Mac Management Group

I am unable to install the 7.5 agent on a Yosemie laptop.  

I started by launching http://MyServerName/Altiris/UnixAgent/AltirisUnixAgentDownload.aspx?Id=Mac and downloading the install bootstrap program

I then changed to the download directory and ran 

     sudo chmod u+x aex-bootstrap-macosx && ./aex-bootstrap-macosx http://MyServerName

Which gave me an error saying I needed root privs, I then separated the 2nd part of the command.

     sudo ./aex-bootstrap-macosx http://MyServerName

It started the install and failed right after "Starting system package installer"

ERROR: Failed to install package. Agent install failed

ERROR: At least one input parameter for event sending in invalid: Action: 'Remote Install Finished', Client ID: ' '.

I am unable to find any Altiris information on the support of OSX 10.10.  

Can anyone help?

First, Symantec will release an early support statement for running the agent on Yosemite on our about November 4th. A full support statement is tentatively scheduled for mid-December 2014. An officially supported release is not expected until early 2015. 

Having said that, I have installed the 7.5 agent on Yosemite successfully. 

What is returned by the command: "scutil --get HostName" (without double-quotes)? If this is blank, you'll need to run 'sudo scutil --set HostName <newhostname>". 

Try 'sudo su -', which will switch you to rooot, then rerun the bootstrap. 

dougj,

Thank you for your responce.

The Host name was not set so I set it to NYC-TejadaMBA.

I reran the bootstrap as both sudo and sudo su and I had the same error.

I looked at the aex-nsclt-install.log and I have the following entry for everytime I have run the agent.

     -E /opt/altiris/notification/nsagent/.tmp_inst/agent-upgrade: line 612: /usr/libexec/StartupItemContext: No such file or directory

I was not able to to find either of the .tmp_inst/agent-upgrade nor StartupItemContext

Any other suggestions?

Thanks, Pablo

We've copied the "/usr/libexec/StartupItemContext" from a Mac OS 10.9.5 machine to a 10.10 machine, and the agent install will then suceed. Not sure the agent it fully functional, but the agent is at least there for testing.

One more thing, after creating the StartupItemContext file, you'll need to make it executable before running the aex-bootstrap command: 

  chmod 755 StartupItemContext

dougj & gilburns,

Thank you for your help.  Creating the StartupItemContext file and setting it to executable worked.  I was able to complete the install and see the device in the Altiris console.

Thanks again.

Pablo

I was able to fix the agent on a Yosemite upgrade without a reinstall by running

sudo /opt/altiris/notification/nsagent/bin/aex-configure -configure

after creating the StartupItemContext file.

FYI, I had installed the agent prior to upgrading the OS to Yosemite, so it didn't require a new installation. After uninstalling the agent on my Yosemite system, I got the same error. 

Evidently, Apple removed the StartupItemContext file in Yosemite. Our agent-upgrade script (and software from other vendors, apparantly) relied on that file. So, we will need to make changes to our installation script prior to providing full support for Yosemite. 

I found one article that suggested manually creating that file on a Yosemite system. I did that and it "appears" that the agent installed and is functioning correctly. However, we cannot guarentee that everything will truly function correctly. So, this is experimental until we release a fully-supported build. 

I manually created the StartupItemContext file, as shown below, then reran the bootstrap. You can check the syntax from a pre-Yosemite system to validate the contents. 

*************************************

#!/bin/sh

unset LAUNCHD_SOCKET

exec launchctl bsexec / "$@"

*************************************

Also, the .tmp_inst directory path is /opt/altiris/notification/nsagent/.tmp_inst. This is removed after a successful installation of the agent, leaving just the install log files. 

 

I suppose you could delete the StartupItemContext file after the agent is installed to keep the OS clean and original. 
 

dougj,

Has there been an official support statement published for the issue?

For a new MAC 10.10 Yosemite with no agent pereviously installed I followed a few of the steps above and the agent is working to some extent.  Software Distribution Policy and Inventory Policy are not working as expected.  These are the steps I followed to install the agent.

Yosemite 10.10 Symantec Agent Installation

Push Install:

1. Copy  /usr/libexec/StartupItemContext for a MAC OS 10.9.5 to the MAC OS 10.10 machine.
2. From the Terminal cd to the directory where the file was copied and run “chmod 755 StartupItemContext”
3. Ensure SSH is set properly on the MAC OS 10.10 machine

System Preferences>Sharing 

Check Remote Login and Add the user you will use is Step 9 to remotely install the agent.

4. Ensure host file entry is added for the SMP

How To: http://www.mactip.net/how-to-edit-the-hosts-file-on-a-mac/ 

5. On the Notification Server Console's Configuration tab, expand Altiris Agent, Altiris Agent Rollout, and select Altiris Agent Installation.
6. Click the Install Altiris Macintosh Agent tab.
7. Add the IP address or hostname of the client.
8. Highlight the client's entry on the main window and click the Install Settings button.
9. Add the user and password from Step 3. For Unix/Linux, the user must be root. For a Macintosh client, any admin user and corresponding password will work. Note that the user id is case sensitive on Macintosh clients.
10. Manually select OS Type:  Select Mac OS X 10.9 (x86)
11. Save the settings and close the window.
12. Ensure that the computer is still highlighted.
13. Click the Install Altiris Agent button.
14. When it states that the bootstrap has started, that's the last message you will get. The agent should shortly be found in the /opt/Altiris/notification/nsagent directory. Note that on a Mac client, the subdirectory names are preceded with a '.' and are hidden in Finder. It should report basic inventory and shortly appear in the 'all platforms' collection, as well as other appropriate collections.

Software Distribution Policies are present but do not run or install, Inventory Policies are not listed for the MAC in the console or on the local MAC.

FYI . . . OS X 10.10 Early Support statement