Q:
If you've been watching the Juice, you've seen a lot of buzz about the new Dell Client Manager 2.0 -- a substantial new release involving several significant changes.

We went to Bryan Rhodes, the PM who bleeds Dell blue, for some insight and answers to some of the more frequently asked Client Manager questions.

Table of Contents

• Do I need to license Dell Client Manager Standard Edition?
• What are the system requirements and prerequisites for installation?
• When installing Dell Client Manager Standard 2.0, what happens if I have an older version?
• Which Dell computer models support Alert Standard Format (ASF) 2.0?
• What options do I have for getting the Dell Client Manager agent on each managed system?
• What management components or solutions are included in Dell Client Manager Standard?
• Can I install Dell Client Manager Standard in an offline environment or must I be connected to the Internet?
• What's the different between Dell Client Manager Standard, Plus, and Altiris CMS?
• What happened to OpenManage Client Administrator 3.0?
• What happens to my existing installation if I upgrade to Dell Client Manager Plus or CMS (Altiris Client Management Suite)?
• If I have purchased Altiris Client Management Suite, how do I obtain the functionality in Standard and Plus?
• What if Dell OpenManage Client Instrumentation is already installed on the systems I want to manage with Dell Client Manager Standard?
• Where can I find the latest documentation and release notes for Dell Client Manager Standard?
• What actions require a client reboot?
• What's new since Dell Client Manager 1.0?
• Where can I obtain Dell Client Manager Standard 2.0?

Do I need to license Dell Client Manager Standard Edition?

Dell Client Manager Standard 2.0 comes standard with a 90-day license. The customer who wishes to use Dell Client Manager Standard beyond 90 days must contact Altiris to receive a free, unlimited license. The Dell Client Manager Standard product documentation and quick start directs customers to a web page where they can get the latest contact information depending upon their locale. Dell Client Manager Standard requires a license because Altiris and Dell want to know who is adopting Dell Client Manager Standard. The Altiris representative will ask the customer (by phone or email) a few questions to understand how the product is being used and then issue the unlimited license.

Certain functions, primarily inventory functions, are disabled if the 90-day "built in" license is allowed to expire. Users will see warnings on various Dell Client Manager Standard product pages when their license is expired.

What are the system requirements and prerequisites for installation?

Dell Client Manager Standard requires that you install and configure the Altiris Notification Server™. Notification Server is included in the Dell Client Manager Standard 2.0 the installation for new customers.

Notification Server Minimum Requirements

• Processor-Pentium lll 800 MHz or faster
• Memory-1 GB RAM
• Hard drive-20 GB
• Operating system-Windows 2003 Server SP1 or Windows 2000 Server SP4
• Database-Microsoft SQL Server 2000 SP3 or 2005
• Browser-Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or later

Management Agent Minimum Requirements

• Operating system-Windows 2000 SP3 or later
• Available disk space-5 MB disk space for Altiris Agent, plus space to install required software
• Memory-64 MB RAM

Supported Languages

• English, French, German, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, and Portuguese

When installing Dell Client Manager Standard 2.0, what happens if I have an older version?

Dell Client Manager Standard 2.0 will automatically upgrade prior versions of Dell Client Manager (Dell Client Manager 1.0 and 1.0 SP1). Customers who already have Dell Client Manager 1.x can select an option within their Altiris Notification Server to upgrade their current version of Dell Client Manager. Configuration tab -> Install additional solutions (left hand navigation pane) -> Segments tab -> Partners section.

The Notification Server must have access to the Internet.

Which Dell computer models are supported?

Which Dell computer models support Alert Standard Format (ASF) 2.0?

Dell Precision 390, Dell Precision 490/690 (with BIOS upgrade), OptiPlex 745

What options do I have for getting the Dell Client Manager agent on each managed system?

Notification server provides the ability to discover manageable resources from the console and push the management agent to each managed resource. Each system that has the base agent installed can then have subsequent sub-agents installed as required (such as the Dell Client Manager hardware management agent).

The quick start web page that is included with Dell Client Manager Standard contains links to the initial discovery and agent rollout policies under the Getting Started section. There are a variety of ways to discover manageable resources using Notification Server. The Network Discovery module, included with Dell Client Manager, provides even more means of discovering network resources. Documentation for both Notification Server and Network Discovery is included with Dell Client Manager Standard.

There are also a variety of ways to install the base management agent on discovered systems. Agents can be pushed out or they can be pulled from the Notification Servers. For a detailed discussion, see the knowledgebase article "Various Options for Deploying the Altiris Agent".

What management components or solutions are included in Dell Client Manager Standard?

Dell Client Manager Standard is a suite of free management solutions and modules. The Dell Client Manager Standard installation includes:

• Notification Server - base management platform
• Task Server - enables task sequencing
• Network Discovery - provides enhanced resource discovery capabilities
• Active Directory Connector - enables the creation of collections from AD data
• Out-of-Bands Management component - contains functionality for configuring and using ASF features on systems that support ASF 2.0.
• SNMP management - captures and provides reporting on alerts generated by ASF 2.0 capable systems.
• Console 6.5 - new management console used by Task Server and the Out-of-Bands Management Component
• Real-Time System Infrastructure - provides ability to connect directly to individual systems in real time.
• Dell Client Manager Standard - contains the core Dell client management capabilities (such as hardware inventory, BIOS management and hardware monitoring).

Most of these solutions and components are also accompanied by individual documentation, report, and localization packs making the actual list of the installed executables (which new customers do not see when installing Dell Client Manager Standard) around 20 total.

Can I install Dell Client Manager Standard in an offline environment or must I be connected to the Internet?

When new customers click the link from the Dell OpenManage web page or Altiris web site to install Dell Client Manager, they are asked if they want to download and install or download only and install later. This allows them to download and copy to a CD or flash drive and move the install program to an environment without Internet connectivity if they wish.

Existing customers who wish to upgrade a previous version of Dell Client Manager or wish to add Dell Client Manager to their collection of existing solutions must have their Notification Server connected to the Internet and follow the instructions given in the answer to "What if I have an older version of Dell Client Manager?"

What's the different between Dell Client Manager Standard, Plus, and Altiris CMS?

Dell Client Manager provides three levels of capability to fit the varying needs and types of organizations. Each level-Standard, Plus, and Altiris Client Management Suite (CMS)-builds upon the previous level; each simply "snaps" additional management capability into the Dell Client Manager unified management architecture, adhering to and leveraging the same familiar interface, the same database and same management agent. With Dell Client Manager you outfit yourself with sufficient capability to produce the outcomes you want in the near term and easily adopt additional capability-and the associated benefits-when you're ready to take the next step.

What happened to OpenManage Client Administrator 3.0?

Dell Client Manager Plus is the next version of OpenManage Client Administrator. Dell Client Manager Plus is being called version 2.0 to align it with Dell Client Manager Standard. Only the name and the a few minor items in the quick start changed from OMCA 3.0 to Dell Client Manager Plus 2.0. Both Dell Client Manager Standard and Plus share the same documentation.

What happens to my existing installation if I upgrade to Dell Client Manager Plus or CMS (Altiris Client Management Suite)?

The installation for Plus or Altiris Client Management Suite will install only those solutions that the customer does not already have. If the customer has older versions of solutions contained in either of these suites, the individual solutions will attempt to upgrade the older versions.

If I have purchased Altiris Client Management Suite, how do I obtain the functionality in Standard and Plus?

The installation of Altiris Client Management Suite will install the functionality in Dell Client Manager Plus as well as the additional functionality in Altiris CMS; the Dell Client Manager Standard functionality is not bundled by default in the Altiris CMS install, however. The Altiris CMS customer who wants to install the functionality in Dell Client Manager Standard can go to the Solution Center section of Altiris Notification server (on the Configuration tab), select Segments, Partner Solutions, and click on Dell Client Manager Standard. This will begin the installation of the Dell Client Manager Standard functionality. See the question "Do I need to license Dell Client Manager Standard Edition?" for information on obtaining a free, unlimited license for Dell Client Manager Standard.

What if Dell OpenManage Client Instrumentation is already installed on the systems I want to manage with Dell Client Manager Standard?

The Dell Client Manager agent includes the Dell OpenManage Client Instrumentation (OMCI) v7.4 agent embedded within it. If a target system is encountered that already has an older version of OpenManage Client Instrumentation, when attempting to install the Dell Client Manager agent, Dell Client Manager will upgrade earlier versions of OpenManage Client Instrumentation. For OpenManage Client Instrumentation versions 7.x, an automatic upgrade will occur. For OpenManage Client Instrumentation versions 6.x, the OpenManage Client Instrumentation agent will be uninstalled first and then the Dell Client Manager agent (containing OpenManage Client Instrumentation 7.4) will be installed. For OpenManage Client Instrumentation versions older than 6.x, the customer must first uninstall the agent manually. Note that the upgrade operation typically requires a reboot of the client system. These reboots happen automatically and the administrator has control over reboot options.

Where can I find the latest documentation and release notes for Dell Client Manager Standard?

The latest documentation is installed when Dell Client Manager Standard is installed and can be accessed using the online help system.

Dell Client Manager Standard also installs a quick start page which contains links to the most common tasks and some getting started information.

The latest documentation is also posted on the Altiris web site at: http://www.altiris.com/Support/Documentation.aspx

The latest release notes are posted in the Altiris knowledgebase.

What actions require a client reboot?

• Agent rollout and install
• BIOS upgrade
• BIOS settings change

Note that the administrator can control the reboot options by scheduling, deferring, or allowing the reboot to occur immediately for BIOS operations. However, the admin currently cannot control required reboots associated with the agent rollout.

What's new since Dell Client Manager 1.0?

Dell Client Manager Standard 2.0 adds

• Support for newer Dell client models.
• ASF 2.0 functionality for systems that support it.
• Vista Readiness assessment reports.
• Ability to connect to individual systems in real time and manage them in one-to-one mode.
• BIOS version upgrade and BIOS configuration standalone packages can be exported and applied to target systems independent of Dell Client Manager, in other words, in an agentless environment.
• Additional monitoring options.

Where can I obtain Dell Client Manager Standard 2.0?

Dell OpenManage web site, www.dell.com\openmanage, in the Client Management section or from the Altiris web site.