Deployment Solution

Hi,

I currently use Altiris NS and DS.  Currently DS 6.9 is in place and I need to update it with SP1.  I notice I have the option of installing either DS for Clients or DS for Server.  However, I'm unsure which version we've got.  In add/remove programs and within the "Currently Installed" section of the Altiris Solution Centre, it just shows it as "Altiris Deployment Solution", version 6.9.355.  How can I tell whether I have the Client or Server version?

I've had a read over the release notes, but if anyone can highlight and "gotchas" to look out for, I'd appreciate a heads-up!  We're running it on a Windows 2003 R2 SP2 machine and no 64 bit cleints are in place.

Thanks.

A quick and easy way to determine if you have DS for Clients or Servers is to look at what your client install will be.  If you are and have only been interested in managing desktop/laptops, then you will have the DS for Clients.  If you have only been interested in managing servers, then you have DS for Servers.

The only "gotcha" that I can say is, depending on how many clients you have and how many locations they are in, disable the automatically update clients and just push the AClient a few at a time.  Also, if you don't need to, don't use DAgent, stick with AClient.  If you aren't running Windows Vista or Windows 2008, then DAgent isn't required. 

Thanks, that's very helpful.  Based on that, it's DS for Clients we're running.

And thanks for the tip about the agent.  I'll stick with AClient for now.

When I install DS6.9 SP1, will I need to re-enter the licence key or will it just re-use the existing one as part of the upgrade?

I read another post where someone mentioned that during the upgrade process it deleted their jobs within NS.  Was this a one-off, or is there some preperation work I need to do (other than a backup) to ensure this doesn't happen?

No problem.

In regards to the license, you will need to ensure that your AUP is up to date.  If you don't have an AUP, then I believe you won't be able to install the updates as your license file will more than likely not work.  Someone can correct me if I am wrong here.

In regards to someone losing all of their jobs within NS, that was not my experience, however, you should always have a good backup or at least a back out plan in place in case something like that happens. 

Ok, I've downloaded the required file.  When I launch axInstall.exe, I'm not sure exactly which installation type to select in order to upgrade and retain all existing settings.  The SQL database is on a seperate server.  I notice when selecting the "Custom Install", I have the option to specify where the database is.  The installation doesn't automatically detect it, but I am able to manually enter the options and ask it to retain the existing jobs that it detects are there.  On the following screen showing "Pre-boot Operating Systems", all options are blank.  If I proceeded without entering anything, will the process retain the existing settings or do I need to re-enter this all again?  Or is there a smoother upgrade method than what I'm trying to do?

On the server hosting the SQL database, there's another instance of DS which I'll also have to update.  Does it matter which instance of DS I update first?

And going back to the advice of disabling the automatic update of the AClient, is this something the upgrade process will give me the option of de-selecting?

This this is the first time I've installed a service pack (in case that's not obvious!) and just want to ensure I do it correctly.  So thanks again for the advice.

You'll want to do custom and ensure that you select all the settings that are correct for your environment.  It is a bit odd that it is not finding the database.  You mention that on the machine that you are running the SQL that you have another DS installed there.  I am assuming that each DS is running out of it's own database, right?  Are you sure that you are putting the correct database name and credentials in when you run the setup?

As for the PXE settings, my experience was that I had to redo this to ensure that the agent that resides in the PXE boot image was up to date.

No, the upgrade/update does not give you the option to disable the automatic update.  You will need to do this shortly after the installation is complete.  This is located under the Altiris/Deployment Solution program group in your start menu and it is "Configuration".  You will need to restart the express services (which can be done from this utility as well).

Hi,

I've now updated both instances of DS 6.9 to SP2.  In answer to the above question, yes each DS is running out of it's own database.

Now I've updated, I'm having some problems.  When I try to push out the new version of AClient (6.9.375) from DS to a workstation, the job (Agent x86 Update) just sits there and doesn't actually do anything.  I've looked at the job details and it does appear to be trying to copy the latest version of AClient.

Also, and this may be related to the above, the workstations are no longer receiving the SVS agent from NS.  And therefore, no SVS layers are getting installed.

Any help in troubleshooting the above would be appreciated.

At the problem client machines, do the AClients/DAgents appear to be connected to the server?  If not, this is your problem in regards to the new AClient not being installed.

As for the SVS agent from NS, did anything happen with the NS install?  I don't do too much currently with NS in regards to software distribution so I can't offer too much in this area.  Also, ensure that the Altiris Agent and running on the affected machines.  I believe this is required for NS to function properly.

After another reboot of each DS, the SVS agent is now getting downloaded to the client.

However, the AClient still is not getting applied, at least from one DS.  I've done further testing and found more info which may help give clues to the cause.  As mentioned previously, we have two servers running DS (I'll call them DS-A and DS-B).  DS-A is also running SQL 2005, which is hosting the databases for each instance of DS.  Deploying the new version of AClient from DS-A works fine.  The problem appears to only affect DS-B.  More specifically, it seems to be the "File Copy" job that's not functioning properly.  On DS-B I have some older jobs which simply copy some fonts to the workstation.  If I run these jobs, they work fine.  And if I add a task to one of these jobs (ie, to copy a text file to the workstation), that too works fine.  But if I create a new job to do exactly the same thing, it doesn't work.  I can see that job queued, but it doesn't run (basically the same as when trying to run the "Agent x86 Update" job).

Repeating the above File Copy tests on DS-A work fine.

As far as I can tell, the AClient on the workstation is connecting to the DS.  If I open AClient on the workstation, it has the correct details for the DS.  There are no DNS or firewall problems.  If I reboot the computer, I can see it grey out within DS and then go green again once it's back up.

I've also just created another new job on DS-B to reboot a workstation.  This also does not work.  But if I use the existing "Restart Computer" job within "Misc Jobs > Power Control", that works fine.

So, based on my testing so far it would appear on DS-B, new jobs aren't working but older ones (pre-update) are fine, assuming the "Agent x86 Update" job is a newly created one as part of the upgrade.  It's certainly configured itself to copy the latest version of "altiris-aclient-6.9.375.X86.exe".

Does this give a hint of what could be causing the problem?

P.S. I'm only using AClient, not DAgent.

You could delete the update job.  DS will just recreate the job automatically.  Try that to see if it fixes itself on it's own.  The other option would be to do a "Remote Install" to force the new client down.  This could potentially fix the problem if it is a version conflict. 

Another way would be to use a logon script to just copy the executable that was being copy and just overwrite the existing ACLIENT.exe file.  I've done this in the past on a few "problematic" clients and it worked like a charm. 

Unfortunately deleting the job hasn't solved the problem.

If I manually run the AClient on the workstation, it does install itself.  But I still have the problem where any newly created tasks no longer appear to work from the one server.

Do you have any ideas on what could have caused this?  Could re-installing SP2 do any good/harm?

I don't think it would cause any harm, however, I am not certain.  Based on the problem you mentioned, you may want to contact Symantec to see what they have to say.  Based on your feedback, I won't be updating to SP2 for a little while. 

Thanks again for all the advice.  If/when I do discover a solution I'll post it here.

For anyone who experiences the problem discussed above, re-intalling SP2 fixed the problem for me.

Thanks for posting that.  I was holding off installing the service pack until I knew.