Client Management Suite

Notification Server Agent

There are three ways that one can discover PC' s to install the NS client

1. NS Resource Discovery
2. Active Directory Import
3. NS Network Discovery

NS Resource Discovery

Under Configuration in the NS console, select Server Settings>Discovery Methods>Resource Discovery, this discovery will scan the selected domain' s browse list to get PC name, IP address and OS information. Once complete the discovery will automatically create collections based on if the Altiris agent is install on the discovered PC' s or not, it also creates reports based on the domain browse list scan these reports can be found under NS console>Reports>Notification Server Infrastructure>Altiris Agent Discovery.

Once the discovery is complete the Altiris NS agent is installed by selecting the configuration tab>Altiris Agent >Altiris Agent Rollout>Altiris Agent Installation and clicking on the select computers button, this will bring up all the collections created by the resource discovery, the default being All windows NT/2000/XP/2003 Computers with no Altiris Agent installed. The machines can be organized by name, domain, OS and IP address. Select the computers to be installed to and click ok.

The selected machines will populate the active windows on the Agent Installation Page. Highlight the machines in the window and click install Altiris Agent, check the configuration on this page, change installation account if necessary and click Proceed with install. The Altiris NS agent will be installed on the selected computers.

The Agent can also be installed to the discovered machines using a schedule, on the Altiris Agent Rollout window, select Scheduled Push to Computers, click on the pencil icon and select the desired collection to install the agent to. Click enable schedule and choose custom schedule, configure schedule and click apply.

AD Import

In the Altiris Console click the configuration tab>Server Settings>Notification Server Infrastructure>Active Directory Import.

There are five default import rules supplied by Altiris, these are: Computer, User, Network Printer, Site and Subnet. All of these import rules can be scheduled to scan specific containers and OU' s. All old imported data can also be scheduled to be purged. One can also add new import rules by clicking on the + and configuring the rule.

AD Import collections can be found under the resources tab>Directory Collections>Organizational Unit.

The reports for AD Imports can be found under the reports tab>Notification Server Infrastructure>Active Directory.

To install the Altiris NS Agent to the AD Imported collections click on the configuration tab>Altiris Agent>Altiris Agent Rollout>Altiris Agent Installation> and at the bottom it says Scheduled Push to Computers click on the Pencil icon and select the desired OU/s from the list of collections. Click enable schedule and configure either a STD or Custom schedule, click apply. Altiris will push the NS Agent to the selected OU' s and containers.

Network Discovery

In the Altiris Console click the configuration tab>Solution Settings>Network Discovery>Scan Groups>Default Scan Group.

Give the group a name, start and end IP address and click the Discover Now Button. Schedules, inclusions, exclusions and port scans can also be enabled.

The Reports on network discovery' s can be found under the reports tab>Notification Server Infrastructure>Network Discovery.

Once the discovery is complete one can either create a collection based on the reports results and then schedule a push installation on that collection or export the reports results to MS Excel, create a CSV file after editing the results and import the CSV file into the Altiris Agent rollout, installation page buy clicking on the blue button at the top of the page. The CSV results will populate the window, select all the results and click install Altiris Agent

Altiris Agent Installation Recommendation

Our Recommendation would be to use a combination of the available agent installation options to push to Altiris Agent into the group, divisions, branches and domains, these steps would need to be completed on both Altiris Servers to target either Desktops or Servers.

1. Schedule an Altiris Network scan on the IP ranges that need to be installed to, this will detail, computers, switches, printers and any other network devices. Create import files from the scanned results by IP range and schedule Altiris Agent installations on the imported CSV files results.
2. Schedule a full AD import on selected AD OU' s and schedule Altiris Agent push installations on the specific division OU' s that need to be installed with the Altiris Agent.
3. Schedule a final domain resource scan, this will detail, how many machines are in the domains, their operating systems and IP addresses. How many and which computers have Altiris installed and which don' t. Schedule Altiris Agent Push installations on the collections created by the scan containing the computers which don' t have the Altiris Agent installed.

This process will install the Altiris Agent onto all the selected desktops and servers from their managing Altiris Server.

Once the Altiris Agent push installation is completed, the failed computers would need to be visited to check their security or account configuration.

These steps below would need to be completed once the Altiris Agent is installed on all the computers

1. Full inventory scans would need to be enabled on all the managed computers.
2. The patch Management Agent rollout can be enabled and scheduled.
3. The Deployment Solution Agent can also be enabled from the Altiris console to rollout the latest DS agent to selected computers; this will change the Agents configuration to point to its new managing server.

These steps will complete the Altiris Agents installation thereby configuring all desktops and server for Altiris Patch Management.