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

Products

• Deployment Solution
• IT Management Suite

Issue/Introduction

This article provides information on the Agent Plug-ins needed on the NS, Site Servers, and Clients to use Deployment Solution:

• Deployment Solution is integrated into the Symantec Management Platform.
• 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. 
• There are 2 plug-ins necessary for Deployment Solution and these are the Deployment Package Server component and the Deployment NBS Plug-In.

Environment

ITMS 8.x

DS 8.x

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).