How to Automate Moving Agents to Another Group in Symantec Enterprise Protection.

Products

• Network Access Control

Issue/Introduction

Is there a way to automate moving Agents to another Group, other than importing the Active Directory (AD) Organizational Unit (OU) Structure?

Resolution

Create a script that does the following:

1. Stops the agent
2. Copies the "sylink.xml" file from an agent that is already in the group to one of the agents you wish to move.
3. Starts the agent

To copy the file, follow the below steps:

1. Copy the "sylink.xml" file from an agent that is already in the target group to a network share, or to the same folder where you wish to run the script on the agent.
   Note: The script must point to the correct file path of the sylink.xml file that you wish to transfer.
   • The "sylink.xml" file is located in: "C:\program files\symantec\SPA\sylink.xml"

The following is a basic example of a batch script you can use to transfer an agent from one group to another using this method:


rem/*****************************************************************************************/

@echo off
@echo.
@echo.

rem // Stop the agent
cd c:\program files\symantec\spa && smc -stop

@echo Agent is stopping

rem // The "sleep" command is no longer included in Windows XP and Windows 2003 Operating Systems, The "ping" command can work as a surrogate time-out until the agent is stopped.

ping -n 10 -w 500 1.1.1.1
@echo.
@echo.
@echo Agent is stopped...

rem // Copy sylink.xml file to the Symantec Protection Agent (SPA) directory be sure to include the "sylink.xml" file in the same folder as this script or, supply the path to a network share where the "sylink.xml" file has been saved.

Copy sylink.xml c:\program files\symantec\spa

rem // Other examples might be the following:
rem // 1. copy \\\sylink.xml c:\program files\symantec\spa (network share example)
rem // 2. net use z: \\
rem // copy z:\sylink.xml c:\program files\symantec\spa (mapping to a network share example)

@echo.
@echo.

rem // Restart the Agent. It may not be necessary to change the directory (cd) unless you've switched to a mapped drive. "Change Directory" is included for the example.

c: && cd c:\program files\symantec\spa && smc -start

@echo Agent is starting...
ping -n 10 -w 500 1.1.1.1
@echo.
@echo.
@echo Verify that the agent has started

Pause

exit

rem/********************************************************************************************/


When the agent comes up it will check in with the Manager and tell it which group it belongs to based on the information in the "sylink.xml" file. This will change the agent's group to the new group
in the console.