The installation of the same package is different for workstations reporting to two distinct scalability servers.  

In the first case the activate directory is created locally as "C:\Program Files\CA\....",        in the other case the directory is  "Z:\activate\ ...."  
What explanation is there for the activate path being local when installing a package via one scalability server while it is a mapped network drive when installing via another scalability server?

Client Automation  All Versions
​OS - Windows

The agent maps to the Z: drive if the download method is internal NOS and it is able to access the SDLIBRARY$ share on the scalability server.

This share points to the library on the Scalability Server and can be set by deploying the Scalability server's "Enable SDLIB share" procedure. 

<Please see attached file for image>

If the download method is not "internal NOS" but anything else, e.g. internal NOS-less, OR if the share has not been created or is not accessible because permissions have not been set correctly, the agent will not map the Z: drive.
The entire package will be transferred to the target first and executed from there, hence you will see the C:\Program Files (x86)\CA\DSM\SD\tmp\activate\... referred to in the logs. 


Configuration policy may dictate another letter than Z is used to map the drive (ReservedMapDrive) or not to map a drive at all and use UNC path designations (MapDrive = false):

<Please see attached file for image>

 

Additional Information:
Here are some technical documents that further explain NOS and NOSLESS considerations:

KB000025058   How to change the default software delivery download method from Internal - NOS to NOSLESS?

KB000025661   I  deliver the packages to Agents using NOS and they can access the packages from the Shared library from the SS but I can see that the package is compressed on the SS at every distribution.

KB000053802   How to change the NOS-less installation temporary directory on the Agents?

KB000050713   How to set the default SD download method as 'Internal - NOS' in an environment where the SS is on Windows and agents are Unix/Linux based?