Symantec Management Platform (Notification Server)

Hi, can anyone advise where we are going wrong?

We have setup a test lab running SMP7.1 beta on a VM Win2008 R2 box using SQL2008R2 Express on our main LAN.

We can get all our test clients to call in no problems but are unable to run any inventory against the machines or deploy software. With the inventory all we get is that is fails with a -1 error code. With SWD the source location never populates. I feel these issues must be some sort of rights issues. We are currently using NS6.5SP3 with no issues and trying to replicate policies/tasks/jobs etc seems a little over complicated now that Symantec have decided in their wisdom to move everything about. In addition we cannot import anything from AD . On looking at the logs it appears that access is denied to somewhere and I have no clue as to why this aint working.

Thanks in advance

For the inventory issue, have your rolled out the inventory agent plugin? It wasn't a necessary step in v6.x, but it has been since 7.0. This is usually the cause of the -1 error.

I know I personally had issues with domain accounts in 7.1 so far, and I don't think I'm alone on this.

We have been trying to setup a package service on our test box but have now lost it from being a Site Service. We therfore cannot deploy software to any of our clients as there is no source location to grab them from. Can anyone advise how this can be reinstalled?

Thanks

in Site Management.  See if that works.  You may have to update the config on the remote PS only after the re-add, or you may have to go ahead and let it pull the PS agent by updating after BOTH changes.

Just a thought.

I thought sql 2008 r2 was specifically NOT supported yet?  Did I mis-read the beta documentation? 

I do remember when rolling out SEP that symantec specified NOT to use sql 2008 r2 because it changed something significant and indeed caused major issues for us.  going back to sql 2008 sp1 cured the problems.

Aside from everything else going on with regard to the beta, and the documentation, and the testing, I have a concern that I wonder if anyone else is experiencing.

When I am drilled down to a job to view the targets before enabling the job, the targets are not populating.  Allow me to explain a step-by-step  example so that someone at Symantec can replicate this and provide a fix or explanation as to what I could be doing wrong.

1.      Click on Settings | Agents/Plug-ins | All Agents/Plug-ins

2.      Drill down to Agents/Plug-ins | Discovery and Inventory | Inventory Plug-in Install

3.      In the right pane, under the middle section titled 'Applied to', I have selected 'computers' in the dropdown box for 'View' and nothing populates.

4.      I then change the 'View' dropdown box to 'Targets' and it shows the collection, sorry, filter entitled 'All Windows/UNIX/Linux/Mac Computers without Inventory Plug-in'.

5.      I highlight that 'Filter' and then click the pencil for edit mode which pops-up a window entitled ‘Edit selected group’ (yes, it says group).

6.      I click the 'Update results' button on that screen, and BAM, the computers that I am expecting to see in that collection/filter/group, are there!  Please note that the 'OK' button is not highlighted, so I cannot click it.  I HAVE to click the 'Cancel' button. So I do.

7.      That brings my back to the job page and there are NO computers listed when I choose 'Computers' for the 'View' drop down box.

Am I missing something, or am I incorrect in assuming how the 'View' 'Computers' option should work?

I sure hope someone from Symantec is watching this forum and will read this post and either reply to me or to this thread to let me/us know how this ‘feature’ should work.   If I am contacted directly, I will be sure to post an update here.

BTW, I have been in Asset Management for many years and working with Altiris for most of them.  7.1 is a lot different, which can be a good thing, if managed correctly.  I have high hopes for this product line and hope that things get better.

Has there been any discussion  regarding another version/update to the beta for more testing in 2011? I only ask because I will wager that it will NOT make the current release date.

Ziggy, that's not a bug.

Targets (filters and groups) update by running the "resource membership update" tasks (windows task scheduler), but only if the policy is ON.

Just wait 5min and your computers will show up within the "target preview".

(or run the "complete update schedule" manually)

On the filters, there are 2 horizontal blue bars, one for filter definition section and the other for filter membership list.

The Filter Membership blue bar has the last update time listed on it. Just below that is the UPDATE MEMBERSHIP button. Get in the habit of glancing at that last update time and hitting the update button.

In 7.0, from time to time I've also seen instances of target filters in policies not updating. When that happens, double click on the target filter and hit the UPDATE RESULTS button.

Today I lost my Agent directories within NSCAP share. They just disappeared!?!

The Log Viewer logs the following:

Description: The NS failed to refresh package snapshot. Could not access the package path. Package:Symantec Management Agent Package (5fa31642-cb4a-43de-a538-cbb8b6e3bcb7), Path:D:\Altiris\Notification Server\NSCap\Bin\Win32\X86\NS Client Package

Description: The NS failed to refresh package snapshot. Could not access the package path. Package:Package Server Agent Package (6c821f5e-5bf4-407f-a6ff-abb85eee0418), Path:D:\Altiris\Notification Server\NSCap\Bin\Win32\X86\PkgSvr Agent Package
 

These directories do not exist anymore. Repairing the Platform in SIM did not resolve the problem.

You need to look at other things going on in the system.  We do not randomly delete folders just to help inspire more phone calls.

I'd look for things like virus protection logs that might flag something as dangerous, or an admin that likes to move things around to organize things, or stuff like that.

I have seen things LIKE this in an upgrade however.  For instance, the upgrade may remove an old agent, and then fail during the installation of the new.  Soooo, if you just recently upgraded, that might make sense.  We've had this problem before.

We've managed to fix this kind of thing by running the MSI again for the product, at least from my memory.  So it's something to think about.

If you've done a recent upgrade, let us know.

Thomas, it was not an upgrade install. I've got a fresh server for the beta from the customer. I called my buddy at my company to check on our virtual 7.1 test box et voilà: there were no Agent Package folders, either. This was a fresh install, too.

One or two days before, I pulled the aexnsc.exe from there (nscap) to install the agent manually on my test clients. So, the folders did exist before.

Why does repairing the platform NOT re-create them?

New Problem:

OOB Node "Configuration Service Settings" shows "access denied" for any user other than the application identity. Even if the user is member of Symantec Administrators.

Found articles with solutions, but nothing helps with ITMS 7.1 Beta.

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/articles/troubleshooting-out-band-management-and-real-time-system-manager-vpro-technology-versions-part-3

Ok, the only thing that helped, was adding my user to the OOB Users. But that's not my understanding of centralized user management.

About users in OOB:

OOB solution uses the Intel SCS server for configuration of AMT clients. SCS server has its own users database and users roles and it is not connected with NS Users. So if you planning to use OOB with other user than App Identity, then you need to add that user to SCS database as you did.

AlexTH

Hi ziggy,

I've got the exactly the same issue. And did not find any solution.

Did you find any solution? If yes thanks to let me know it would be greatfull.