Managed Software Delivery Reporting on Unix, Linux and Mac Clients
Article ID: 181065
Updated On:
Products
Issue/Introduction
Environment
ITMS 8.x
Resolution
Often, it is desirable to check a Unix, Linux or Mac (ULM) client to determine of a Software Management policy executed on that client. The following information may help with researching that information.
Command Line Utility
The simplest tool is a command line utility: aex-smf
Sample output:
$ aex-smf list
Name Last run time Next run time Status
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Install Firefox 12.0 for Linux 2012-05-04 11:12:00 NEVER Completed
Install Scratchpad 2012-05-02 12:48:00 NEVER Failed
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: For tasks, use the 'aex-cta list' command.
Finding and Using the Policy and Package Guids
The policy and package guid are keys to many files related to Managed SWD execution on a client. Many files use these two guids for file names or refer to them within the file contents.
Find the policy guid: In the NS console, right-click on the SWD policy and select ‘View as XML’. The ‘item guid’ is the policy guid. This article will refer to the policy guid of {1979AD05-0BB2-4B42-A43B-B95C11BCBC9A}.
Find the Package Guid: Search that same popup page to find the package guid.
Package Download Location
The package files will download to the client at the following location: /opt/altiris/notification/nsagent/var/packages. The guids in the directory and file names is the package guid. (Only partial results of the 'ls' output are shown.)
$ ls -alt
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 1180 May 9 14:46 .aex-pkg-xml-{69C05EDC-9CF5-4493-93AC-86C8B8994CDC}
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 1159 May 9 14:46 .aex-pkg-xml-{D525DF4D-D60E-42AA-9249-995AA5C29EA6}
drwxr-xr-x. 3 root root 4096 May 4 11:12 {D525DF4D-D60E-42AA-9249-995AA5C29EA6}
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 4096 Feb 16 11:25 {69C05EDC-9CF5-4493-93AC-86C8B8994CDC}
$ grep "Name" .aex-pkg-xml*
.aex-pkg-xml-{69C05EDC-9CF5-4493-93AC-86C8B8994CDC}: <Name><![CDATA[Deployment Automation Folder for Linux]]></Name>
.aex-pkg-xml-{D525DF4D-D60E-42AA-9249-995AA5C29EA6}: <Name><![CDATA[firefox-12.0.tar.bz2]]></Name>
$ ls -alt {D525DF4D-D60E-42AA-9249-995AA5C29EA6\}
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 355 May 4 11:12 .aex-pkg-snapshot-{D525DF4D-D60E-42AA-9249-995AA5C29EA6}
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 639 May 4 11:12 .aex-pkg-codebases-{D525DF4D-D60E-42AA-9249-995AA5C29EA6}
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 18008340 May 4 11:04 firefox-12.0.tar.bz2
Policy Execution History
After a managed software delivery policy has ran, the following files & directories will contain information related to that policy and its execution.
Location 1: /opt/altiris/notification/nsagent/var/tasks
Note: The task guid is not always known. The files may need to be greped, datetime stamps compared, etc.
$ ll
total 56
…
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 214 Feb 16 11:25 swdpkg_{73BD0749-BFF7-44A4-89C0-222BEF032B03}.nst
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 290 May 4 11:12 swdpkgfrom_{34970BD2-D6B2-4172-955A-23093ED5E10E}.nst
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 285 Feb 16 11:25 swdpkgfrom_{73BD0749-BFF7-44A4-89C0-222BEF032B03}.nst
$ cat swdpkgfrom_\{34970BD2-D6B2-4172-955A-23093ED5E10E\}.nst
<Task Enabled="1">
<HandlerCLSID>Altiris.SWDTaskProcessor</HandlerCLSID>
<Schedule><Trigger Type="0" Description="Task becomes valid on"><BeginDate>1999-12-31 22:00:00</BeginDate></Trigger></Schedule>
<TaskHistory>
<RunTime>2012-05-04 11:12:03 Started</RunTime>
</TaskHistory>
</Task>
Location 2: /opt/altiris/notification/smfagent/var/<Policy Guid>
cat state.dat
[general]
Name=Install Firefox 12.0 for Linux
Hash=FEAC1134
LastCompliance=3
UserNotified=false
State=2
LastRunTime=2012-05-04 11:12:00
…
Location 3: /opt/altiris/notification/smfagent/var/<Policy Guid>/Items
The Items directory contains a file for each step of the Managed SWD policy execution. You can ‘cat’ these to see the details of each event. For example:
$ grep Execute *
{00000011-0000-0000-0000-616161616262}:Name=Execute install command for firefox-12.0.tar.bz2
$ cat \{00000011-0000-0000-0000-616161616262\}
[general]
Name=Execute install command for firefox-12.0.tar.bz2
RunAttempts=1
LastRunTime=2012-05-04 11:12:29
Hidden=false
State=2
Location 4: /opt/altiris/notification/smfagent/var/History/<Policy Guid>
This directory contains information similar to 'Location 3', mentioned above. Please refer to the above entry.
NS Console Reports
There are several reports in the NS/SMP Console related to policy exeuction and status.
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