Altiris Notification Server is a comprehensive solution to build queries and reports that will go through your database. With the notification solution you can easily build queries to find specific computers that have a specific update or service pack in relation to what ever you select. It will help you perform lots of tasks and to build great reports for your system management.
In our environment we only need Notification Server as a requirement before installing Workflow.
Before we can start with the installation and configuration of the Workflow Solution we need to install an Altiris Notification Server. In this second article of the Workflow series I’m going to guide you through the installation and configuration of the Notification Server 6.0.
In this series of articles you will be guided through the installation and configuration of the test environment that is used to build the workflows. So the Notification and Workflow components will be installed on one server.
First you have to make sure your server complies with the minimal requirements that are needed for the installation.
Internet Information server (IIS) version 5 or higher and ASP.net version 1.1 or higher is needed before you can start the installation.
Download the software and start the installation by double clicking on it. The software will extract itself and you'll see the welcome screen.
Accept the welcome screen by clicking Next.
Then you have to agree the license agreement. Click Next to continue.
Fill in the appropriate user and company name. Install the software for everyone that is using the computer and click Next to continue.
Select the complete install to install all the components and click Next to continue.
Then select Install.
The installation of Notification Server will now start. Grab a cup of coffee, because the installation will take several minutes to complete.
When the Install Shield is finished, click Finish.
Now the software will automatically configure the other software that is needed. There will be installed several other components that we do not really need for the Workflow, but we may need them in some other situations. That is why I choose the complete install of the components.
This installation and configuration will also take some time to finish.
Now the next steps will be done in the Web components of Notification Server.
Fill in the administrator account and password you use on the server and select Next.
The administrator account must be given with the domain prefix like DinamiQs\administrator
Now you have to fill in some information for the notification server that it will use for sending e-mails.
Now select the SQL server you want to use. This is one of the components that I will store at the domain SQL server. Select a database name or choose one from the dropdown list.
Now give the appropriate SQL credentials.
NOTE: If you select a different server and want to select an already existing database, you have to give the page some time to enumerate the list of already stored and configured databases.
Select Next to continue.
In the next screen that appears click finish and the database and settings will be written into the Altiris Notification Server.
NOTE: The database services will be restarted for this. So be care full if you do this in a live environment with a live database. It will generate errors when the database service is in use and users might loose some settings.
Finally the Altiris Console will be installed.
Somewhere during this process a screen pops up with the question if it is allowed to install.
Click install and the installation will continue.
When you see this screen everything is finished and installed successfully.
Now we go to the tab Configuration to install some licenses that we need.
When you click on the tab Install license, you can use two ways to install licenses. First way is to browse to the license on your hard disk and select it. The second way is to edit the file that contains the license and paste the number in the field. Then select license to get the license installed.
Because we are only going to use it with the Workflow for now we do not need additional licenses.
Now we have to do one more step to get the Workflow installed completely.
Go to the tab Reports and select Notification Server Infrastructure.
Then you will receive an error message.
Click install to get the VSFlex8.cab installed.
Now our Notification Server is installed completely and is ready for its job.
I suggest that you take some time to go through all the screens and take a look at it. This will give you some ideas to make your work much more easily in the future. The Notification server enables you to perform tasks as easy as can be.
A very big enhancement of the Notification Server is that we now have a solution that will find and upgrade all our Altiris software. When you select Configuration you can install all other software. When you go to “already installed products” it will show you all the products that are installed. When it detects that there is a newer version of the software you can select the button update software and the newest version will be downloaded and installed. Notification server checks and updates all its software from a website named Solution SAM.
Make sure you have the latest version of Notification installed before you go to install the Workflow Solution.
The next step is to install all the software that is needed for our solution. To do this we need all the software that comes with Altiris CMS 2. We do not need licenses for it, just the software.
Go to the tab configuration and select Client Management Suite 2. It will show you 76 pieces of software. Select them all and give the server up to 1 day, the time to install and configure everything.
It will download and install over 10 GB of software.
Here is a list of everything we are going to install:
- Altiris NS SP3 Update KB39160
- Altiris Console
- Altiris Console Data
- Altiris Console Data Language Pack
- Altiris Console Language Pack
- Altiris Console Documentation
- Altiris Deployment Solution
- Altiris Task Management
- Altiris Report Pack for Task Server
- Altiris Task Server Documentation
- Altiris Task Server Language Pack
- Altiris Software Delivery Solution for Windows
- Altiris Software Delivery Solution for Windows Documentation
- Altiris Package Rule Management
- Altiris Package Rule Management Language Pack
- Altiris Patch Management Solution for Windows
- Altiris Application Management Solution
- Altiris Application Management Language Pack
- Altiris Application Management Solution Documentation
- Altiris Carbon Copy Solution
- Altiris Report Pack for Carbon Copy Solution
- Altiris Carbon Copy Solution Documentation
- Altiris Inventory Solution for Windows
- Altiris Inventory Solution for Windows Documentation
- Altiris Report Pack for Inventory Solution for Windows
- Altiris Agent for Mac
- Altiris Agent for Mac Documentation
- Altiris Inventory Solution for Mac
- Altiris Inventory Solution for Mac Documentation
- Altiris Report Pack for Inventory Solution for Mac
- Altiris Software Delivery Solution for Mac
- Altiris Software Delivery Solution for Mac Documentation
- Altiris Report Pack for Software Delivery Solution
- Altiris Report Pack for Software Delivery Solution for Windows
- Altiris Network Discovery
- Altiris Network Discovery Documentation
- Altiris Inventory Solution for Network Devices
- Altiris Report Pack for Network Discovery Solution
- Altiris Network Discovery Language Pack
- Altiris Agent for Pocket PC
- Altiris Inventory Solution for Pocket PC
- Altiris Inventory Solution for Pocket PC Documentation
- Altiris Email Event Receiver
- Altiris Discovery for RIM
- Altiris Inventory Solution for RIM
- Altiris Inventory Solution for RIM Documentation
- Altiris Agent for UNIX and Linux
- Altiris Agent for UNIX and Linux Documentation
- Altiris Inventory Solution for UNIX and Linux
- Altiris Inventory Solution for UNIX and Linux Documentation
- Altiris Report Pack for Inventory Solution for UNIX and Linux
- Altiris RealTime Console Infrastructure
- Altiris Real Time System Manager
- Altiris Real Time System Manager Documentation
- Altiris Report Pack for Real Time System Manager
- Altiris Wise Integration Component
- Altiris Wise Toolkit
- Altiris Software Virtualization Solution
- Altiris Software Virtualization Solution Documentation
- Altiris Report Pack for Software Virtualization Solution
- Altiris Patch Management Solution for Windows Language Pack
- Altiris Patch Management Solution Documentation
- Altiris Integrated Component for Microsoft Active Directory
- Altiris Connector for Active Directory Documentation
- Altiris Application Metering Solution
- Altiris Application Metering Language Pack
- Altiris Report Pack for Application Metering
- Altiris Application Metering Documentation
- Altiris Client Management Suite Quick Start
Now our Notification Server is completely installed configured, and we can play around with it to discover all the topics it has. With the SQL query builder we can do lots of tasks. We can find all computers that are imported on a specific date or even all computers that have Windows XP with a specific service pack but without the necessary updates.
This will enable us to build queries that help us find these computers so that we can install the service pack on them.
When you are more experienced with the query builder you will even be able to find computers that are not used for the last week or that have an update longer then say 96 hours.
We are not going to use this functionality. We only want to install the Workflow Solution.
In the next article I’m going to guide you through the Workflow installation. That will be our first real step in building a self-provisioning environment for our student classrooms.