This article documents frequently used commands with the SMP Agent for Unix, Linux and Mac.
ITMS 8.x
ULM Agent client.conf & Frequently Used Agent Commands
Following are frequently Used sections and name/value pairs in the client.conf file, which is the main agent configuration file. This file is found on managed clients in the following directory, by default: /opt/altiris/notification/nsagent/etc/client.conf. It is possible to manually edit this file, using 'vi' or a similar editor, or by using the following aex-helper commands.
[Configuration]
debug_file_size
debug_backup_copies
debug_level
[Event Queue]
hold_queue
backup_dir
[MachineID]
ignore_resource_keys
[Notification Servers]
Server-1
Usage: Get/View a value: aex-helper agent -g [section name] name
Set a value: aex-helper agent -s [section name] name newvalue
Get a value sample: aex-helper agent -g "Event Queue" backup_dir
Set a value sample: aex-helper agent -s "Event Queue" backup_dir /tmp/nse
Sample to gather basic inventory NSE files:
# These four will capture client-side NSE files and reset the value to blank:
mkdir /tmp/nse
aex-helper agent -s "Event Queue" backup_dir /tmp/nse
aex-sendbasicinv
aex-helper agent -s "Event Queue" backup_dir ""
aex-helper agent –s Configuration debug_level debug
Possible values: ERROR, WARNING, INFO, DEBUG, DBGVERBOSE and DEVNOTE. NOT case sensitive.
as of 8.x (sets/resets both debug_level and debug_file_size):
aex-helper debug on
aex-helper debug off
To enable Devnote logging run this in Terminal:
Raise the logging level to debug state.
aex-helper agent -s Configuration debug_level devnote
Turn off the limit of log size.
aex-helper agent -s Configuration debug_file_size 0
Collect agent logs from:
/opt/altiris/notification/nsagent/var/
To Disable devnote logging run this in Terminal:
aex-helper agent -s "Configuration" debug_level ERROR
aex-helper agent -s "Configuration" debug_file_size 1024
Configure agent to communicate to a different Notification Server:
aex-helper agent -s "Notification Servers" Server-1 <newNSname>
NOTE: -s command requires privileged user, so run 'sudo' first
View & configure resource key creation:
aex-helper agent –g "MachineID" ignore_resource_keys
aex-helper agent –s "MachineID" ignore_resource_keys fqdn, uniqueid
Here’s an explanation of the aex-helper command, various options and commands and a few KB articles. Find attached a document showing aex-helper commands to set and unset values in the client.conf file.
‘aex-helper’ is the main client-side app. It has tons of options or parameters. The features available are different depending if you are root (or use sudo) versus being a non-root user without using sudo. Login as a non-privileged user and run both ‘aex-helper -h’ and‘sudo aex-helper -h’ to see the differences in the available parameters.
In most cases, you can get additional help for command parameters. Running 'aex-helper agent -h’ will give all the “agent” options. ‘aex-helper info -h’ will give all the “info” options. The same applies to the parameters or options for most other agent and solution commands.
Try running ‘which aex-helper’. This will show the directory where we placed soft links (shortcuts) to various aex commands. Then, run ‘ls -l <that directory>/aex*’ to see all apps that have a short cut. These commands can be run from any directory without specifying the full path of the command. The shortcuts are typically in the /user/bin directory. The full, literal path for the actual commands is, by default: /opt/altiris/notification/<solution>/bin/.There’s a client.conf configuration entry that allows/disallows non-root users to use or not use these commands.
NOTE: All of these have a ‘-h’ option that works similar to the agent’s help functionality.
NOTE: We also use OS native packages to install the agent. The bootstrap downloads these and installs them using the native package command. So, you can use the OS’s native package commands to view which components, agents, solutions, etc are installed. Examples include: ‘rpm -qa | grep -i aex’ on linux and ‘pkgutil –pkg-info <pkgname>’ on Mac.
KB 176609 - NS Agent for Unix, Linux and Macintosh commands and command-line parameters
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KB 178936 - Frequently used commands for the SMP Agent for Unix, Linux and Mac
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KB 179990 - Unix, Linux and Macintosh aex-smf command-line tool
KB 181065 - Managed Software Delivery Reporting on Unix, Linux and Mac Clients
KB 176816 - NS Agent for Unix and Linux Package formats and installation commands