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  • 1.  Identify and locate computers not reporting to Altiris

    Posted Sep 04, 2012 04:48 PM

    I plan to create a workflow to identify and locate computers not reporting to the Altiris server within a given number of days.   The following is a list of some of the activities I plan to automate.   We are using the Symantec Management Agent and manual inventories to indicate a computer has reporting to the network.

    Can you recommend the best approach to automate these tasks? 

    • Identify an asset that has not reported in the specified time.
    • Send an email describing the issue including a link to a web form
    • Web form for the end user to provide feedback
    • Record the a record of any phone conversation notes
    • End the workflow instance if resolved
    • Escalate the workflow instance if it is not resolved after attempting to contact the end user
    • Retain key data points for historical reporting


  • 2.  RE: Identify and locate computers not reporting to Altiris

    Posted Sep 05, 2012 04:24 AM

    Hi,

     

    I think, the very first thing you have to take into account is the Symantec Management Solutions you have at your disposal.

    Some solutions like SAMS (Asset Management) and Service Desk could provide you some tools that could help build up your Workflow a bit faster as some templates could correspond to what you are looking for.

    ITA is another solution that could help you to regroup all the information you need from Asset, very useful to get all the information from different location, especially when you have different tools from different provider to manage your IT.

     

    Besides that, you have a default report in the NS that gives you the computer that are not reporting within a certain number of days.

     

    Now that you know how to get the information and where to get them, you can start thinking about the mecanism you are going to build to get the tasks you listed to work.

     

    Regarding your question, I don't know if there is a best approach, but there are some templates provided with Workflow Solution that are quiet close to the schema you are going to build).

     

    Hope this helps.

     

    Regards,

     

    Cédric DUBIE



  • 3.  RE: Identify and locate computers not reporting to Altiris

    Posted Sep 05, 2012 09:28 AM

    Good idea.  Below is a sql script  I use to identify servers (I use SMS) not checking in.  Perhaps, you can use it as your intial dataset to trigger actions. 

     

     

    SELECT  a.[Guid] ,
            a.[Name] AS 'Computer Name' ,
            a.[User] ,
            a.[OS name] AS 'Operating System' ,
            c.[LastConfig] AS 'Days Since Last Check In' ,
            c.[LastConfigDate],
            IsManaged
    FROM    vComputer a
            LEFT JOIN ( SELECT  ResourceGuid ,
                                LastConfig = MIN(DATEDIFF(dd, [StartTime],
                                                          GETDATE())) ,
                                LastConfigDate = MAX([StartTime])
                        FROM    Evt_NS_Client_Config_Request
                        GROUP BY ResourceGuid
                      ) AS c ON c.[ResourceGuid] = a.[Guid]
    WHERE   c.[LastConfig] > 0
    ORDER BY c.[LastConfig] DESC