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Dell Open Manage Client Admin 3.0 Product Guide - V1.0
Dell Open Manage Client Admin 3.0 Product Guide - V1.0
Dell Open Manage Client Admin 3.0 Product Guide - V1.0
0 Product Guide
Notice
Dell OpenManage Client Administrator 3.0 2002-2006 Altiris, Inc. All rights reserved. Document Date: February 28, 2006
Special thanks to the following individuals and groups that contributed significantly to Altiris Dell Client Manager: * James Lathan and the Dell Client Technologists * The Dell Systems Engineers * Joe Kozlowski, Dell Customer Support * Kevin Winert, Dell OpenManage Product Marketing * Steven Breed, Dell Software Engineering
Bootworks U.S. Patent No. 5,764,593. RapiDeploy U.S. Patent No. 6,144,992. Recovery Solution U.S. Patent No. 5,778,395, 5,907,672, 4701745, 5016009, 5146221, 5144425, 5463390, 5506580, 5532694, GB 2172127, B 904359, 3606869. Other patents pending. Due to the inherently complex nature of computer software, Altiris does not warrant that the Altiris software is error-free, will operate without interruption, is compatible with all equipment and software configurations, or will otherwise meet your needs. The content of this documentation is furnished for informational use only, is subject to change without notice, and should not be construed as a commitment by Altiris. Altiris, Inc. assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or inaccuracies that may appear in this documentation. For the latest documentation, visit our Web site at www.altiris.com. Altiris, the Altiris logo, BootWorks, Eality, ImageBlaster, Inventory Solution, PC Transplant, RapiDeploy, RapidInstall, and Vision are registered trademarks of Altiris, Inc. in the United States. Altiris, the Altiris Logo, and ManageFusion are registered trademarks of Altiris, Inc. in other countries. Altiris Connector, Altiris eXpress, Altiris Protect, Application Management Solution, Application Metering Solution, Asset Control Solution, Asset Management Suite, Carbon Copy Solution, Client Management Suite, Compliance Toolkit, Connector Solution, Contract Management Solution, Deployment Server, Deployment Solution, Energy Saver Toolkit, Education Management Suite, Handheld Management Suite, Helpdesk Solution, Lab Management Suite, ManageFusion, Migration Toolkit, Mobile Client for SMS, Monitor Solution, Network Discovery, Notification Server, Package Importer, Patch Management Solution, Problem Management Suite, Recovery Solution, Security Solution, Server Management Suite, Site Monitor Solution, Software Delivery Solution, SNMP Management, Software Delivery Suite, TCO Management Solution, UNIX Client for SMS, Web Administrator, Web Reports, and other product names are trademarks of Altiris, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Audit on Connecct, Audit on Detect, AuditExpress, Scan on Detect, and SecurityExpressions are a trademarks of Pedestal Software Inc. in the United States. WebLens and Guaranteeing Your Net Works is a registered trademarks of Tonic Software Inc. in the United States. WebInsight and RUM are a trademarks of Tonic Software Inc. in the United States. Microsoft, Windows, and the Windows logo are trademarks, or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. HP and Compaq are registered trademarks of the Hewlett-Packard Corporation. Dell is a registered trademark of Dell Inc. Macintosh is a registered trademark of the Apple Computer Corporation. Palm OS is a registered trademark of Palm Computing, Inc. BlackBerry is a service mark and a trademark of Research In Motion Limited Corporation. RIM is a service mark and trademark of Research In Motion (RIM). All other brand names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.
Contents
Chapter 1: Introducing Dell OpenManage Client Administrator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Additional Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Important Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Chapter 1
Additional Information
Altiris includes additional documentation, Web portals, and online communities to assist in managing resources across your organization.
Documentation
The following documentation is provided with Dell OMCA: Altiris Notification Server Help Altiris Inventory Solution Help Altiris Software Delivery Solution Help
Altiris PC Transplant Solution Help Altiris Deployment Solution Help Altiris Dell Client Manager Solution Help Altiris product documentation is available in Microsoft HTML Help (.CHM) and Adobe Acrobat (.PDF) formats. Documentation files are installed in the following directory: C:\Program Files\Altiris\eXpress\Notification Server\NSCap\Help You can access documentation from the Altiris Console by clicking the following icons in the upper-right corner of the console: Access the contextual online help by clicking the online help icon. Access an index of all help by clicking the index icon.
Important Terms
This section introduces important terms used in this document.
Solutions
A solution or Altiris solution is a product or products sold by Altiris, which plug into the Altiris Infrastructure to add specific functionality.
Dell OpenManage Client Administrator is a suite of solutions that includes the Dell OpenManage Solution, Inventory Solution, Software Delivery Solution, PC Transplant Solution, and Deployment Solution.
Altiris Agent
The Altiris Agent(formerly called the Notification Server Client or NS Client) is the primary agent that provides shared functionality, such as providing a common transport mechanism, and provides the user interface for changing settings on the end-user computer. The Altiris Agent also provides the core (bootstrap) capabilities for installing and managing various solution-specific agents. (Each solution may add an additional agent or agents to add specific capabilities to the base functionality.)
Dell Advisors
Dell Advisors are reports that provide information about computers on your network.
Reports
The information collected from the client computers is sent to the Notification Server and stored in a central database. You can create reports from this data to help you analyze your data. These reports can be made accessible through any Web browser.
Collection
A collection is a group of resources that is the target of a task, policy, or report. Collections can be static (a list of specific resources), or dynamic (generated by a database query). A collection (aggregate collection) can contain one or more other collections, providing a method for grouping similar collections for task execution and simplifying the establishment of security settings. For example, all Dell Precision computers are a collection.
Package
A package or software package is one or more files that can be delivered using package servers as defined in software delivery tasks.
Policy
A policy is a default or administrator-defined set of rules that govern the execution of unattended (automated) actions. For example, create a report, send an alert, execute a command, instigate a task, and so on. Policies can be evaluated on a schedule (for queries-based policies that trigger based on the state of a resource in the database) or based on incoming data that triggers an immediate evaluation. Policies are used to determine when an action should be instigated, including who or what should be notified of the results. Policies allow you to take automated actions on the data that is returned by a database query. The automated actions that can be tracked are defined by event handlers. Each policy includes multiple predefined event handlers that allow you to do things like sending an e-mail, executing a command, generating an SNMP trap, and creating a report.
Chapter 2
If Notification Server has not been installed, the first step is to select and set up a server with the required hardware and software (see Notification Server Requirements on page 8). Then, you can install Notification Server and Dell OpenManage Client Administrator (see Installing Notification Server on page 9).
Web Consoles
Notification Server consists of many components, including: Notification Server. Provides services to solutions, processes events, manages data, runs tasks, runs reports, and enforces security settings. Notification Database. Stores data collected by Notification Server and solutions. Altiris Agent. Installed on computers to facilitate interactions between Notification Server and the managed computer (a computer with the Altiris Agent installed and managed by Notification Server). The agent receives configuration information from and sends data to Notification Server. The agent also helps in downloading files and installing and managing solution-specific agents. Reports. Specially organized views of data. Data can be organized into lists, tables, or graphs. Web-based management consoles. Interfaces between the user and Notification Server and solutions. For more information on these components, see the Notification Server documentation.
After selecting a server, make sure that the required software is installed on the server.
We provide the Install Helper utility to start the Notification Server installation process. Initially, Install Helper checks your server to ensure that the required software is
installed. If it finds that there is missing software, Install Helper lists the missing software and helps you download and install what is needed.
6.
Set up the e-mail address to receive Notification Server alerts. Enter the DNS name or IP address of your SMTP server. You must also enter a valid user name and password to log on to the SMTP server if the server requires authentication. Click Send Test E-mail to send a test e-mail and verify that Notification Server is sending e-mail to the correct address. The SQL Database Settings page appears.
7.
Set up credentials for Microsoft SQL Server and the installed Notification Database. Enter the name of the server running Microsoft SQL Server or MSDE. You can install the Notification Database to a specific SQL 2000 instance by entering the server name and SQL instance. Example: SQL server name\SQL instance. Select Create new database and enter the name of the database to be created. To select an appropriate Command timeout (in seconds), enter a value between 1 and 3600 seconds (1 hour). The command timeout setting applies to all SQL Server connections used by the Notification Server. The Setup Wizard Completion page appears.
8.
Click Finish.
After Notification Server is installed, the Dell OpenManage Client Administrator suite is installed automatically. It may take several minutes. When the suite installation is complete, the Dell OpenManage Client Administrator Quick Start opens to help you get started using the suite.
2. 3.
Select the resource discovery methods you want to use. You must select at least one method. Select the Domain Browse List option to discover computers (including Windows 95, 98, 98 SE, and ME computers) that are currently sharing files. Select the Domain Membership option to discover computers that have trust accounts in the domain and are running Windows NT, 2000, XP, and 2003. This method will not find any Windows 98, 98 SE, or ME computers.
4. 5.
Click Discover Now. After the discovery process completes, click Apply.
The computers in the specified domains are discovered. The next step is to instal the Altiris Agent (see Installing the Altiris Agent on page 11).
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Operating System
Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me Windows NT 4 (SP4 or later) Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003
Internet Explorer
4.01 SP1 or later 4.01 SP1 or later 5.0 or later
Rights Needed
No special rights needed Local administrator Local administrator
Special
Current version of DCOM (Windows Me includes DCOM)
Windows XP enables Simple File Sharing by default. You must disable Simple File Sharing to install the Altiris Agent.
If you have a large number of computers on which to install the Altiris Agent, we recommend that you discover computers before performing this procedure (see Discovering Computers to Manage on page 10). If you have only a few computers, such as during an evaluation, you can use the discovery process to identify computers or skip the discovery process and manually enter computer identification information. You need administrator rights to install the Altiris Agent.
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If you performed a computer discovery, click Select Computers. In the dialog that opens, select the computers to which you want to install the agent. Click OK. Note The fact that a computer can be discovered does not mean that you can use this method to install the agent to it. The computer must be running an operating system that supports having agents pushed to it. 3. 4. 5. Click Install Altiris Agent. The Options page opens to let you set configuration properties for the Altiris Agent. Select the Show the Altiris Agent icon in the system tray option. Click Proceed with Install. The Altiris Agent is installed to the computers.
In the right pane, select the General tab, if it is not already selected. Change the value in the Request new configuration information every field to 1, 5, or 15 minutes. This forces the agent to check more frequently for changes, so you can see the results of the changes you make more quickly. Change the value in Send basic inventory every field to 15 minutes. This forces inventory data to be sent more frequently. Click Apply.
4. 5.
The next time the agent checks for configuration information, these settings will take effect. If you were using the default values before the change, it can take up to one hour before these changes are effective.
Installing a License
To use Dell OpenManage Client Administrator, you must install licenses. There are evaluation and full licenses. The applicable evaluation licenses are included with the suite installation package, if you installed Notification Server along with the suite, or can
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be obtained from the Altiris Web site if you installed just the suite using the Solution Center. The following table describes how the licenses work for each suite and solution.
Solution
Altiris Dell Client Manager Other suite solutions
Evaluation License
90 days for up to 100 nodes 7 days extendable to 30 days by applying the included licenses
Full License
Free by registering (registration instructions are in the Altiris Dell Client Manager Solution Quick Start) Purchased from Altiris (see the Altiris Web site for more information)
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from Notification Server to a target destination where Deployment Server will install. After receiving the policy, the client computer will communicate with the Notification Server and pull down the Deployment Server package used during the silent installation. This method of installing Deployment Server lets you manage the entire install process from the Notification Server.
3. 4.
5.
The Deployment Server Installation Settings page opens. This information is used on the target client computer when Deployment Solution performs the installation.
14
a.
From the Deployment Server Installation Settings page, click the dropdown arrow and select the computer you want to remotely install. The computers listed are compiled from the Notification Database and display only if the client computer has the Altiris Agent and Microsoft SQL Server installed. Enter the Administrator username and password. All component services will run under this account. By default, the Free 7-day license option is selected. Leave this setting selected if you are evaluating this product. If you purchased Deployment Solution, select the License file option. A text field will appear for you to enter the path where the licensing file (.LIC file) is located, or you can click the Browse icon to navigate to the licensing file location. Click Advanced to configure options for the silent install. The IP address of the Deployment Server computer will be listed. If you have multiple network adapters, then the first IP address will appear. Click one of the Deployment Server database authentication options, select the Install PXE checkbox to install a PXE Server on the destination server, and then select the Install the Deployment Web Console checkbox to install a stand-alone Web console. Click OK.
b. c.
d.
6.
If you do not have DOS boot files installed on Notification Server, then a page will open asking you to find the required DOS files.
Click one of the options to gather the DOS files at the bottom of the page, and then click Next. The DOS files are gathered and the silent install begins. Note The installation of Deployment Server will begin after the Altiris Agent configuration update. This can take several minutes to install.
15
Note The configuration request interval is set from the Altiris Console in the Configuration tab > Altiris Agent > Altiris Agent Configuration > All Windows Servers (or another appropriate collection). For evaluation purposes, set the Request new configuration to 1 minute and set the Basic inventory to 15 minutes. Now that all the information for the target computer has been created, a policy is sent from Notification Server to the client destination. The client receiving the policy knows to connect to Notification Server and receive the Deployment Solution package used on the client during the Deployment Solution installation. Note The silent install of the Deployment Server will take several minutes to complete.
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Chapter 3
17
Left Pane
Right Pane
The Altiris Console has the following areas: Banner. Displays the console title and provides access to documentation. The banner also includes tabs that are used to organize console functionality. The tab that is selected determines the contents of the left pane. The standard tabs are: Getting Started. Links to items related to getting started with Notification Server or solutions, such as accessing Quick Start pages, discovering computers, deploying the Altiris Agent, installing solutions, and setting security. Tasks. Links to solution and Notification Server tasks. Resources. Links to resource-related items. Reports. Links to predefined and custom reports. Configuration. Links to configuration policies. Shortcuts. User-added links to Altiris Console pages. Incident. Altiris Alert Manager (or Helpdesk if installed) incidents. Specific solutions can also add tabs to the console. The button opens the documentation index page, which lists the available documents, including product guides, administrator guides, reference guides, help files, and release notes. The button displays context-sensitive help for the page currently displayed in the right pane. Left pane. Provides access to items in the console by letting you navigate through a series of nodes organized into a tree structure. The node selected in the tree determines the contents of the right pane. Right pane. Displays content based on the node selected in the left pane.
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Element
Collections
Description
A group of related resources. Collections can be a group of manually selected resources or the result of a database query. Collections specify the resources on which an action is taken. Example: you can choose to deploy the Altiris Agent to computers in the Windows Computers collection. A group of files that are deployed to a managed computer. Control the actions taken by a solution in Notification Server. Organize Notification Database data for analysis. Each solution and Notification Server include predefined reports that you can use as they are or modify. You can also create your own reports.
Configuring Inventory
Dell OpenManage Client Administrator includes Altiris Inventory Solution for Windows. Inventory Solution provides comprehensive inventory for Windows computers, including serial number, hardware inventory, software audit inventory, virtual machine inventory, and user/contact information (with Exchange profile). Inventory Solution data includes: PC Serial Number and BIOS details Comprehensive software auditing Disk, operating system, and system configuration settings Registry settings Full end-user information (with Microsoft Exchange profiles) WMI objects Note Inventory Solution also has versions for use with UNIX, Palm, Pocket PC, and Mac OS. For information, see the Altiris Web site. Predefined polices make it easy to collect inventory data. The following predefined policies are included: Hardware Inventory Re-create Full Inventory
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Re-create User Inventory Software Inventory User Inventory All you need to do is enable the policies you want to use to start collecting data. If needed, you can change the schedule of the data collection.
Click Apply.
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To deliver a package
1. 2. In the left pane of the Dell OpenManage Client Administrator Quick Start, click Deliver Software Packages in the Common Tasks section. In the right pane, click Software Delivery Wizard to open the Software Delivery page. The Software Delivery page gives you access to the Software Delivery Wizard and also provides status information for your Software Delivery tasks. For information on how to use the wizard and on the status of software delivery tasks, click .
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Inventory Snapshot Reports These reports help you evaluate the inventory related aspects of your computers, such as the processors used by the different computers, the operating systems used, the vendors of the computers, and more.
To view a report
1. 2. In the left pane of the Dell OpenManage Client Administrator Quick Start, select the type of report you want to run in the Client Administrator Reports section. In the right pane, click the report you want to run. The report opens. 3. For information about the report, click on the report toolbar.
To save a report
1. 2. 3. From the report, click in the report toolbar.
To print a report
1. 2. From a report, click Click Print. in the report toolbar.
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Index
A
add server 16 alerts 23 Altiris Agent 6, 20, 22, 23 Altiris Solution 5
S
serial number 19 server adding 16 install 13 server install remote 13 SMS 23 packages 20 SNMP traps 23 Software Delivery 20 Software Delivery Wizard 21 solution 5 Solutions 5
B
BIOS 19
C
changed identity computer 23 checkpoint recovery 20 collection 6, 19 collections 6 failed alert 23
D
DCOM 11 Dell Advisors 6 documentation 4
I
installation remote 13 server 13 inventory data 22 Inventory Solution 20
L
license installation 13
N
Notification Server 5, 5
P
package 6 PC serial number 19 policies 23 policy 6
R
remote installation 13 reports 6, 23 print 22 saving 22 viewing 22
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