DELL Client Manager 3.2 User Guide

Dell® Client Manager 3.2

User Guide

Dell® Client Manager 3.2 User Guide

The software described in this book is furnished under a license agreement and may be used only in accordance with the terms of the agreement.

Legal Notice

Copyright © 2011 Symantec Corporation. All rights reserved.

Symantec, the Symantec Logo, Altiris, and any Altiris or Symantec trademarks used in the product are trademarks or registered trademarks of Symantec Corporation or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

The product described in this document is distributed under licenses restricting its use, copying, distribution, and decompilation/reverse engineering. No part of this document may be reproduced in any form by any means without prior written authorization of Symantec Corporation and its licensors, if any.

THE DOCUMENTATION IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND ALL EXPRESS OR IMPLIED CONDITIONS, REPRESENTATIONS AND WARRANTIES, INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NON-INFRINGEMENT, ARE DISCLAIMED, EXCEPT TO THE EXTENT THAT SUCH DISCLAIMERS ARE HELD TO BELEGALLYINVALID. SYMANTECCORPORATIONSHALLNOTBELIABLEFORINCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES IN CONNECTION WITH THE FURNISHING, PERFORMANCE, OR USE OF THIS DOCUMENTATION. THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS DOCUMENTATION IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE.

The Licensed Software and Documentation are deemed to be commercial computer software as defined in FAR 12.212 and subject to restricted rights as defined in FAR Section 52.227-19 "Commercial Computer Software - Restricted Rights" and DFARS 227.7202, "Rights in Commercial Computer Software or Commercial Computer Software Documentation", as applicable, and any successor regulations. Any use, modification, reproduction release, performance, display or disclosure of the Licensed Software and Documentation by the U.S. Government shall be solely in accordance with the terms of this Agreement.

Symantec Corporation

350 Ellis Street

Mountain View, CA 94043

http://www.symantec.com

Technical Support

Symantec Technical Support maintains support centers globally. Technical Support’s primary role is to respond to specific queries about product features and functionality. The Technical Support group also creates content for our online Knowledge Base. The Technical Support group works collaboratively with the other functional areas within Symantec to answer your questions in a timely fashion. For example, the Technical Support group works with Product Engineering and Symantec Security Response to provide alerting services and virus definition updates.

Symantec’s support offerings include the following:

■A range of support options that give you the flexibility to select the right amount of service for any size organization

■Telephone and/or Web-based support that provides rapid response and up-to-the-minute information

■Upgrade assurance that delivers software upgrades

■Global support purchased on a regional business hours or 24 hours a day, 7 days a week basis

■Premium service offerings that include Account Management Services

For information about Symantec’s support offerings, you can visit our Web site at the following URL:

www.symantec.com/business/support/

All support services will be delivered in accordance with your support agreement and the then-current enterprise technical support policy.

Contacting Technical Support

Customers with a current support agreement may access Technical Support information at the following URL:

www.symantec.com/business/support/

Before contacting Technical Support, make sure you have satisfied the system requirements that are listed in your product documentation. Also, you should be at the computer on which the problem occurred, in case it is necessary to replicate the problem.

When you contact Technical Support, please have the following information available:

■ Product release level

■Hardware information

■Available memory, disk space, and NIC information

■Operating system

■Version and patch level

■Network topology

■Router, gateway, and IP address information

■Problem description:

■Error messages and log files

■Troubleshooting that was performed before contacting Symantec

■Recent software configuration changes and network changes

Licensing and registration

If your Symantec product requires registration or a license key, access our technical support Web page at the following URL:

www.symantec.com/business/support/

Customer service

Customer service information is available at the following URL:

www.symantec.com/business/support/

Customer Service is available to assist with non-technical questions, such as the following types of issues:

■Questions regarding product licensing or serialization

■Product registration updates, such as address or name changes

■General product information (features, language availability, local dealers)

■Latest information about product updates and upgrades

■Information about upgrade assurance and support contracts

■Information about the Symantec Buying Programs

■Advice about Symantec's technical support options

■Nontechnical presales questions

■Issues that are related to CD-ROMs or manuals

Support agreement resources

If you want to contact Symantec regarding an existing support agreement, please contact the support agreement administration team for your region as follows:

Asia-Pacific and Japan	[e-mail]
Europe, Middle-East, and Africa	[e-mail]
North America and Latin America	[e-mail]

Contents

Technical Support ...............................................................................................		3
Chapter 1	Introducing Dell Client Manager ......................................	11
	About Dell Client Manager .............................................................	11
	What's new in Dell Client Manager ..................................................	12
	Products installed with Dell Client Manager ......................................	12
	How Dell Client Manager works .....................................................	13
	What you can do with Dell Client Manager ........................................	13
	Where to get more information .......................................................	13
Chapter 2	Installing Dell Client Manager ..........................................	17
	System requirements ....................................................................	17
	About Dell Client Manager requirements ...................................	17
	About Dell client computer requirements ...................................	18
	Installing the Dell Client Manager product .......................................	18
	Upgrading Dell Client Manager ......................................................	19
	Uninstalling Dell Client Manager ....................................................	19
	Uninstalling the Dell client software from client computers
	.....................................................................................	20
	Uninstalling Dell Client Manager from the Notification Server
	computer .......................................................................	20
	Installing licenses ........................................................................	21
Chapter 3	Getting started with Dell Client Manager .......................	23
	About the Dell Management Console ...............................................	23
	About the Dell Client Manager home page ........................................	24
	Dell Client Discovery and Installation Summary web part ..............	24
	About managing multiple and single computers ................................	26
	About actions that require a client restart ........................................	26
	About Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption .....................................	27
	About BIOS password restrictions ..................................................	27

8Contents

Chapter 4	Preparing target Dell computers for
	management ..................................................................	29
	Preparing target Dell computers for management ..............................	29
	Discovering computers .................................................................	31
	Installing the Symantec Management Agent ....................................	31
	Configuring the Symantec Management Agent settings for evaluation
	use .....................................................................................	32
	Discovering Dell computers ...........................................................	33
	Installing the Dell Client Plug-in ....................................................	34
	Installing the Power Scheme Agent .................................................	35
	Restarting Dell client computers awaiting reboot ..............................	35
	Configuring the Dell Client Plug-in settings ......................................	36
	Customizing the Dell client patching settings ...................................	37
Chapter 5	Using Dell Client Manager .................................................	39
	Prerequisites for using Dell Client Manager ......................................	39
	Collecting BIOS, hardware, display, and power scheme settings
	inventory .............................................................................	40
	Collecting BIOS settings and BIOS version inventory data .............	40
	Collecting hardware inventory data ..........................................	41
	Collecting display inventory data .............................................	42
	Collecting power scheme inventory data ....................................	43
	Viewing BIOS settings, hardware, and power scheme settings
	inventory .............................................................................	43
	Updating BIOS versions ................................................................	44
	Discovering current Dell BIOS versions ......................................	45
	Creating a dynamic filter and a BIOS Update Job ..........................	45
	Viewing the BIOS update job execution status .............................	47
	Viewing the BIOS Update Job execution reports ...........................	48
	Configuring BIOS settings .............................................................	48
	Using reports to configure BIOS settings ..........................................	50
	Collecting BIOS settings inventory ............................................	51
	Creating a dynamic filter and a BIOS Settings Job .........................	51
	Viewing the BIOS settings job execution status ............................	53
	Viewing the BIOS settings job execution reports ..........................	53
	Configuring Dell display settings ....................................................	54
	Changing brightness and contrast settings .................................	54
	Restoring display factory default settings ..................................	54
	Turning off displays ...............................................................	55
	Configuring power scheme settings ................................................	55
	Monitoring the health of a computer ...............................................	56
	Viewing alerts .......................................................................	57

Contents 9

	Assessing Microsoft Windows 7 migration readiness .........................	58
	Updating the Dell Supported Models database ..................................	59
Chapter 6	Applying software patches to Dell computers ..............	61
	Applying software patches to Dell computers ...................................	61
	Downloading the Dell Update Packages catalog .................................	63
	Determining patchable Dell client computers ....................................	64
	Viewing patchable Dell client computers ..........................................	65
	Viewing applicable updates ............................................................	65
	Staging and distributing updates ....................................................	65
	Monitoring update progress ..........................................................	66
	Using reports to view patch management data ..................................	66
Chapter 7	Managing individual Dell computers ..............................	69
	About managing individual Dell computers ......................................	69
	Modifying the connection profile for real-time management ................	71
	Accessing the Real-Time view ........................................................	71
	About the Real-Time Home page .....................................................	72
	Viewing the Dell client computer summary ......................................	72
	Performing one-to-one BIOS configuration ......................................	73
	Performing one-to-one boot order configuration ...............................	73
	Performing one-to-one BIOS or system password change ....................	74
	Resetting the chassis intrusion alert ...............................................	75
Chapter 8	About Dell Client Manager pages ....................................	77
	Disable BitLocker and Enable BitLocker tasks ...................................	77
	BIOS Settings Job, BIOS Update Job, and Inventory Job ........................	78
	Restart Computer task ..................................................................	78
	Update Dell Clients Patch Compliance Inventory task ........................	79
	Download Software Update Package task .........................................	79
	Stage and Distribute job ................................................................	79
	Patch management rollout job .......................................................	79
	Dell Update Applicability Task .......................................................	80
	Dell Update Install Task ...............................................................	80
	Patch Management Configuration page ...........................................	80
	Stage and Distribute Wizard ..........................................................	82
	Inventory Job ..............................................................................	83

10 Contents

Appendix A	Troubleshooting Dell Client Manager .............................	85
	Troubleshooting the Symantec Management Agent push installation
	...........................................................................................	85
	Configuring the firewall to allow push installation .......................	85
	Troubleshooting connection through the Real-Time view ....................	86
	Configuring the firewall to allow WMI connection ........................	88
	Disabling simple file sharing on Windows XP SP2 ........................	91
	Configuring User Access Control on Windows Vista and Windows
	7 ...................................................................................	92
Appendix B	Technical reference ............................................................	93
	Dell client computers that support BIOS updates ...............................	93
	Dell Update Package error codes ....................................................	94
	About using macros for BIOS settings .............................................	95
Index ....................................................................................................................		97

Chapter 1

Introducing Dell Client

Manager

This chapter includes the following topics:

■About Dell Client Manager

■What's new in Dell Client Manager

■Products installed with Dell Client Manager

■How Dell Client Manager works

■What you can do with Dell Client Manager

■Where to get more information

About Dell Client Manager

Dell Client Manager helps make Dell OptiPlex™ desktops, Latitude™ notebooks, and Dell Precision™ workstations some of the easiest and most cost effective client systems you can own. Dell Client Manager lets IT professionals automate common tasks that are associated with owning client systems and perform the tasks from a remote, centralized location. The results are powerful: far fewer desk-side visits and repetitive tasks, greater visibility and control of client inventory and usage, and improved consistency and compliance in the way client systems are configured. Organizations with as few as 50 Dell client systems will benefit, and larger organizations or organizations with a distributed workforce will experience even greater advantages from centralized, automated client management.

Dell Client Manager is a suite of integrated tools that are developed by Dell and Symantec. These combined technologies work under the Symantec Management

12Introducing Dell Client Manager

What's new in Dell Client Manager

Platform infrastructure. You manage Dell resources across your network using a single, integrated, and secure Dell Management Console.

What's new in Dell Client Manager

The following new features are introduced in the 3.2 release of Dell Client Manager:

■Dell Client Manager installs Dell OpenManage Client Instrumentation (OMCI) 8.0 to the client Dell computers.

■You can use reports to identify computers that need a BIOS update and create a BIOS update job directly from the report.

See “Updating BIOS versions ” on page 44.

■You can use reports to identify computers whose BIOS settings are out of compliance and create a BIOS settings job directly from the report.

See “Using reports to configure BIOS settings” on page 50.

Products installed with Dell Client Manager

Dell Client Manager installs and uses other Symantec and Altiris management products.

Table 1-1	Products installed with Dell Client Manager
Product		Description
Symantec Management Platform		The base management platform.
Dell Client Manager		Lets you inventory and manage Dell client
		computers.
Altiris™ Out of Band Management		Lets you configure computers with DASH, ASF, or
Component		Intel AMT for out-of-band management.
Altiris™ Real-Time Console		Provides out-of-band management tasks and the
Infrastructure		infrastructure for one-to-one management.
Altiris™ Power Scheme Task		This add-on lets you configure the Dell client
		computer's power-saving options remotely.
Altiris™ Event Console		Lets you receive and view health alerts that Dell
		client computers send to Notification Server.

Introducing Dell Client Manager	13
How Dell Client Manager works

How Dell Client Manager works

Dell Client Manager discovers supported Dell computers in your environment and installs the Dell OpenManage Client Instrumentation (OMCI), EnTech SoftOSD, and Dell Client Plug-in software to these computers. The Dell Client Plug-in works as a link between the OMCI and EnTech software and the Symantec Management Agent.

Dell Client Manager can also connect to a target Dell computer directly through WMI and query OMCI for inventory and configuration information and display this information in the Symantec Management Console's Resource Manager, in the Real-Time view.

Dell Client Manager scans patchable Dell client computers for the required software updates. Then, it creates rollout jobs that install the updates to the appropriate computers.

What you can do with Dell Client Manager

Dell Client Manager lets you collect hardware, BIOS, and Dell display inventory from the client Dell computers. You can update the computer's BIOS and change BIOS settings remotely from the Dell Management Console. You can run these tasks immediately or schedule for a later time, on one or many computers at a time.

From Dell Management Console's Real-Time view you can also view the target Dell computer's inventory and configuration information in real time. During this live connection you can change BIOS settings, BIOS password, and other settings for the particular Dell computer, and verify your changes.

With Dell Client Manager, you can discover patchable Dell computers and distribute Dell Update Packages (DUPs) to the computers that need an update, all from the centralized Dell Management Console.

Where to get more information

Use the following documentation resources to learn about and use this product.

14Introducing Dell Client Manager

Where to get more information

	Table 1-2
Document	Description
Release Notes	Information about new
	features and important
	issues.

Documentation resources

Location

The Product Support page, which is available at the following URL:

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/all_products.jsp

When you open your product's support page, look for the Documentation link on the right side of the page.

User Guide	Information about how
	to use this product,
	including detailed
	technical information
	and instructions for
	performing common
	tasks.

■The Documentation Library, which is available in the Symantec Management Console on the Help menu.

■The ProductSupport page, which is available at the following URL: http://www.symantec.com/business/support/all_products.jsp When you open your product’s support page, look for the Documentation link on the right side of the page.

Help	Information about how
	to use this product,
	including detailed
	technical information
	and instructions for
	performing common
	tasks.
	Help is available at the
	solution level and at the
	suite level.
	This information is
	available in HTML help
	format.

The Documentation Library, which is available in the Symantec Management Console on the Help menu.

Context-sensitive help is available for most screens in the Symantec Management Console.

You can open context-sensitive help in the following ways:

■The F1 key when the page is active.

■The Context command, which is available in the Symantec Management Console on the Help menu.

In addition to the product documentation, you can use the following resources to learn about Symantec products.

	Table 1-3	Symantec product information resources
Resource	Description	Location
SymWISE	Articles, incidents, and	http://www.symantec.com/business/theme.jsp?themeid=support-knowledgebase
Support	issues about Symantec
Knowledgebase	products.

		Introducing Dell Client Manager 15
		Where to get more information
	Table 1-3	Symantec product information resources (continued)
Resource	Description	Location
Symantec	An online resource that	http://www.symantec.com/connect/endpoint-management
Connect	contains forums, articles,
	blogs, downloads, events,
	videos, groups, and ideas
	for users of Symantec
	products.

16Introducing Dell Client Manager

Where to get more information

Chapter 2

Installing Dell Client

Manager

This chapter includes the following topics:

■System requirements

■Installing the Dell Client Manager product

■Upgrading Dell Client Manager

■Uninstalling Dell Client Manager

■Installing licenses

System requirements

Dell Client Manager has the following system requirements:

■Dell Client Manager installation requirements.

See “About Dell Client Manager requirements ” on page 17.

■Dell Client Plug-in installation requirements.

See “About Dell client computer requirements ” on page 18.

About Dell Client Manager requirements

Dell Client Manager requires the following:

■ Symantec Management Platform 7.0 SP5

For more information on Symantec Management Platform prerequisites and installation instructions, see the Symantec Management Platform Help.

See “Where to get more information” on page 13.

18Installing Dell Client Manager

Installing the Dell Client Manager product

When you install Dell Client Manager through Symantec Installation Manager,

Symantec Management Platform is installed or upgraded automatically.

Dell Client Manager installs Out of Band Management Component on Notification Server. Dell Client Manager requirements are sufficient for default Out of Band Management Component installation, however more environment prerequisites must be met for advanced features. You can configure your environment before or after installing Out of Band Management Component.

For more information on Out of Band Management Component prerequisites and configuration instructions, see the Out of Band Management Component Implementation Guide.

See “Where to get more information” on page 13.

About Dell client computer requirements

Full feature support is available for most Dell OptiPlex, Latitude, and Dell Precision client computers.

The Dell client patch feature is supported by recent Dell OptiPlex, Latitude, and Precision client computers.

See “Dell client computers that support BIOS updates” on page 93.

For more information about supported and unsupported models, see the Dell

Client Manager Release Notes.

For more information about supported Dell displays, see the Dell Client Manager Release Notes.

Table 2-1	Dell client computer requirements
Requirement	Description
Operating system	Microsoft Windows XP SP2 or later with .NET framework 2.0
	installed

Available disk space	20 MB disk space for the Symantec Management Agent, plus space
	to install required software
Memory	64 MB RAM

Installing the Dell Client Manager product

Use Symantec Installation Manager to install Dell Client Manager.

For more information on installing products, see Symantec Installation Manager documentation.

Installing Dell Client Manager 19

Upgrading Dell Client Manager

See “Where to get more information” on page 13.

Upgrading Dell Client Manager

Use Symantec Installation Manager to upgrade Dell Client Manager.

For more information on upgrading products, see the Symantec Installation

Manager documentation.

See “Where to get more information” on page 13.

After you upgrade the product, you must upgrade all of the management agents that are installed on the target Dell computers. The agents include:

■Symantec Management Agent

■Dell Client Plug-in

■Power Scheme Agent

To upgrade the management agents

1In the Dell Management Console, on the Actions menu, click Agents/Plug-ins > Rollout Agents/Plug-ins.

2In the left pane, locate and turn on the upgrade policies for each of the agents that you want to upgrade.

Uninstalling Dell Client Manager

To uninstall Dell Client Manager perform the following steps:

Table 2-2	Process for uninstalling Dell Client Manager
Step Action	Description

Step 1 Uninstall the Dell client software from the client computers.

This step is required if you do not want to reinstall Dell Client Manager later.

See “Uninstalling the Dell client software from client computers ” on page 20.

Step 2 Uninstall Dell Client Manager from the Notification Server computer.

This step removes the product from the Notification Server computer.

See “Uninstalling Dell Client Manager from the Notification Server computer ” on page 20.

20Installing Dell Client Manager

Uninstalling Dell Client Manager

Uninstalling the Dell client software from client computers

The Dell Client Software - Uninstall policy lets you remove Dell Client Plug-in, Dell OMCI and EnTech software from supported client computers. Because the Dell Client Plug-in communicates with the Symantec Management Agent and Notification Server, you cannot run any Dell Client Manager tasks after uninstallation.

Before you uninstall the Dell client software, make sure the Dell Client Software - Install policy is turned off.

We recommend that you do not uninstall the Dell Client Manager software from the Notification Server computer until the DellClientSoftware - Uninstall policy has run on all Dell computers. When Dell Client Manager is uninstalled, there is no automated way to uninstall the Dell client software.

The Dell client software uninstallation process can take some time to start, depending on the intervals that are set between the updates of the Symantec Management Agent.

See “Configuring the Symantec Management Agent settings for evaluation use ” on page 32.

To uninstall the Dell Client Plug-in, Dell OMCI and EnTech software

1In the Dell Management Console, on the Actions menu, click Agents/Plug-ins > Rollout Agents/Plug-ins.

2In the left pane, click Dell Client > Dell Client Software - Uninstall.

3Turn on the policy.

To turn on the policy, at the upper right of the page, click the colored circle, and then click On.

4Click Save changes.

Uninstalling Dell Client Manager from the Notification Server computer

Before uninstalling Dell Client Manager, make sure you uninstalled the Dell client software from the client computers.

See “Uninstalling the Dell client software from client computers ” on page 20.

Use Symantec Installation Manager to uninstall Dell Client Manager.

For more information on uninstalling products, see the Symantec Installation

Manager documentation.

See “Where to get more information” on page 13.

Installing Dell Client Manager	21
Installing licenses

Installing licenses

Dell Client Manager includes a restricted trial license that is valid for 30 days. You can register and receive a free unlimited and permanent license by visiting the following Web site:

http://www.altiris.com/Partners/AlliancePartners/Dell/DCMLicensing.aspx

After you register, a new product key will be sent to you through email.

Use Symantec Installation Manager to license Dell Client Manager.

For more information, see the Symantec Installation Manager documentation.

See “Where to get more information” on page 13.

22Installing Dell Client Manager

Installing licenses

Chapter 3

Getting started with Dell

Client Manager

This chapter includes the following topics:

■About the Dell Management Console

■About the Dell Client Manager home page

■About managing multiple and single computers

■About actions that require a client restart

■About Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption

■About BIOS password restrictions

About the Dell Management Console

You perform all Dell Client Manager configuration and administration tasks using the Dell Management Console.

The Dell Management Console is the Web browser based administration console for working with Symantec Management Platform and solutions, including Dell Client Manager. The console lets you perform tasks, schedule events, run reports, perform configuration, configure security, and more. You can run the console from the Notification Server computer (locally) or from a remote computer with a network connection to Notification Server. This means that you can perform administration tasks from wherever you are.

The console lets you set security that is specific to each console user. You specify which areas of the console a user has access to and the rights that a user has to perform specific actions. For example, one user can run reports while another user can only view reports that have already been run.

24Getting started with Dell Client Manager

About the Dell Client Manager home page

You can start the console remotely by typing the following URL into the Internet Explorer's address bar: http://<Notification_Server_name>/altiris/console

For more information on the console, see the Symantec Management Platform

Help, which can be accessed through the console's Help menu.

About the Dell Client Manager home page

The Dell Client Manager home page shows the number of discovered Dell computers by model and the summary information of the tasks that you performed.

You can open the Dell Client Manager home page by clicking Home > Dell Client Manager in the Dell Management Console.

See “About the Dell Management Console ” on page 23.

The Dell Client Manager home page displays the following summaries:

Dell Client Discovery and

Installation Summary

BIOS Update Task Summary

BIOS Settings Task Summary

Update compliance of client computers that are ready to receive updates

Status of update jobs

Displays the Dell computer discovery and Dell Client Plug-in installation information.

See “Dell Client Discovery and Installation Summary web part” on page 24.

Displays the BIOS Update Task execution summary.

See “Updating BIOS versions ” on page 44.

Displays the BIOSSettingsTask execution summary.

See “Configuring BIOS settings ” on page 48.

Lists the number of discovered Dell client computers that support patching and their update status: up to date, or missing an update.

See “Applying software patches to Dell computers ” on page 61.

Lists the rollout jobs that you created using the Stage andDistributeWizard and their status. You can click a job to view its details.

See “Staging and distributing updates” on page 65.

Dell Client Discovery and Installation Summary web part

This web part is located on the Dell Client Manager home page and displays the Dell computer discovery and Dell Client Plug-in installation information.

		Getting started with Dell Client Manager 25
		About the Dell Client Manager home page
Table 3-1	Information in the Dell Client Discovery and Installation Summary
	web part
Summary		Description
SupportedDellClientComputers		The total number of Dell client computers discovered.
		Newer Dell models, not yet recognized as supported
		computers, are also listed.
		See “Discovering Dell computers ” on page 33.
Patchable Dell Client Computers		The total number of Dell client computers that support
		patching.
		See “Applying software patches to Dell computers ”
		on page 61.
Dell Client Computers with		The total number of Dell client computers with
Supported Displays		displays that you can manage.
		See “Configuring Dell display settings ” on page 54.
Dell Client Plug-in Installed		The total number of supported computers that
		successfully installed the Dell Client Plug-in.
		See “Installing the Dell Client Plug-in ” on page 34.
SupportedDellClientComputers		The total number of supported computers that require
Awaiting Reboot to Finish		reboot after the Dell Client Plug-in installation or
Installation		upgrade.
		See “ Restarting Dell client computers awaiting reboot
		” on page 35.
Systems Reporting Inventory		The total number of supported computers that
Data		successfully reported inventory data.
		See “Collecting BIOS, hardware, display, and power
		scheme settings inventory ” on page 40.
SystemsReportingBIOSSettings		The total number of supported computers that
Data		successfully reported BIOS settings data.
		See “Collecting BIOS, hardware, display, and power
		scheme settings inventory ” on page 40.
Unsupported Dell Client		The total number of unsupported Dell client computers
Computers		by product line. Legacy computers include older and
		unsupported models of OptiPlex, Latitude, and Dell
		Precision product lines.

See “Updating the Dell Supported Models database ” on page 59.

26Getting started with Dell Client Manager

About managing multiple and single computers

About managing multiple and single computers

Dell Client Manager provides the following two methods of managing Dell client computers:

One-to-many One-to-many management is when you assign a task to a collection of computers and schedule it to run at a later time. Dell Client Manager includes several predefined computer collections, called filters. Filters are logical groupings of computers based on any criteria you want. These filters can be based on Dell models, the operating system installed, BIOS version, and so on. You can also create your own filters.

See “Collecting BIOS, hardware, display, and power scheme settings inventory ” on page 40.

See “Updating BIOS versions ” on page 44.

See “Configuring BIOS settings ” on page 48.

See “Configuring Dell display settings ” on page 54.

See “Configuring power scheme settings ” on page 55.

See “Monitoring the health of a computer” on page 56.

See “Applying software patches to Dell computers ” on page 61.

One-to-one One-to-one management is when you manage a single computer in real time. This method is useful for one-off management and repair. During a one-to-one management session Dell Client Manager connects to the target computer using the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI). You can then view actual inventory and configuration information in the Dell Management Console. You can run management tasks on the target computer and immediately see the results.

See “About managing individual Dell computers ” on page 69.

About actions that require a client restart

The Dell client computer restart is required when you perform the following actions:

■Dell OMCI software installation and upgrade as part of the Dell client software installation

See “Installing the Dell Client Plug-in ” on page 34.

■BIOS update

See “Updating BIOS versions ” on page 44.

■BIOS settings change

Getting started with Dell Client Manager 27

About Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption

See “Configuring BIOS settings ” on page 48.

You can control the restart options by scheduling, deferring, or allowing the restart to occur immediately after running the task.

About Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption

Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption is a full disk encryption feature included with the Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate, Windows Vista Enterprise, Windows 7 Ultimate, and Windows Server 2008 operating systems. This feature is designed to protect data by providing encryption for entire volumes.

If you want to use Dell Client Manager to upgrade BIOS or change BIOS settings on computers with Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption enabled, you must disable BitLocker before you make any changes to the BIOS.

Warning: Never run the BIOSUpdateTask or the BIOSSettingsTask on computers with BitLocker. Instead, use the BIOS Update Job and the BIOS Settings Job that are included with Dell Client Manager. These jobs include BitLocker tasks, which check the Dell client computers for the BitLocker feature and disable it when necessary. If you try to modify BIOS without disabling BitLocker first, the computer will fail to boot.

See “Updating BIOS versions ” on page 44.

See “Configuring BIOS settings ” on page 48.

About BIOS password restrictions

The BIOS passwords that you type when configuring BIOS settings have the following restrictions:

■Only alphanumeric passwords are supported.

■Spaces may not be used. Using spaces results in incorrect passwords. For example, if you specified a BIOS password as "qwe 123", the password is set as "qwe".

■The maximum length is dependent on the computer model. For example, on Dell Latitude notebooks, the maximum is eight characters. When you use the Real-Time view to provide a password with more than the maximum characters, the password is truncated to the first number of characters allowed.

For example, if the maximum is eight characters, and you provide a 12-character password, only the first eight characters are used. You need to use that truncated password to use or clear the BIOS password.

28Getting started with Dell Client Manager

About BIOS password restrictions

These restrictions apply to setting passwords and verifying passwords.

See “Updating BIOS versions ” on page 44.

See “Configuring BIOS settings ” on page 48.

Chapter 4

Preparing target Dell computers for management

This chapter includes the following topics:

■Preparing target Dell computers for management

■Discovering computers

■Installing the Symantec Management Agent

■Configuring the Symantec Management Agent settings for evaluation use

■Discovering Dell computers

■Installing the Dell Client Plug-in

■Installing the Power Scheme Agent

■Restarting Dell client computers awaiting reboot

■Configuring the Dell Client Plug-in settings

■Customizing the Dell client patching settings

Preparing target Dell computers for management

Before you can manage Dell client computers with Dell Client Manager, you must install management agents on the client computers. The agents include: the Symantec Management Agent, the Dell Client Plug-in, and the optional Altiris Power Scheme Agent.

See “How Dell Client Manager works ” on page 13.

30Preparing target Dell computers for management

Preparing target Dell computers for management

Table 4-1		Process for preparing target Dell computers for management
Step	Action		Description
Step 1	Discover manageable		Discovery helps you find the host names of the
	computers in your		computers on which you can install the Symantec
	environment.		Management Agent.
			See “Discovering computers ” on page 31.
Step 2	Install the Symantec		The Symantec Management Agent lets Notification
	Management Agent to the		Server get information from and interact with the
	client computers.		client computers.
			See “Installing the Symantec Management Agent ”
			on page 31.
Step 3	(Optional) Configure the		For easier configuration and evaluation of Dell Client
	Symantec Management		Manager, make the Symantec Management Agent
	Agent settings for		request configuration from Notification Server more
	evaluation use.		frequently.
			See “Configuring the Symantec Management Agent
			settings for evaluation use ” on page 32.
Step 4	Discover Dell computers.		The Dell Client Discovery policy lets you find Dell
			computers that Dell Client Manager supports.
			See “Discovering Dell computers ” on page 33.
Step 5	Install the Dell Client		This plug-in works to communicate information
	Plug-in.		between Dell client computers and the Notification
			Server computer
			See “Installing the Dell Client Plug-in ” on page 34.
Step 6	(Optional) Install the		This agent lets you inventory and change power
	Altiris Power Scheme		scheme settings.
	Agent.		See “Installing the Power Scheme Agent” on page 35.
Step 7	(Optional) Restart the		Some computers need to be restarted in order for the
	computers awaiting		Dell management software to work. See which
	reboot.		computers need to be restarted and run the restart
			task.

See “ Restarting Dell client computers awaiting reboot ” on page 35.