What Agent Plug-ins are needed on the NS, Site Servers, and Clients to use Deployment Solution?

Products

• Deployment Solution

Issue/Introduction

Deployment Solution 7.x is integrated into the Symantec Management Platform and is no longer a standalone product as was the case in previous versions.

As such, Server-Client communication is done through the Site Services (installed on the servers) and the Symantec Management Agent (installed on the client).  Having the Site Services and the Agent installed will allow for communication of basic tasks only, however.  In order for Deployment-specific tasks and jobs to run correctly, the correct solution plug ins must also be installed on the server(s) and clients. 

For 7.5 and later
The same plug-ins are required as in earlier versions of 7.x with a few additions. There are 2 new plug-ins necessary for Deployment Solution. They are the Deployment Package Server component and the Deployment NBS Plug-In.

Below is the list of plugins that need to be installed on the server and client machines, as well as a brief description of their function.

Environment

DS 7.5 and later

Resolution

Components Required for Deployment Jobs/Tasks

Notification Server

• Altiris Base Task Handlers
• Altiris Client Task Agent
• Altiris Client Task Server Agent
• Deployment Task Server Handler

Site Servers

• Altiris Base Task Handlers
• Altiris Client Task Agent
• Altiris Client Task Server Agent
• Deployment Solution Plug-in
• Deployment Task Server Handler
• Deployment NBS Plug-in (These are the PXE services. They can also be on the NS but only 1 server per subnet should have the NBS plug-in. Having PXE services on more than one server per subnet can cause communication issues when client computers are attempting to PXE boot.)
• Deployment Package Server (This requires Package Service to be installed and should be installed on any Site Server that will be storing images and/or the DriversDB, BDC, Imaging, and PCT packages.)

Client Machines

• Altiris Base Task Handlers
• Altiris Client Task Agent
• Deployment Solution Plug-in

 

Description of Components

The Altiris Base Task Handlers and Altiris Client Task Agent are installed with the Symantec Management Agent. The Altiris Base Task Handler handles tasks at a core level such as getting basic inventory, and receiving the most recent policies while the Altiris Client Task Agent is what handles any tasks for the different plug-ins.

Altiris Client Task Server Agent is the plug-in that handles the function of being a Task Server. It server to provide tasks to any computers with the Altiris Base Task Handlers and Altiris Client Task Agent.

Deployment Solution Plug-in needs to be installed on any computer that is going to be imaged. It is neccessary in order to run basic Deployment Solution tasks such as "boot to PXE/Automation" or "Prepare For Image Capture".

Deployment Task Server Handler is a server plug-in that provided the Deployment Solution tasks to a target computer that has the Altiris Base Task Handler, Altiris Client Task Agent, and Deployment Solution Plug-In.

Deployment Package Server is a plug-in that should only be installed on a Site Server that has Package Service already installed. It is used to store any images as well as other Deployment Solution packages such as DriversDB, BDC, Imaging, etc.

Deployment NBS Plug-In is the plug-in that installs the PXE services on a server so that machines in the environment can respond to PXE requests. The two services that should be present once it is installed are Symantec Network Boot Service (PXE and BDSP) and Symantec Network Boot Service (TFTP).