In recent weeks, I've received a number of questions about Dell Client Manager 3.0 ability to configure Intel vPro technology.
I have not had the opportunity to review the latest official documentation from Symantec\Altiris or Dell on how to configure Intel vPro technology. Therefore, this article provides my perspective and approach. As I'm working with Altiris 7 and vPro on an almost daily basis, authoring a complete set of new documentation has not been accommodating to present schedules, tasks, etc.
Therefore, I ask for your patience and understanding. This is by no means the final and complete answer - it's a "best effort".
A few key points to keep in mind.
- Dell Client Management version 3 is based on Altiris 7
- A video posted at http://vproexpert.blip.tv/file/1900890/ - about 5 minutes into that video the focus is on configuring
- Much of the Altiris\vPro configuration requirement for Altiris v7 are very similar to v6. The above posted video will highlight the differences.
- For an Altiris v6 vPro configuration baseline, see material posted about 2 years ago - Video Workshop: Intel vPro Activation
- If you are totally new to Intel vPro technology, I invite you to first learn what the technology is capable of doing. Here is one article resource example - Combining In Band and Out of Band Management
So - you've started to deploy Intel vPro systems from Dell and are using their Dell client manager.
Altiris 7 requires SCS 5.x to configure vPro. If vPro is already configured - it's just a matter of enabling OOB Discovery and configuring the Pluggable Protocol Architecture (PPA).. see blip.tv video referenced above.
On the Dell Client Manager, check to see if the following fileshare exists - "\\localhost\nscap\bin\x86\Out of Band Management\IntelSCS"
If so - within that directory, find AMTconfserver.exe. This is the Intel SCS service installation. File should be version 5.0.2.4
On the Dell Client Manager, check for "c:\Altiris OOB Configuration" directory. If present, you should see two files - Interop.AeXClient.dll and OOBProv.exe.
The preferred approach is to install Intel SCS via the Altiris (or Dell Client Manager) interface... but sometimes that scripted install fails without direct indication as to what happened. Although a little advanced, it may be best to directly install the Intel SCS... which is the configuration service for Intel vPro technology.
Two key challenges I've seen in directly installing AMTconfserver.exe is that the webdirectories (AMTSCS and AMTSCS_RCFG) need to be set to no TLS and the the integration to SCS via the OOBprov.exe is not done. The TLS settings are handled via the advanced installation options. The OOBprov.exe is the configuration script which checks the Symantec\Altiris database against the IntelAMT database for new records, matching UUID\FQDN, recent vPro configuration events, and so forth.
As to what configuration script will be used, this setting is made in the IntelAMT database. My preference is to use the SCS console to adjust the setting. SCS console is available with the full download at http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/download-the-latest-version-of-intel-amt-setup-and-configuration-service-scs/... The other good item here is the updated version of SCS 5.x (presently SCS 5.2.0.34B)
So that's the brief summary. As stated previously - my intent was not to provide a complete answer, yet to provide a brief insight and references.
Interested to hear from the community. Did this help? More information needed?
The opinions expressed on this site are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or strategies of Intel Corporation or its worldwide subsidiaries