Question
What methods can be used to manually install the Altiris Agent?

Article HOWTO4499

Updated for NS 7.1 and 7.5

Answer
 

Manual Installation of the Altiris Agent

The manual installation of the Altiris Agent is like any other Software Deployment. If you understand the command-line switches to use, you can script the install any way you’d like. This section reviews the Altiris Agent installer, and its command-line parameters, and also gives an example.

The Altiris Agent installation program (AeXNSC.exe) extracts the Altiris Agent installation files into a temporary location and then runs the Altiris Agent installation setup on a single computer. The Altiris Agent bootstrap program usually downloads and runs the Altiris Agent installation program.

Manual use of the AeNSC.exe installer

Run the AeXNSC.exe on the target computer (see AeXNSC Command Line Arguments below). (On the Notification Server, this file is found in the following directory: C:\Program files\Altiris\Notification Server\NSCap\Bin\Win32\X86\NS Client Package.) After the Altiris Agent installation setup program completes, you will see a new icon in the system tray of the managed computer if you set this option. As part of the setup process, you define the name of the Notification Server that the Altiris Agent will interact with. You can enter the hostname for the Notification Server. You can also use the IP address. You can use the fully qualified domain name as well. From the managed computer, you must be able to resolve the hostname entered. You can verify this by running ping <hostname> from a command prompt at the managed computer.

Example:

aexnsc.exe –s –a ns=”lab1.altiris.com” nsweb=”http://lab1.altiris.com/Altiris” NOSTARTMENU NOTRAYICON OKTOREBOOT /s

The above command line installs the Altiris Agent on the computer connecting to the Notification Server on “lab1.altiris.com”. No start menu is installed. Tray icon will not be shown on startup. The installation may ask to reboot if needed. The entire installation process will be done silently.

AeXNSC Command Line Arguments and Parameter Descriptions

aexnsc.exe [-s]
[-a arguments] *NOTE: this argument switch is REQUIRED for any of the following switches to be passed to the installer.
[ns= “NotificationServer”]
[nsweb=“NotificationServerWeb”]
[path="InstallationPath"]
[NOSTARTMENU]
[NOTRAYICON]
[OKTOREBOOT]
[/REGDIAGS or REGDIAGS]
[/Nologging]
[/remove]
[/ADDREMOVE or ADDREMOVE]
[/s]

Parameter Description
 

• -s: Silent mode for the package to extract the files for the Altiris Agent installation setup.
• -a arguments: Specifies the arguments to be passed to the Altiris Agent installation setup.
• ns=“NotificationServer”: Specifies the Notification Server that the Altiris Agent connects to.
• nsweb=“NotificationServerWeb”: Specifies the Notification Server Web that the Altiris Agent connects to. This is optional. By default, it is “http://NSName/Altiris”.
• path=InstallationPath: Specifies the folder where the Altiris Agent is installed.
• NOSTARTMENU: Specifies that no Start menu item will be installed for the Altiris Agent.
• NOTRAYICON: Specifies that the Altiris Agent will not show tray icon on initial startup.
• OKTOREBOOT: Specifies that the installation will prompt for rebooting the managed computer if needed. If this switch is not specified, the installation will not prompt or attempt to reboot the managed computer.
• /nologging: Turns off logging.
• /regdiags: Enables diagnostics. These diagnostics allow the user to view the log file through the Altiris Agent User Interface. It also displays other current settings on the Altiris Agent. Enabling the diagnostics is only recommended for test environments, or when troubleshooting
• /remove: Specifies that the Altiris Agent will be uninstalled from the Altiris-enabled computer. This is a silent uninstall. You can create a task to send this down to all of the Altiris-enabled computers from which you want to uninstall the Altiris Agent.
• /ADDREMOVE: Specifies that the Altiris Agent will be added to Add or Remove Programs.
• /s: Silent mode for the Altiris Agent installation setup.