How the Altiris Agent knows what to uninstall when the /clean and /uninstallagents switch is been used?

Products

• IT Management Suite

Issue/Introduction

When we use/execute the AexAgentUtil.exe with '/clean' or '/uninstallagents'.  Where does it pull the information (registry, database, etc) about installed agents in order to run the uninstaller for them?

Resolution

The Altiris Agent, in this case the AexAgentUtil.exe, calls an uninstall string from the regkey.

Those keys, which in this case it is called "UninstallString", can be found under the registry key:
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Plugin Objects\Agents\"

For example, if the Altiris Agent needs to uninstall the Client Task Server Agent, it will look for the following regkey:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Plugin Objects\Agents\CTServerAgent
 

which has the following UninstallString content:

msiexec.exe /qn REBOOT=ReallySuppress /x {5c539e98-73b6-4d1e-a99a-384d6ecd62e6}

These are the base objects created during a base installation of the Altiris Agent:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Plugin Objects\Agents\SMFAgent\
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Plugin Objects\Agents\Inventory Rule Agent\
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Plugin Objects\Agents\CTSchedulingAgent\
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Plugin Objects\Agents\ClientTaskAgent\
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Plugin Objects\Agents\BaseTaskHandlersAgent\

Applies To

Notification Server 6.0 SP3
Symantec Management Platform 7.0