Installing Deployment Solution into an SVS Layer

Editor's Note: Remember that server applications, like Altiris Deployment Server, are not supported on SVS ... yet. Nonetheless, this is an incredibly cool solution.

This article discusses how to get Altiris Deployment Server (DS) installed into an SVS layer. The methods used in this article allow for multiple versions of DS to be installed on the same computer (though not concurrently). These instructions may not be appropriate for exporting the layer to other computers as additional modifications would need to be made to both the SQL configuration and DS configuration to ensure portability.

Prerequisites:

These steps assume that the Operating System requirements for Deployment Server are met and that any optional components are installed to the base. This incudes the Microsoft .NET Framework, and Microsoft IIS (IIS is not required if you do not install the web console component).

Begin By Installing SQL to a New Layer

Once the system meets the minimum requirements, you can begin by launching the SVS admin tool and choosing "Create New Layer". Select "Install Application" and click next.

Figure 1

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Name the layer. For this example we'll call the layer "DS".
Click next.

Figure 2

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We'll now install Microsoft SQL 2005 Express edition which can be downloaded from Microsoft at http://www.microsoft.com/sql/downloads/trial-software.mspx. Browse to the SQL Setup.exe (you may need to extract the distribution files using -x).

In the Parameters field, enter the following:

/qb INSTANCENAME="MSSQLSERVER" ADDLOCAL=ALL 
SECURITYMODE=SQL DISABLENETWORKPROTOCOLS=2 
SAPWD=<your sa password>

This will install all components, create a "Default" instance, enable TCP/IP and set the security mode to "Mixed Mode". These settings are required. Any additional settings are optional.

Figure 3

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Configure SQL Server

When the SQL installation completes, you will need to enable the sa account. This can be done from the command prompt as follows:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Tools\Binn\OSQL -E
1>ALTER LOGIN sa ENABLE ;
2>GO
1>ALTER LOGIN sa WITH PASSWORD = '<your sa password>' ;
2>GO

Now that SQL is installed and configured, we're ready to begin the installation of DS.

Installing Deployment Server

Deactivate the DS layer. This is necessary to allow a layer update. Once the layer finishes deactivating, click File | Update Existing Layer. Select the DS layer to update and click next.

Figure 4

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Use the "Single Program Capture" option and specify the path to the DS Setup executable (either setup.exe, axinstall.exe or the full archive Altiris_Deployment_Solution_6_5.exe).

Figure 5

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When you click next, then Finish, the layer should activate and the DS setup process should begin. Choose "Custom Install" and click "Install".

Figure 6

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The only required setting is to use SQL Server Authentication.

Figure 7

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For the other options, simply choose defaults or customize to suit your environment. Note: Do not select any Pre-boot Operating System files during the install.

Figure 8

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When the DS installation completes, deactivate the DS layer. You will now need to modify the service accounts used for some of the DS services. This can be accomplished with regedit. Open regedit and navigate to:

HKLM\SYSTEM\Altiris\FSL\1\Services

If you have multiple layers, substitute the appropriate number for the 1 above.

For each of the Altiris services, make sure that the ObjectName registry key is LocalSystem. The relevant services are:

FSL_Altiris Deployment Server Console Manager
FSL_Altiris Deployment Server Data Manager
FSL_Altiris Deployment Server DB Manager
FSL_Altiris eXpress Server
FSL_Altiris PXE Manager (this will only be present if you installed PXE)

If you chose to install PXE during the DS install, you will need to modify the PXEManager.ini. While the layer is still inactive edit:

C:\fslrdr\1\[_B_]PROGRAMFILES[_E_]\Altiris\eXpress\Deployment 
Server\PXE\PXEManager.ini

Find the following line

DataStorePath=\\<DS SERVER NAME>\eXpress\PXE

And replace it with

DataStorePath=c:\Program Files\Altiris\eXpress\Deployment Server\PXE

Finishing the job

Because of the way the Deployment Server directory gets created, it actually can "fall-through" to the base. While the layer is inactive you can clean-up any folders that exist in C:\Program Files\Altiris\eXpress (including the eXpress directory itself).

WARNING: Make sure that you don't have other Altiris Products installed in the path. If you do, you can skip the next step.

From a cmd prompt, run

rd /s /q "C:\Program Files\Altiris\eXpress"

You could also use Windows Explorer to delete the eXpress folder.

One of the last steps will be to add onPostActivate and onPostDeactivate scripts to create and destroy the eXpress share that Deployment Server will need. Normally this share is created by the install, but because the share is created in the base, when we delete it from the base it will not exist in the layer.

Using regedit, navigate to HKLM\SYSTEM\Altiris\FSL\1 (remember to substitute the appropriate number for the layer).

Create a new REG_MULTI_SZ called onPostActivate and set its value to:

net share eXpress="C:\Program Files\Altiris\eXpress\Deployment Server" 
/CACHE:None

Then, create another new REG_MULTI_SZ called onPostDeactivate and set it's value to:

net share eXpress /DELETE

Finally!

Now you are ready to activate the layer and start using DS. A quick way to tell if things are working properly is to attempt to open the DS Win32 Console. Once the layer is active you should have a Desktop icon for the console. Try it out!

You can also confirm that the engine is running and ready to accept connections by running the following from a command prompt:

Netstat -an | find "402"

This should return something like the following:

TCP   0.0.0.0:402   0.0.0.0   LISTENING

If it doesn't then things didn't go so well, and you'll need to re-examine the steps above. Otherwise, you're ready to manage some computers using DS.

You can now deactivate the DS layer, use the steps above to create another layer, allowing you to have self-contained installs of different versions of DS on the same computer.

Stay tuned for details on how to make the layer portable to other computers.