We created a somewhat more complex version of the attached script to enable us to use Group Policy Startup scripts (assigned at a per-OU level) to rollout the Altiris Agent. There are some functions that will reset the Agent to Automatic startup mode and start it, just in case you have any of "those" users who have admin rights and like to (attempt to) defeat your Systems Management tools like Altiris. Enforcing the startup modes via GPO is also effective, but AFAIK the GPO can't actually start the service, only set the Startup mode for next boot.
To modify this, you'll want to modify the configuration starting around line 98 where you define the various NSes. The script needs to be in a folder with the AeXSWDInstSvc.msi and AeXAgentUtil.exe.
Any questions or problems please let me know! I had to hack up our production script quite a bit to generate this, so there may be a few little glitches, but the syntax looks clean.
I developed this to deploy the Altiris 6.x agent, but it would probably work with a few tweaks for the NS7 agent as well.
Once I moved the script from the GPO file path to a network share it ran successfully. I think the system was having problems accessing the GUID path of the GPO for whatever reason to access the msi package.
I have one update request for the script. Can you modify it so that it checks to see if the 6.x agent is installed and if so remove and then add the 7.x agent? I think that many others would also benefit from this who have migrated to 7.x and some of their agents are still 6.x.
I put the script in the GPO policy path:
\\<Domain>\sysvol\<Domain>\Policies\{GPO Guid}\Machine\Scripts\Startup
Could there be an issue with it not being able to read either AeXAgentUtil.exe or AeXNSInstSvc.msi from that location?
In a single NS environment, you can comment out all the stuff about choosing an config (basically lines 95-137), and just set the sConfig string as equal the to Region 1 option, then on line 236 of the script you could replace the bit:
& dicConfigs.Item(sConfig) &
with:
sConfig
Assuming you're doing this with a test OU or something, you could also put in some more MsgBox commands to let you know where it is at and/or the value of some of the variables. Also check the Application Event Log on the machine to see if there is anything useful listed there.
I put this script along with the two files in the actual group policy startup script folder. When I run it though it just times out. I think it is looking for the network connection to actually hit the NS. I modified the GPO to "Always wait for the network at computer startup or logon" but still nothing happens. Am I missing something? Since we only have one NS I just filled in all 3 lines with it and run the script with the parameter /config:"Region 1"