Asset Management Suite

With the support of pcAnywhere slowly being phased out we begun looking at remote support alternatives this year and just recently purchased a Bomgar Remote Support appliance. At this time there is no official integration with any Symantec product. However I'm going to detail the best and easiest way of integrating your Bomgar Remote Support Appliance with the Symantec Altiris Client Management System. To do this we will be leveraging Bomgar’s built-in API to correlate Bomgar Support Sessions with the Symantec ITMS Management Suite (Altiris 7.5) managed computer assets. If you prefer, you can view this how-to on my blog here, http://michaelcivitillo.com/integrating-bomgar-with-altiris/, which has links to a few pictures as well. 

First to utilize the Bomgar API, ensure that the Enable XML API option is checked on the Management > API Configuration page of the /login administrative interface.

Now let’s look at the magic API call and see how it works:

“https://support.yourdomainhere.com/api/client_script?type=rep&operation=generate&action=start_pinned_client_session&search_string=192.168.1.121″

The search_string identifies the target computer and this can specify a variety of criteria.  In my example above, the target is identified by IP address. Other criteria can be used, including the hostname.  If the search_string matches more than one Jump Client, then the technician will receive a prompt to choose which target in order to complete the jump. If the service technician is not logged into their Bomgar Representative Console application, the console will be started and the technician will be prompted to log in.

In our environment I decided IP address would be the most unique criteria to call for the search string due to naming conflicts, especially on Macintosh clients. For the purpose of this integration will be utilizing Right-click actions in the Altiris console. Right-click actions are used to add options to the context menu of an item or a resource in the management console.

To create our custom right-click action launch the management console and go to Settings > All Settings > Notification Server > Right Click Menu. Right click on the User Defined folder and select New > Right-Click Action.

Under Target Resources select Computer as the resource type. This will limit the Right-Click action to displaying under only assets defined as Computers in the database. You can drill down even more and filter this further if you’d like. In the Configure Action section select URL as the Action Type. In the Base URL field paste the following Bomgar API call (make sure you put the correct FQDN of your Bomgar appliance in the URL).

“https://support.yourdomainhere.com/api/client_script?type=rep&operation=generate&action=start_pinned_client_session&search_string=”

Next we need to add the correct data class, in this example I’ll be using IP address. In the Substitution Parameters click ‘Add’, in the ‘Group’ field select Inventory > Basic Inventory > AeX AC TCPIP. Then highlight IP Address and then click the > arrow to add the data class to the selected items list, then click OK.

Finally, add the following string to the end up the Bomgar API URL in the Base URL, ‘%AeX AC TCPIP.IP Address%’. This will insert the IP address of the computer you execute the Right-Click action on to the Bomgar API script. Your final Base URL should look like this:

“https://support.yourdomainhere.com/api/client_script?type=rep&operation=generate&action=start_pinned_client_session&search_string=%AeX AC TCPIP.IP Address%”

Ensure the Right-click Item Task is enabled by select ON and then click Save Changes. If you configured everything properly you should now be able to go back into Computer Management tab, right click a computer, go to User Defined and then select your new Bomgar Integration Right-click action. If the computer you select has a Bomgar Jump Client it will auto-download a small file, clickOpen and the Bomgar Representative Console will automatically begin a support session!

Below is the source code for the right-click action.