How to install the Agent for UNIX when curl and wget are not installed on UNIX clients

Products

• Management Platform (Formerly known as Notification Server)

Issue/Introduction

 

Resolution

Problem
The Altiris Agent for UNIX cannot be installed, via either the push or manual installation methods, since curl and wget are not installed on the UNIX clients.

Environment
Altiris Agent for UNIX 6.1, up to build 6.1.8654

Cause
Once the aex-bootstrap is pushed or manually copied to a client computer, it depends on either curl or wget to download the aex-nsclt binary. The aex-nsclt binary actually installs the agent, creates run-level entries, creates directories and most .../nsagent/bin binaries, and so on.

Resolution
The following steps can be followed to manually copy the aex-nsclt... (nsclt) file and install the Altiris Agent for UNIX and complete the configuration.

Preparation

First, Create a temp directory. To facilitate this process, it should not contain any other files except those listed here.

Second, A config.xml file will be need to properly configure the clients after running the aex-nsclt installation binary. This file can be created in the NS console > Configuration tab > Altiris Agent > Altiris Agent Rollout > Altiris Agent Installation > Install Altiris Agent tab. Toward the bottom of this screen is a section labeled "URL of download page for UNIX users" and within that section is a link in blue text labeled "show me this page." For this purpose, it does not matter which platform is selected. The resulting file is the same for all platforms.

In the center of the new window that  popped up is a link labeled  ".aex-agent-install-config.xml". This will be referred to as the config.xml, hereafter. Clicking this will open a new window titled "XML File Generator," and it will have three tabs. Make any desired changes. Note that these settings correspond to settings in the push install "Install Settings" screen. Click on the third tab and save the file to a an empty temp directory.

Third, copy the appropriate nsclt file to the temp directory that contains the config.xml file. The appropriate aex-nsclt file can be found on the NS server in the following directory: \Program Files\Altiris\Notification Server\NSCap\Bin\Unix\6.0\Agent\<platform>\<processor>.

Fourth, if a more automated method is desired, a shell script can be created and placed in the temp directory to execute the nsclt and aex-configure after the files are copied to the client.

Copy files

There are various methods for copying files to client computers. The user/customer will need to choose how to do this. Methods include FTP, remote copy, third party utilities, and so on.The files can be copied to any temporary directory on the client computers. The installation process will, by default, create the Altiris directories (/opt/altiris...) regardless of where the installation files reside on the client.

It may also be possible, depending on the systems involved, security, permissions, configuration, etc. to run the files remotely.

Installation and Configuration

The following steps must be run as "root".

1. Change directories to the location of the config.xml and nsclt file on the client.
2. Uncompress the nsclt file. Typically, this will require the 'uncompress' command.
3. Install the nsclt package according to the operating system and platform requirements. For example, the nsclt for Linux is an RPM package, while the nsclt for AIX is a .BFF file. The RPM package manager or "rpm" command can be used to install the Linux package while "smit" can be used on AIX to install the .BFF file.
4. Copy the config.xml to the /opt/altiris/notification/nsagent/bin directory.
   
   Note: The aex-configure utility will look for the config.xml in the following locations in this order. So, we will need to copy it to one of these locations. It is recommended to use the .../nsagent/bin directory:
   
   1. If we are not in the root (/), search in the current folder and in the parent dir.
   2. Check in the folder specified by the AGENT_INSTALL_DIR environmental variable.
   3. Check in the folder specified by the AEXCLIENT_CONFIG_XML_DIR environmental variable.
   4. Check in folders: /tmp, /var, and /opt/Altiris
5. Change directories to /opt/altiris/notification/nsagent/bin and run "aex-configure -configure". This will use the settings in the config.xml file to point to the correct NS server and so on. It should start the Altiris Agent on the client, and basic inventory and a policy refresh should occur automatically within a few minutes.