Dell Client Manager, Part 5: BIOS Settings Policy

Filed under: Dell Client Manager Configuration, Best Practices, Configuration Management

Submitted by trb48 on 10 July, 2008 - 09:17.

We are on the final lap. We have made a lot of progress over the past articles. Here is what we have talked about:

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

• Part 2: Dell Monitoring Policy (the health check)

• Part 3: Dell BIOS Upgrade

• Part 4: Dell BIOS Profile

In this article we are going to create a task that will apply the BIOS policy that we created last time. This is the last step in our journey. This is how we actually manage the BIOS from the Notification Server. Hopefully you will see how everything is pulled together and why it works the way it does.

Resources:

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

BIOS Settings Policy:

First we need to create a new BIOS Settings Policy. To do that, do the following:

Open the Altiris 6.5 Console
Go to View >> Solutions >> Dell Client Manager
Once you are there, go to Dell Client Manager >> Tasks >> Dell BIOS Policies
To create the policy do the following:
- Right click on the "Dell Client Policies" folder and go to New >> BIOS Settings Policy
  
  Click to view.
- A new task will appear titled "New BIOS Settings Policy"

Now that we have a new job created, we can start working on it. To get started, click on the task titled "New BIOS Setting Policy". You will see the following screen:

Click to view.

Now, we need to get started. Here are the settings that I configured:

Enable: If you want this job to run you will need to click the check box next to "Enable"
Name: Make sure you name your task something that unique that will help you keep track of what you are doing. I have named my tasks something like "GX620 BIOS Settings Policy" or "Podiums Settings Policy"
Description: This can help you remember what each job does
BIOS profile: In the last article we talked about how to create a BIOS Profile, now we get to use it. To assign a profile to this task, do the following:
- Click on the link titled "Select Profile" to the right of the "BIOS profile:" text
- A new window titled "Select BIOS Profile" will appear
- Select the profile you want to assign to the task
  
  Click to view.
  
  Once you have selected the appropriate profile click the "OK" button
  
  Note: In the "Select BIOS Profile" you can create a new profile by clicking the "New" button
Collection(s): This is where you assign this task to a group of computer. To assign this task to a collection, do the following:
- Click on the link titled "Select collection(s)" to the right of "Collection(s)"
- The following window will appear:
  
  Click to view.
- To select the collections this task should apply to, simply check the boxes next to the appropriate collections, like below:
  
  Click to view.
- When you are done, click the "OK" button
Use multicast when Altiris Agent's multicast option is enabled: I just leave this one alone.
Refresh inventory on settings change: I want my reports to be accurate. After this task runs I want my Notification Server database to be up to date. I check this option.
BIOS Setup Password: If you have set a password in the past you will need to enter it here (or won't actually update your computer's BIOS).
Scheduling Options: There are tons of different ways to configure the scheduling options. Here is how I did it:
- I always choose the "Scheduled" radio button. If you want to manually run the job, you should choose "Manual"
- For a BIOS Settings Policy I suggest that you choose "Run once ASAP" or Schedule. It doesn't make very much sense to me to have the task run ASAP and then have it run again later. The BIOS just needs to be configured once. I usually choose "Scheduled" because I want the job to run later.
- After I choose the check box next to "Schedule" I click the link titled "No schedule has been defined". Once I did, a new window appeared titled: "Schedule Editor"
  
  Click to view.
- For a task like this, you only want it to run once. Because of this, I select the "Once" radio button.
- Under details, make sure that you choose a time that works for you and your users. We use security software, so I choose a time that works with that software. Remember that the time used is military time.
  
  Click to view.
- When you have the schedule that works for you, click the "OK" button
User Can Run: Do you want the user to run this job? I don't want my users to run this job. I actually don't want them to know it is even happening. I un-check this option.
Notify user when the task is available: Going along with what I said in the last bullet point, I don't want my users to know about this task (I go so far as to schedule it when no one is using the computer).
Warn before running: If I were to run this during the day I would warn my users before running. Since I am going to run this job at 1:00 AM, I am not going to worry about this option.
Power Management: Under power management the only option that I worry about is "Power up the computer (Wake on LAN). You may want to check restart the computer after the task (the policy won't be applied until the computer has been restarted)".

Now that you have this task setup just right, you can click the apply button. You will see that the policy is enabled.

There are a few other things I wanted to mention:

Execution Status:

This report has helped me see what computer's this policy has been applied to. It is a really useful report. It will tell you what computers succeeded and failed. If the computer failed it will tell you why. If you have done all of the prep work things are pretty seamless. Here is a sample report:

Click to view.

If you double click on a computer that has a status of "Partial Failure", this is what you see:

Click to view.

The failure report is very useful for troubleshooting. It lets you know exactly what the problem was. In this case, the task ran more than once. The first time it set the password (the old password field was left blank so it could set the password). The second time the task ran it attempted to set the password, but it couldn't because the old password field was left blank.

Standalone Package:

At the bottom of the right panel you will also see that you can download a stand alone package that contains all of the settings in an EXE. This is very useful if for some reason the task does not run on one computer. The standalone package helps me to fill in those little gaps.

Now we have a task that will apply a profile that has been created, lets take a step back. We need to spend a few minutes configuring the "Dell Inventory Policies".

Dell Inventory Policies:

Dell Client BIOS Inventory Policy: According to this policy, it "Scans and collects the BIOS settings of targeted Dell clients." This task needs to be enabled for the Dell Client Manager machine to work. Here is a snapshot of what my policy looks like:

Click to view.

I want as much information from this policy as I can get so I checked "Enable Verbose Reporting of Status Events". Did not want this to apply to all computers, so I was careful when I choose the computer collections. I decided that this policy should run on Monday nights, when there are no users on the computers. If the user wants, they can run the job. Finally, if the computer is off I want it to be turned on, so I check "Power up the computer (Wake on LAN)".

These settings have worked well for me.

Dell Client Hardware Inventory Policy: According to the policy, it "Scans and collects shareware inventory information for targeted Dell clients". It mirrored the settings I set in the policy above. The only exception is that I run it on Tuesday night at 10:00 PM. See below:

Click to view.

Once you have tweaked these two policies you are good to go.

Conclusion:

We finally made it. In just a few short articles we were able to install and learn how to use the Dell Client Manager. This amazing tool has changed the way I view computer management, security, and my job. I am able to be much more productive at work. I have also provided a much more stable, reliable, and secure environment for my users. I also sleep a little bit better each night. Dell and Altiris have helped me become proactive. In the end I save time, and I avoid those intense calls from users. This solution has helped me do my job.

Average:

Average: 3.7 (24 votes)