Unix, Linux and Macintosh aex-smf command-line tool
Article ID: 179990
Updated On:
Products
Issue/Introduction
Environment
ITMS 8x
Resolution
The new aex-smf tool is available for 7.x Symantec Management Agent for Unix/Linux/Mac.
The main point of tool is to provide information received from different agents (CTA (tasks) and SMF (only policy based tasks – Managed delivery)) in different places. Means that now by default aex-cta tool won’t show policy-based tasks. However for these users who still need to see all tasks in one place, we left the possibility to see all executed tasks in old manner using aex-cta – just type “aex-cta list –show-all-tasks” in terminal (to learn more information on how to use certain commands type aex-cta list help)
Usage:
aex-smf [options]
aex-smf <command> [command-options]
Command line utility for working with Software management framework.
Options:
--help, -h - Display this usage information and exit immediately.
-v - Display Agent's full version and name.
--version - Display version of the application.
Commands:
help Display help on the specified command
list Displays SMF job(s) status
swc Works with SMF inventory
Run 'aex-smf help <command>' to learn more information on how to use certain commands. Elevated privileges may be required (sudo, etc.) to see and use all options.
Options for all agents are identical so that there is nothing new here
The "list" command in combination with certain keys can provide detailed information about the managed software delivery tasks. See aex-smf list help :
Usage:
aex-smf list [--show-job-id]
aex-smf list <job-id> [--verbose]
Lists SMF jobs.
Options:
--show-job-id
Include job id in the listing
<job-id>
Display job execution by tasks
<--verbose>
Display more detailed information
If agent didn’t receive any SMF job aex-smf list shows message “No SMF jobs found”
Then if SMF job was executed it will show Name of the policy, Last run time, Next run time and Status:
Name Last run time Next run time Status
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
New Managed Software Delivery 2010-09-02 15:49:15 NEVER Failed
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For detailed information, firstly user should run aex-smf list –-show-job-id that shows same as above but with policy guid
Then using this guid run aex-smf list <job-id> [--verbose] for detailed information.
That shows the status of all tasks performed under this Policy – applicability, detection check, downloading, executing, compliance. (before aex-smf tool appeared, all tasks were shown by aex—cta list; It was awkward because in addition to cta agent tasks aex-cta list shows all tasks processed by SMF agent, which for each policy is at least 7 tasks)
Note! Quick Delivery and Package Delivery is a task (not policy in case of Software managed delivery) and will be reported by aex-cta tool.
One more feature provided by aex-smf is opportunity to generate and send swc.dat file (contains list of installed software that will be used by SRM to generate report):
Usage:
aex-smf swc [--scan] [--send]
Works with SMF inventory.
Options:
--scan
Scans installed software components
--send
Send collected inventory to the NS
Examples:
aex-smf swc --scan (to collect information about installed software)
aex-smf --send (agent will try to send info about installed Software to the NS)
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