Installing the NS Agent for Mac using the PKG Installation File

Products

• Notification Server Agent for Macintosh (Altiris)
• IT Management Suite

Issue/Introduction

 How to install the Sym Agent for Mac computers using the PKG Installation File?

Environment

ITMS 8.x

Resolution

As of ITMS 7.6, the Sym Agent for Mac includes a native pkg file to install the Sym Agent. This method is in addition to the previous methods of installing the Sym Agent for Mac using a bootstrap or the native package files. 

One purpose for providing a pkg installation file is to allow end users to install the agent without opening the Terminal.app. Most end users are already familiar with installing applications using a pkg file. 

Note that an end user must have an administrator type account on the Mac client in order to install the Sym Agent for Mac. The installation process requires an administrator account in order to switch to the root user behind the scenes to perform the actual agent installation. 

Location of pkg-based installation files in the SMP Console and the Notification Server's file system

To find the pkg installation page in the SMP Console:

• Browse to Settings > All Settings > Agents/Plug-ins > Symantec Management Agent > Settings > Agent Install
• Click on the tab labeled 'Install Agent for Unix, Linux and Mac'

• In the section labeled 'Pull install', select 'Mac' under 'Page view > Select platform:' as seen here:
  
  
  
  
• Then, click the 'View page' link to see a popup window, and select the "Click to expan instructions to perform installation using bootstrap" as seen here: 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Then select the 'install bookstrap program' option and follow the instructions to download and save the aex-bootstrap-macosx file on the local computer:
  
  

The location of the pkg file on the Notification Server is: \Program Files\Altiris\Notification Server\NSCap\bin\UNIX\AgentInstall\Mac\AgentInstaller\Symantec_Management_Agent_Installer.pkg

The location of the installation files on the otification Server is: \Program Files\Altiris\Notification Server\NSCap\bin\UNIX\Agent\Mac\x86\*

The combined zip file contains both the pkg file and the actual installation files. The pkg file is simply a wrapper to walk a user through the installation files and execute the install scripts. The 'Resources' directory within the zip file contains all the installation files plus an aex-agent-install-config.xml file, which contains the name of the Notification Server that the agent should communicate with and other install settings from the SMP Console.

Files from both directories are required in order to successfully install the Sym Agent for Mac. NOTE: The pkg file by itself will not install the agent. 

NOTE: Deleting the zip file, in the location shown below, and clicking the download link again (mentioned above), will recreate the zip file with a new aex-agent-install-config.xml file. This is useful in cases where agent installation settings have been changed. And, it is the only way to get the new installation settings into the Sym Agent for Mac installation zip file:

Downloading and Installing the Agent using the PKG file: 

Note that the download link provided in the above page downloads a zip file which contains both the pkg installer file PLUS a set of native package files. The pkg file is simply a wrapper to walk a user through the installation process and execute the actual install scripts located in the 'Resources' directory.

The zip file must be used for stand-alone installations. 

Note too that the Resource directory, created from the zip file on the NS server, contains a .aex-agent-install-config.xml file. This file contains configuration data required for a completely configured installation of the agent. Among other things, the file specifies the name of the NS server that the client should communicate with and be managed by. So, if there are multiple Notification Servers, i.e., a hierarchy, be sure to use the package from the appropriate Notification server to guarantee that the client communicates with the correct NS server. 

The most efficient method of having end users install the agent is to provide them with the download link. The actual link is: 

     http:///Altiris/UnixAgent/AltirisUnixAgentDownload.aspx?Id=Mac

If desired, the pkg and native files can be distributed to end users or to their machines using any available means including email, scp, Apple Remote Desktop, USB drive, etc. 

Other than downloading the installation files and starting the pkg installation, there are no additional requirements to use the pkg file to install the agent. This is in contrast to using the bootstrap which requires execution of the 'chmod' command before running the bootstrap from the Terminal.app. 

The bootstrap and native package installation processes continue as before. On the download popup page, click the link labeled 'Click to expand instructions to perform installation using bootstrap' to expand the page content and view the instructions for the bootstrap method. hyper