Provisioning

The last few articles have highlighted Altiris specific tools and approaches to initiate Intel® vPro™ provisioning in a post deployment situation. This article will focus primarily on Intel® vPro™ Activator Utility which is the successor to the RCT.exe utility mentioned in a prior article by Joel Smith.

When setting up and tearing down lab or development environments, wanting to perform a reset of solutions, or other related items - the goal is to repeat a single or set of tasks without physically touching every system. With an operating system and application environment, a PXE boot and Deployment server with a fresh client image provides a foundation to automate such a task. How is this possible in resetting a firmware configuration remotely?

The previous article in this series referenced how to use OOB Discovery and OOB Task Agent to update the dynamic provisioning collections for Altiris Out of Band Management. If the environment is configured to support remote configuration (more information available here), then the Intel® vPro™ provisioning process can commence. In addition to using in-band agents to initiate a remote configuration provisioning process, the Delayed Provisioning task can also be used to Switch to AMT within the MEBx manageability feature. This article provides brief look at how to utilize the Delayed Provision task.

In talking with various customers, partners, and associates - a common set of scenarios are frequently brought up in regards to provisioning Intel® vPro™ after systems have been deployed. Provided below is a brief summary of the scenarios with an indication of how to recover from each, along with a realization that some recoveries may be less desirable.

Much has been written about provisioning and enabling Intel® vPro™ technology, including articles such as Optimal Client Environment for Intel vPro Provisioning and Options and Core Criteria to Provisioning Intel vPro Technology with their respective sub-linked articles.

Much has been written on this site (Altiris Juice), Intel vPro Expert Center, and other sites on provisioning the Intel vPro technology. The focus of this article is an attempt to help standardize the naming and options to the various models, and to summarize the four key criteria to successfully provision an Intel vPro system. I will try not to belabor the point.

The primary key of identity for an AMT computer is its Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN). One of the essential parts of the setup and configuration process (Provisioning) is when Altiris attempts to map a valid FQDN inside the IntelAMT database. This article covers how to handle FQDN issues, including ways to correct invalid entries, the best method to avoid the issues, and how it all works. If you're using Altiris Out of Band Management for provisioning, this is a must read!

The Task Server contains AMT function tasks that give you the ability to integrate AMT functionality into Task Server Jobs. This allows you to use AMT in conjunction with Software Delivery, Scripting, and any other Task Server supported function. Understanding how to troubleshoot the AMT side of a Task Server job will help resolve issues so that AMT can be utilized. This includes the following technologies:

• System Defense -- Network Filtering
• Reliable Power Management
• IDE redirect for boot redirection

Formerly known as Web Admin for Windows, Real-Time System Manager provides a powerful set of functions for IT specialists. In part 5 of this article series we covered the main points for Real-Time Console Infrastructure troubleshooting. As a natural extension of RTCI, Real-Time System Manager troubleshooting is covered in this article as part 6. With an emphasis on credentials and connection methods, this article provides information to overcome the most common issues seen when using the Real-Time tab for direct, one-to-one computer interaction.