently install Altiris Agent on my computers. So, I hunted around until I found out how. The Notification Server 6.0 SP3 Reference (check out pages 15 & 16 for all of the details) explains how to do this. Here is the script that I used to finally get it to work:

@ECHO OFF
ECHO Installing Altiris Agent
aexnsc.exe -s -a ns="ServerName" NOSTARTMENU NOTRAYICON /s /NOADDREMOVE
Exit

To find out what all of the tags do, please see the above mentioned documentation.

To find the "aexnsc.exe" file, go to the following location: "C:\Program Files\Altiris\Notification Server\NSCap\Bin\Win32\X86\NS Client Package" on your Notification Server.

Use Real-Time Scrollbar to Reduce Helpdesk Calls

jdrinen | 24 Oct 2007 | 13 comments

ResolveIM has announced the release of LongLasso Announcer for DS, a Deployment Solution plugin that allows sending of scrollbar style announcements to end-users.

The evaluation is free and installs in 30 seconds or less!

Visit the Information and Support Portal:
http://www.longlasso.com

Click to view.

Adding Details to Run Script Task

timonokinawa | 05 Jun 2007 | 2 comments

I create many jobs in Deployment Solution and am often asked to export and share those jobs containing many tasks. Those who know me know that scripting an install or other action is my passion. Here's a tip to help you write useful and sharable DS jobs.

When creating a run script task, the first line of the task should be a remark (REM) followed by your description on the same line.

Here's a sample:

REM This task Changes the current working directory
cd c:\windows

This will populate the details column for your task inside a job. The details column is otherwise left blank and not available as an option during the creation process.

I then use the job description to annotate a KB or or any other particulars such as -- but not limited to -- application version.

An Alternative to PXE

tech9 | 29 May 2007 | 3 comments

An alternate tool - when PXE is busted or down. It's worked for us a couple of times. We've learned through past experience that it never hurts to have a plan "B".

http://www.reatogo.de/REATOGO.htm

Include rdeploy in your ISO.

All About DS Framework

SK | 24 May 2007 | 1 comment

SK spends more time than he's willing to admit in the Altiris Knowledge Base. But, maybe we can benefit from his passion.

Here's a list of articles he highly recommends to anyone wanting to know more about Altiris' Deployment Solution framework.

Thanks for the "heads up" SK!

Altiris Get Local Package Server Script (created by Professional Services): http://kb.altiris.com/article.asp?article=22688&p=3

The following three articles were created by Ludovic Ferre (Altiris Services Assigned Engineer):

What is the DS Image Distribution framework (default usage is DOS)? http://kb.altiris.com/article.asp?article=31186&p=3

How can the DS Image Distribution framework be adapted...

ESX 3.0 Not Communicating with DS Server

phillipreid | 07 Jul 2009 | 2 comments

If you're having issues with the Deployment Agent on a VMware ESX 3.0 server not being able to communicate with the Deployment Server, here's a fix.

In addtion to the lack of communication, look for log errors that look like the following:

Debug: Error:Connection refused, connecting socket 3 to host at <DS IPAddress> 402 ...
Warning: Error unable to connect to server

The problem is that you need to open port 402 so your server can communicate with the DS.

From a command prompt on the ESX server run the following commands.

esxcfg-firewall --openport 402,tcp,in,adlagent
esxcfg-firewall --openport 402,tcp,out,adlagent
esxcfg-firewall --openport 402,udp,out,adlagent
esxcfg-firewall --openport 402,udp,in,adlagent

Afterwards restart the adlagent (./adlagent restart) (found in the /etc/rc.d/init.d directory)

Invalid Password in Deployment Solution

erikw | 04 May 2007 | 4 comments

A day out of the life of a System consultant. Today a customer called me, and he explained to me that his Deployment Solution was not functioning anymore.

First question I asked: Have you done anything on the server?

Answer: No, I only installed the new patches and Microsoft updates.

I got in my car and drove to the customer to see what was happening.

When a client booted into PXE boot and tried to connect to the express share, there was a statement that the password was invalid.

Click to view.

Entering the password gave an invalid disk...

Executing ASDK Methods Using Multiple DS Servers

Screenbert | 20 Jul 2007 | 0 comments

If you ever need to execute a method against different DS servers when using the Web service in the ASDK use this code to switch between servers. This is useful when you need to find out which DS server a computer is located on and then execute a method against that computer.

ComputerManagementService computerManagement = new ComputerManagementService();
String strTargetServer = "SERVER.DOMAIN.COM";
computerManagement.Url = string.Format( "http://{0}/Altiris/ASDK.NS/ItemManagementService.asmx", strTargetServer);
CredentialCache cache = new CredentialCache();
cache.Add( new Uri(itemMS.Url), "Negotiate", new NetworkCredential( username, password, domain ) );
computerManagement.Credentials = cache;

Just change the strTargetServer to the next server. You could wrap this code in your own method to loop through all your servers and return the proper server that has the computer you are looking for.

Deploying Big Packages

trb48 | 07 May 2007 | 6 comments

Do you ever have to push out large software packages to thousands of computers under your care? If you push out a big software package does it always install? Here's a secret that'll help with the heavy lifting.

When I have pushed out large software packages I always ran into the same problem: there was not enough time at night to push the software out and install it. This became a big problem under a tight schedule.

After trying several different work-arounds, I came up with a really simple, yet effective solution:

Create a job in Deployment Console that copies the software package to destination computers. This should be done during the day.
Create a second job, that is scheduled to run at night. This job will actually install the software.

This way, you...

Deploying the Deployment Solution Agent without Active Directory

Jeanne | 08 Mar 2007 | 1 comment

Let me start this by saying I know how helpful Active Directory (AD) can be. Unfortunately, our network admin has yet to learn this valuable life lesson ;)

We started out with Deployment Solution installed with AClient. We then upgraded to CMS Level 1 and installed a Notification Server since we do not have AD and our network is segmented with VLANs.

The challenge was to get the Altiris Agent deployed to each of the systems without the help of AD. To complicate matters, our systems are locked down with DeepFreeze since we are a college.

One of my staff members wrote a little script to get the systems unfroze and another script to refreeze them. We then created a Rapid Install Package (RIP) and installed the agent in the RIP. This allowed us to get the Agent on all of our lab systems and start using the NS console.

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