Prompt end users before installing a SD Package on their machine

Products

• CA Client Automation - IT Client Manager
• CA Client Automation

Issue/Introduction

How can I Prompt end users before installing a SD Package on their machine?

Environment

CA Client Automation - All Versions

Resolution

To prompt the end users with before installing a package, enable the 'Prompt User (Windows Only)' option under Job options.

• In the DSM Explorer drill down to the package. Right-click the procedure and select 'Properties'.
  

  

• Go to the 'Options' tab and enable the option 'Prompt User (Windows Only)'. Additionally, you can allow the user to cancel the job or to execute the job if the prompt times out using the sub-options as shown in the screenshot below:
  

  

If only the 'Prompt User' option is selected then the end user will be given the options of clicking RUN to have the package install immediately or select from 10 minutes to 12 hours to postpone the install of the package: The time range selections cannot be edited.

If the end user is not present or ignores the prompt, then the prompt will timeout after 5 minutes and the package will not be installed.

Additional Information

If the option 'Execute Job if prompt times out' has been checked then the package will be installed once the prompt times out after 5 minutes. The 5 minute prompt timeout is controlled by the following Configuration Policy and can be configured to suit your environment.

DSM -> Software Delivery -> Agent -> User Prompt: Timeout.

The prompt time out has the same affect as the user selecting to postpone the job for 10 minutes. The user will be prompted again 10 minutes later. If the user does not respond again to the prompt; the prompt will timeout after 5 minutes and come back 10 minutes later. The number of times the prompt is displayed is infinite and cannot be set. The job will eventually timeout based on the Job timeout setting (default 7 days).

Note: DSM also has prompts available for jobs that require reboots, see the 'Boot level before execution' and 'Boot level after execution' in the procedure 'Options' tab.