Dell Client Manager, Part 1: Installing the Dell Client Manager into Notification Server

One day I got a call from a frantic teacher. They told me that they were in front of a class and needed to get on the Internet to show their class something. The Internet was not working. They told me that their entire class revolved around getting access to the Internet. I decided that I needed to drop what I was doing and make my way to that teacher's classroom. Once I arrived I could see that the computer was having problems. I checked everything that I could think of to try and get the network working again. Finally I decided to check the devices on the computer. There was no network card listed. I decided that I needed to check the BIOS settings. I rebooted the computer, went into the BIOS, and started to check things out. Very quickly I found that someone had disabled the network card. I was pleased that was the problem, it is easy to fix. When I went to re-enable the network card the BIOS informed me that I needed the BIOS administrators password before I could do anything. I had never set a password. I then had to very quickly figure out how to set the password so I could help the teacher.

On a different occasion I was setting up some new desktops that we had received. It was pretty easy to get them up and running. I imaged the computer via PXE. Before that would work I had to edit each computer's BIOS settings so that PXE would work. I also created a job in Deployment Console to turn those computers on every morning. That part was annoying, I had to (again) go to every computer and manually change the BIOS so that the computer would turn on via WOL. The next morning the computers were still off. After some checking, I found out that they needed a BIOS update to work properly.

The stories above are just a few examples of how necessary the Dell Client Manager plug-in for Notification Server is in any environment. The Dell Client Manager extends your computer management into the BIOS. Among other things, it lets you manage your BIOS settings, monitors the health of your computer, reports computer inventory, and (my personal favorite) will email you if someone opens the computer case. Using the Dell Client Manager gives you those extra tools that can help prevent those annoying time consuming projects that come our way.

Resources:

There are some great resources on how to setup, configure, and use the Dell Client Manager. Here are some useful links:

• Dell Client Manager, a Great Opening Act
• Dell Client Manager 2.0 FAQ
• Dell Client Manager Quickstart Video
• Inventorying, Updating, and Monitoring Your Dell Client Machines
• Dell Client Manager 2.2 Reference Guide
• THE place to go for all Dell Client Manager resources

The resources above should help you get a really great overview of Dell Client Manager. The quickstart video was very helpful for me. I would like to add a few more words to the resources above. Let's jump right in:

Installing Dell Client Manager on the Notification Server

Before we can do anything, we need to download the "Dell Client Manager Standard 2.2" files to the server that has NS installed. You can find the files here:

• Navigate to www.altiris.com
• Click on the "Download" button on the top right of the screen
• Under "Select a product to download" (in the middle of the screen) you will see a drop-down. In the drop down menu, select "Dell Client Manager Standard 2.2"
• A new screen will appear that lists all of the terms and conditions of using the software, after you have carefully read the text click the "I Agree" button
• Now you need to use your SymAccount Login to get access the files
  
  Note: You will need to fill out a short questionnaire before you can download the Dell Client Manager files
• A new web page will load that will allow you to download the Dell Client Manager Standard 2.2 files and a license to use the software

At the bottom of the download page there are several helpful resources (some of which I have listed above).

Now that the files are downloaded, do the following:

• Double click on the EXE named "Altiris Dell Client Manager Standard.exe"
• Choose a location for the installer files, and then click the "Extract & Execute App" button (pg 13 of the reference guide)
• If you have Notification Server push out the Agent, and you try to install the Agent silently you will run into problem (I learned this the hard way). It is best to pick a method and stick with it.

At this point you can just follow the install wizard. It will ask you to accept the user agreement, find your Notification Server install, and check if your server meets all of the prereqs. At some point you will need to apply the license, without the license you can use the software for 90 days. For more information on how to apply the license, please see pg 17 of the Reference Guide.

You can install the Dell Client Manager through Notification Server by doing the following (pg 16 of the reference guide):

• Open your Altiris Console 6.5
• Go to Configure >> Solution Center
• Under the "Available Solutions" tab you will be able to see a "Segments" buttom, click on that button
• Click on the "Partner Solutions" link
• Then, click on the "Altiris Dell Client Manager Standard" link
• A new window will appear informing you of all of the files that Notofication Server needs to install to get this solution running on your system.

It may take a few minutes to get everything installed. You can spend the time thinking about how great life will be once you are managing your computers BIOS.

Installing Dell Client Manager on the Desktop

Before we jump into the Dell Client Manager Console in Notification Server, I think it is a good idea to install the appropriate agents on a computer so you can test to see if information is being reported back. You can push the agent out to computers (see pg 24 of the reference guide). It works great if you know the computers IP address or you are using Active Directory. In our environment we use DHCP and we aren't using Active Directory. I usually install create a silent install of any Altiris Agents I need. Here is how I do it for the Dell Client Manager:

• In the Altiris 6.5 Console, go to View >> Solutions >> Dell Client Manager
  
  

  Click to view.

• Now, go to Dell Client Manager >> Configuration >> Dell Client Manager Agent Rollout >> Dell Client Manager Agent Package
  
  

  Click to view.

• In the right panel, in the center of the screen there is a text box labeled "Package location:", highlight & copy the text in that box
  
  

  Click to view.

  (I highlighted the text I promise)

• Now, open Windows Explorer and paste that text into the address bar
  
  

  Click to view.

• We have now found the files that are used to install the Agent, highlight all of the files, right click, and copy them
• Now, go to your desktop, create a folder named "DCMS" and paste those files into it
• Create a txt file and name it install.cmd
• Edit install.cmd in Notepad

To find the command to silently install this Agent, go back to the Altiris 6.5 Console and do the following:

• Under the 32-bit Dell Client Manger Agent Package, click on the "Programs" tab
• Find the text area titled "Command line:" and highlight the text to the right of it
  
  

  Click to view.

• Now, go back to your open copy of install.cmd and paste that text into it
  
  

  Click to view.

Now, if you run install.cmd it will silently install install the Dell Client Manager Agent. You can make this into an MSI with Wise, or a self extracting exe. I run this on my machine after Windows has installed.

Notes:

• Before install any type of Agent on a computer you need to make sure that the Altiris Agent is installed and configured on the machine.
• For Dell Client Manager to work you must have the Agent and Dell Open Manage Drivers installed on your machine. Using the process above, or the Notification Server push method, it will install both. You can also download the Open Manage driver from Dell.

The three keys to success:

The first time that I setup the Dell Client Manager it did not work at all. Part of the problem was I did not install the Agent on the machine correctly. The next problem that I had was that my monitoring policies were not enabled. There are three policies that you have to enable for everything to work. Here is how you do it:

Dell Client Monitoring Policy:

• Go to Dell Client Manager >> Tasks >> Dell Client Monitoring Policies >> Dell Client Monitoring Policy
• At the top of the screen click the check box next to "Enable"
• At the bottom of the screen hit apply.

Dell Inventory Policies:

• Go to Dell Client Manager >> Tasks >> Dell Inventory Policies >> Dell Client BIOS Inventory Policy
• At the top of the screen click the check box next to "Enable"
• Now, go to Dell Client Manager >> Tasks >> Dell Inventory Policies >> Dell Client Hardware Inventory Policy
• At the top of the screen click the check box next to "Enable"

Now that these three policies are enabled you will start to get information from all computers that have the Agent installed.

Conclusion:

When you have all of the right resources, the Dell Client Manager setup is pretty fast. It took me a while to get everything down, but things are working really well in my environment now. In the next article I will talk about how to update a computer's BIOS, how to configure the BIOS, and how to monitor your computers health. Stay tuned.