SolutionSam, Once an Owl, Now a Website?!
Filed under:
Notification Server
Installation, Overview, Upgrade/Update, Productivity
Submitted by cnpalmer75 on 21 September, 2007 - 11:38.
Remember that {choke}cute{cough} owl that the sales guys used to hand out on their visits to coerce, I mean, to propose your purchase of an Altiris product?
Well that guy used to be called Solution Sam, now he has gone into hibernation somewhere, or was killed when they cut down his giant redwood tree to print up more Altiris manuals.
Either way, his legacy lives on as a website, and now you can go right there to get all of the latest and greatest binaries for each Altiris solution.
This gets updated all the time. Sometimes without ever changing the actual version of a solution, just the size of the files change for some reason. But the XML file's date will tell you when it was last updated. Sneaky, sneaky.
Here's the site:
http://www.solutionsam.com/solutions/6_0/
(30 votes)
Solution Sam Lives In My House!
I still have two of the owls in my house from when I was a customer years ago (I'm now an employee). I think we should bring him back :)
Dont use this
The solution center already points to this location to handle the updates. You shouldnt use this location directly as it doesnt tell you what order to install solutions which will usually break your NS if done in the wrong order.
Best Practises, you should always use the NS console to do your updates, as long as you update your NS Console to use the latest versions it will always be up to date.
Using this webpage directly will result in problems for your NS..
A
There is that possibility...
However, the link was provided so you can go directly to the site and see the actual time/date stamps of the files themselves and see when updates were posted. MANY time, these get rebuilt and the sizes changes and the time date stamps change but the released version is the same in the Solution Center so no updates actually take effect. This way you can SEE what changed and then post the question to an AE on why the difference.
Benjamin Z. Palmer
Architect | Workspace Design | The Hartford | Simsbury, CT 06082
Owls... Maybe...
Perhaps instead of OWLs solution sam could be a character ala Disco Stu from the Simpson's. And when you download a new solution "Solution Sam" could do a Disco Dance or perhaps sam would polka... Perhaps a different dance per solution, or product.
I think that would drive 1 seat sales... for at least a day.
Just a thought.
Jgo
Solution Center
This is the link that the NS's Solution Center uses by default. It has always been accessible to everyone from day one.
The 6.0 one is here:
http://www.solutionsam.com/solutions/6_0/
NS Policy
There is a pre built NS policy that once enabled, will automatically send you an email whenever the solution center is updated.
If a solution build changes such as the posted date, the solution center xml file is changed by default. This will prompt the NS policy to kick off an email.
how do I get added to the list?
DO you know how one might get added to this mailing list, other then the way you mentioned (I have no connection to the internet from my Altiris server)? ALso I was wondering, when you get these emails does it usually tell you exactly what changed, or would I have to dig throught the xml file?
Notification Server Download
Pardon my ignorance, but is there some reason that it is not possile to download Notification Server from: http://www.altiris.com/Download.aspx
It seems the rest of the downloads depend on this initial download so I was surprised it was not available.
What I am missing?
Integrated Installs
For any of the Altiris products that require Notification Server, what you are downloading is an integrated installation that will first download and install NS for you and then download and install the specific product(s) you requested.
For products where NS is optional (SVS, Deployment Solution, etc.), you should see (at least) two downloads -- the NS integrated install and the "stand-alone" (non-NS) install.
Scott Jones
Product Manager
Altiris, Inc.
Now Part of Symantec
poor implementation
I fail to understand this also....I work on a network that has no connection to the internet (or at least the one that we know of), nor will it ever (I work with the federal gov't). How does a solution like this facilitate me.....it doesn't. It instead makes my life much more difficult because now I have to try search xml files, Google, etc. and then try to install them I have to try to guess the order inwhich they should be installed. The guys that I work with find this to be the biggest headache, and I can't seem to figure why any company does this. Am I missing something or is there a easier/better way of providig installs and updates to a customer?
KB articles...
There are some KB articles that may be able to provide you some help on how to install the solutions, what components are included with each solution and what order those should be installed in. I know it's not as automated as it could be if you had a pipe out somewhere but that may be the best you can do for now.
Benjamin Z. Palmer
Architect | Workspace Design | The Hartford | Simsbury, CT 06082
Do you happen to know what
Do you happen to know what the KB article #'s are?
Can download from SolutionSam
It seems the rest of the downloads depend on this initial download so I was surprised it was not available.
What I am missing?
If you look on SolutionSam.com you can download the Notification Server and also the service pack as well. I often try to keep a copy of solutionsam on a usb drive in case I'm at a client that doesn't have Internet access. If you want to do grab a copy, make sure you have the xml files as well
AICM
Hey red5,
if you choose any product, for example CMS or inventory solution you download AICM (Altiris Installation and configuration Manager) This tool checks your machine to make sure the NS can run and then downloads the NS itself. Jjesse is spot on where you should try and keep a local copy on a usb stick to save downloading 600 mb each time you want to do something.
No internet
If your corporate servers are not allowed access to the internet, simply use a machine in the DMZ to run a HTTP down-loader like HTTrack so that the entire contents of Solution Sam are downloaded regularly.
You can then configure your NS's to connect to that DMZ box and use it as their Solution Sam.
interesting concept
I like the way you think. I wouldn't be able to do exactly what your talking about.....however I could probably stand up a VM that uses HTTrack to replicate the data, and then I could burn the VM to disk every so often and then sneakernet it to my production network.
Do you know how I
? would it be just adding a manually DNS entry on the DNS that tricked it into connecting back to my VM vice the real Solution Sam?
Solution Center Settings
Use alternate löocation option, and browse to the UNC location.
registry short cut
you can also go to the registry, browse to HKLM>Software>Altiris>express>Notification Server and create a new string value called SolutionCenter. copy and paste your path to your local copy of the NS as the value and add a \ at the end. then go back and refresh your NS console.