Altiris Software Management - Enhanced Console Views

Enhanced Console Views

The name has changed over time, initially being called the “Activity Center”. For ease of use I will refer to the Silverlight interface as ECV (Enhanced Console Views). This interface provides a fast, easy to use console that is reminiscent of Outlook®. It allows a user to quickly jump between common areas in the console, such as Policies, Computer lists, Software lists, Tasks and Jobs, etc. Due to the Silverlight technology, these sections are cached locally and take virtually no time to switch between after the initial load.

This console can be accessed via the following methods:

• Manage > Computers
• Manage > Software
• Manage > Jobs and Tasks
• Manage > Policies

There is one other method, but it will also open the Software Catalog interface within the Activity Center:

• Manage > Software Catalog

The following screenshot shows the layout, with the section Software selected:

Each of the sections highlighted above are also targeted using the Manage tab, but once you have the ECV loaded it is quicker to switch using the large buttons, and will keep each session active once loaded.

Each of the sections has its own features and options in the 3 main panes within the activity center. As this guide covers Software Management, I will focus on the Software section as shown in the above screenshot.

Software Categories

In the left-most pane a tree is split into categories. This allows ease of management and quick filtering. When a category is expanded on the left and a filter selected, the middle pane will list the applicable software. You can further filter the results using the search field at the top. Beyond that you see additional information or actions in the right pane, depending on what category on the left is chosen.

The following example shows a flow using this interface to interact with software that is configured to be rolled out via Software Management.

1. In the Symantec Management Console go to Manage > Software, or, if already in the ECV, click on the Software link in the lower left.
2. In the left pane select All Software Releases. This contains all deliverable software resources that are not of the types Update or Service Pack.
3. In the middle pane type “inventory plug-in for windows”. This should bring up the Inventory software component.
4. Now click on the Software Releases category. The difference is these will only display releases that a user has created, and not components provided out of box.
5. After clicking on one of your created software releases there are several items of details you can review from the right pane.
   1. Basic details – This provides you basic details about the software. Note that this is a flip-book pane and you can switch to other details, such as Packages and Command Lines.
   2. Computers with software installed – This lists all computers that have reported this software either through the Software Discovery process (Windows Add Remove Programs options shown in any Inventory Policy), or a Targeted Software Inventory Policy.

Where is my software?

There is a catch-all view to see all software components, regardless of state. This is under the All Software folder, listed as All Software Components. This should show all components, regardless of state, source, or any other filterable criteria.

Software Catalog

One area to view many of your Software Components is the Software Catalog. This can be accessed by going to Manage > Software Catalog. This opens an inset pane over the main Activity Center interface, as shown in this screenshot:

The left-hand side does not show all software. It shows software that is not either part of as Product listed on the right, or has not been manually assigned to the Unmanaged Software section. Software components will not be placed in Unmanaged Software except by manual steps completed by a user.

Drag and Drop

The Activity Center gives the option to use drag and drop. This works well for quick one-off deployments, enabling an administrator to drag a particular Software Component to a single computer. This also works dragging software to a predefined filter. The filters must show under User Created Resources within the All Computer Views section under Computers. There are some caveats to be aware of when using drag and drop with Software Management. Also there are some methods suggested when rolling out software in this manner.

The following walkthrough takes you through the process:

1. In the Symantec Management Console browse under Manage > Computers.
2. In the All Computers view, use the Search field to filter out until you have the computer desired.
3. Now click on the Software section to switch over to the Software section.
4. Highlight the Software Releases section in the left pane so all software that is deliverable is shown.
5. Use the search field to filter down until you select the software desired.
6. Once the software is highlighted, left-click and hold down on the icon to the left of the name.
7. The last computer view you had selected under the Computers section will fly out, as shown in this screenshot:
   
8. When you let go of the selected Software on top of the desired computer, you will get prompted for how you want to deliver the software, as shown:
   
9. The first option will deliver the software via a Managed Software Delivery Policy, while the second option will use a Quick Delivery Task.
10. As an alternative, if you wish to target a filter, instead of dragging the option to the computer list, drag the icon down to the section header for Software. Holding the pointer over this section will expand it, then allowing you to navigate through the User Created Resources. Hovering allows you to open subsections, etc.
11. Drop the software on the desired filter to complete the process.

NOTE! When you use this method a single Managed Software Delivery Policy is generated, along with a target for that one system. If this method is used a lot, the system will begin to be flooded with these one-off policy requests. This issue will be addressed in 7.1 SP2 where it will look for an already existing Managed Delivery Policy to service the request to avoid excessive duplicates.

Troubleshooting

This section covers troubleshooting for the Activity Center and functions surrounding it.

Cannot find Software

For this issue you can work around any filtering the activity center is doing by browsing to the following target in the console.

1. Load the Symantec Management Console under Manage > Software.
2. Browse under All Software > and select All Software Components.
3. Now use the search field to find the component you are looking for.

You can also use the Resources view that shows the organizational groups used by the Notification Server.

1. Load the Symantec Management Console under Manage > All Resources.
2. Browse under Default > All Resources > and select Software Component.
3. The search function can be used here to find the resource you want.

If the Software Component section doesn’t show up, click on the Default node and use the Edit function to add it to the list. This can be done for any organizational group that is filtered out of this view by default.