managing
your toptools
PC system software
database
application note
www.hp.com/go/desktops
Introduction to Toptools Database Management
This document describes how to use the
Driver/FirmWare features of Toptools Device Manager
when a direct connection from your management
server to the Internet is not possible.
To update a software driver or flash a BIOS, your
Toptools Device Manager must have access to the
new program it will use to update the PC. This
program is stored in the form of a software package
suitable for automatic installation, grouped with other
packages.
From Toptools all BIOS, diagnostics, driver and
Agent packages for HP Desktop PCs are stored in a
system software database called the Revision
Management Database (RMDB).
By default, the Revision Management Database is
located at HP’s support website.
The Revision Management Database
(RMDB)
When Toptools Device Manager updates software on
your PCs, it first locates the correct RMDB software
packages at the FTP server on HP’s website. These
are then listed on the
Toptools and are available for use through the action
Manage Driver/FirmWare. When you use this command,
Toptools Device Manager will download the required
packages and carry out the automatic installation
process.
However, depending on your network and security
policies, you may not have installed Toptools Device
Manager on a computer with an Internet connection.
Or the connection may exist but requires the use of
passwords or specific proxy security extensions.
These prevent the tools in the Device Manager from
accessing the Internet.
In either case, you can access the Driver/Firmware
features of Toptools Device Manager by creating a
“mirror” of HP’s FTP server on your own network.
Once you have created a local RMDB containing the
correct directory structure and the files are copied
from the HP server, it can be addressed by Toptools
Device Manager just as if it were HP’s support
website RMDB.
Settings >Drivers/FirmWare page of
driver and Agent packages can be carried out securely
without Internet access.
This document describes how to add individual
packages to the system software database on your
local system. These packages can be downloaded
individually from the FTP server on HP’s website.
A further step would be for you to create your own
software packages for use with Toptools. Though this
is feasible, HP does not recommend you do this and
no support is provided.
HP Product Lines
The principles of setting up a local FTP server for
Toptools Device Manager software updates, as
described here, are essentially the same for HP
Desktop PCs, HP Omnibooks, HP Hubs & Switches,
and HP Visualize Workstation systems.
Setting Up Your Local FTP Server
To set up an emulation of HP’s FTP server on your
own network that is able to supply RMDB data when
Toptools Device Manager requires it, you must first
create the local FTP server.
Proceed as follows:
Windows NT
1 Set up your Toptools management server as an FTP
server.
Note: The default installation of Toptools
performs only a “minimal installation” of the
Windows NT Option Pack, which does not
include the FTP server capability. Therefore,
you must re-run the installation of NT Option
Pack to install the FTP server. Do this from
either:
a Your Toptools CD-ROM (program
SETUP.EXE in the directory PWS or IIS,
depending on whether you are running
Windows NT 4.0 Workstation or NT 4.0
Server, respectively, or
This solution ensures that the automatic process for
downloading and registering BIOS, diagnostics,
1
An example of values in the
Windows NT Registry Key
“DesktopPCs”
Use a registry editor to alter the values in “DBaseURLBase” and in “URL” as shown here,
so that they point to “ToptoolsRMDB” and “Toptools RMDB.txt” on your server (see Step
5 below).
b From Microsoft’s web site (currently
http://www.microsoft.com/
windows/downloads/default.asp)
where you need to select
Server
, and then NT 4.0 Option Pack).
2 Select
Add/Remove, then in the list of components
select
Personal Web Server (on NT Workstation) or
Internet Information Server (on NT Server) and click
show subcomponents. In the list of subcomponents,
on
select the
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) server. Complete
the installation by clicking on the
NT Workstation or
OK and Next
buttons.
3 Create the following directories on your FTP server
(Toptools management server):
a Create a directory, for example:
..\inetpub\ftproot\hppackages
Placing this directory in the path
..\inetpub\ftproot\ will make it
available from FTP with no further action
required.
bUnder ..\hppackages, create a
subdirectory named ToptoolsRMDB.
4 Copy files from the HP FTP server to your server:
a Your hppackages directory is:
ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/ccd/[filename]
Copy the following two files to the directory:
ToptoolsRMDB.txt
TOPTOOLSRMDB.EXE
b Copy the contents of the directory
ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/ccd
/ToptoolsRMDB/
to your subdirectory ToptoolsRMDB.
5 Change the Registry to make the Toptools Device
Manager point to your server:
On your Toptools Device Manager server use either
REGEDIT.EXE or REGEDT32.EXE to edit the
following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE
\Hewlett-Packard\Toptools
\CoreComponent\RmDb\DesktopPCs
Change the string value of the field URL in this key
so that it points to the file ToptoolsRMDB.txt
on your own server. Change the string value of the
field DBaseURLBase so that it points to the
directory hppackages/ToptoolsRMDB/
where you copied all the driver packages.
When done, the contents of the key DesktopPCs
should look as shown above.
6 Edit the file ToptoolsRMDB.txt so that the
URL it contains points to the file
ToptoolsRMDB.exe on your server.
The file should contain one line as follows:
<Version Number> full ftp:
//<MyServer>/hppackages/TOPTOOLSRMDB.E
XE
(in the above one-line address there are no spaces in
the term
.. ftp:// ..
)
7 Install the packages on your management server:
Using the Toptools Device Manager, click on the
button
Settings and select Drivers/FirmWare from the
menu. In the main browser frame, click on the button
Update Now. This will install the downloaded database
for use with Toptools. Then you can install each
software package referenced in the database by
clicking on the
Download Package… button.
2
Note 1: Not all HP PC models have driver packages
available. To see which models support the BIOS and
Driver Update features, please refer to the Toptools
for Desktops Agent Support Matrices under
www.hp.com/go/vectrasupport,
www.hp.com/go/e-pcsupport or
www.hp.com/go/kayaksupport, respectively.
Note 2: When new packages are available on the HP
website, the contents of the file
ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/ccd
/ToptoolsRMDB.txt
will change. To take advantage of the updated
packages, you need to repeat steps 4, 6, and 7 above.
Windows 2000
1 Set up your Toptools management server as an FTP
server under Windows 2000:
To continue setting up your local FTP server on
Windows 2000, follow the instructions in steps 3-7
of the Windows NT section on
page 2.
Troubleshooting Your Local FTP Server Installation.
If you followed the instructions above and still cannot
access your new local FTP server, try the following:
1 Using the Registry Editor, copy the value of the field
URL under the key:
HKLM\Software\Hewlett-Packard
\Toptools\CoreComponents\RMDB
\Desktop PCs
Then paste the value into your web browser's
Address window. Check what is downloaded.
a From the Start Menu go to
Control Panel.
Start > Settings >
b Open the option Add/Remove Programs and
Add/Remove Windows Components.
select
c In the list of Windows Components, check the
box next to
then open
dIn
Details, ensure that Common files and File
Transfer Protocol (FTP) Server
(check the box next to each of these)
Internet Information Services and
Details for this component.
are both selected
.
e Click on Next to continue the installation of
Windows components. You will be asked to
insert a Windows 2000 CD-ROM, such as the
HP Image Creation and Recovery CD-ROM.
f Click on Finish to complete the installation.
g Right click on
My Computer and select Manage
from the drop down list of options.
h In the Management window, select
Applications> Internet Information Services >
Default FTP Site.
Services and
2 If this works correctly, you should receive a text file
containing a single line of text such as:
8 FULL http://<myserver>
/<path>/TOPTOOLSRMDB.exe
3 Copy the last field of this line (the URL http://..etc..)
and download the file it references by pasting the
URL in the browser’s address window. This should
download an executable file.
4 If one of the tests in steps 1-3 fails, then it is very
likely that the local FTP server is not installed
correctly. You should check the section on “Setting
Up Your Local FTP Server” above.
5 If all of the steps above work but you still have an
access problem, check that the proxy settings in your
web browser's configuration for you as a user, are
the same as the proxy settings configured for
Toptools Device Manager. Use the Toptools Device
Manager command
Settings > Internet and E-mail
and check the settings specified there.
2 Create the necessary directories on your FTP server
(Toptools management server). The process is
exactly as described for Windows NT on page 2,
step 3.
3
Manually Importing a System Software Package to your Database
Scheduling an Automatic Update of the RMDB
The normal way of obtaining a PC system software
package is via the
However, if you have downloaded a package
manually from the HP site, it is possible to add it to
the RMDB using the following manual procedure:
1 On the Toptools device manager server, create a
subdirectory, let us call it <MyPackage> under
<Toptools_root>\Data\Packages, where
<Toptools_root> is the directory where
Toptools has been installed (by default this is
C:\Program Files\hptt).
2 The package you downloaded is a self-extracting
executable. Run it and when prompted, tell it to
expand the files to the directory <MyPackage>
that you just created.
3 Open a command prompt window on the Toptools
server and type these commands:
CD <Toptools_root>\BIN
followed by:
TTUpdateRMDB.exe -hpinfo
<Toptools_root>
\Data\Packages\<MyPackage>
(this must be typed as a single command
line) where:
<Toptools_root> is the short path to the root
directory where Toptools has been installed (by
default C:\PROGRA~1\HPTT)
<MyPackage> is the name of the subdirectory
where you expanded the package.
For example:
TTUpdateRMDB.exe -hpinfo
C:\PROGRA~1\HPTT\DATA\PACKAGES
\MYPACKAGE
4 The package will be installed in the RMDB for use
with the usual
Toptools.
Download Package button in Toptools.
Manage Driver/Firmware commands in
If you need to set up an automatic update of your
Revision Management Database:
1Open the Microsoft Task Scheduler program on
the Toptools device manager server.
• To open the Windows 2000 Task Scheduler,
click on Start > Settings > Control Panel >
Scheduled Task.
• To open the Windows NT Task Scheduler click
on My Computer > Scheduled Tasks.
2 Click on
3 You will be prompted for the name of the executable
file to schedule. Select TTupdateRMDB.exe
located in the directory
<Toptools_root>\hptt\bin
Note: <Toptools_root> is the directory where
Toptools has been installed. By default it is
C:\Program Files\hptt.
4 Select the scheduling interval desired (weekly,
monthly, etc.).
5 Click on
shown there to:
TTupdateRMDB.exe -provider DesktopPCs
The automatic RMDB update is now scheduled.
Add Scheduled Task.
Advanced and modify the command line
Copying the Toptools System Software Database from One Management Server to Another
In some circumstances, you may want to copy the
RMDB from one Toptools server to another. This is
possible only if:
• Both management servers have the same versions of
Toptools Device Manager installed.
• All the installation parameters are the same,
especially the directory structure.
Proceed as follows:
1 By default the system software packages are stored
in the directory
C:\Program Files\HPTT\Data
Go to that directory.
2 Copy the file RMDB.MDB to the target management
server.
4
3 Copy the directory ..\Packages and all its
contents.
4 If a file named RMDB.LDB is present, do not copy
it. You can delete this file.
The system software packages should now be
available for use with the Toptools Device
Manager on the target server.
HP Omnibooks
The index for HP Omnibooks is located at:
ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/mobile_computing
/software/TopToolsRMDB.txt
and the update packages are stored in the directory:
ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/mobile_computing
/software/TopToolsRMDB/
Index and Packages
HP Desktop PCs
As described in this document (page 2, step 4), the
index for HP Desktop PC software updates is located
at:
ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/ccd/ToptoolsRMDB.t
xt
and the packages for HP Desktop PCs are stored in the
directory:
ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/ccd/ToptoolsRMDB/
Other Product Lines
Toptools Agent packages are available for HP
Omnibooks and HP Visualize systems (although no
BIOS or driver packages are currently available for
Omnibooks or Visualize):
HP Visualize
The software index for HP Visualize Workstations is
located at:
ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/visualize
/TopToolsRMDB.txt
and the packages are stored in the directory:
ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/visualize
/TopToolsRMDB/
HP Hubs and Switches
The index for Hubs and Switches is located at:
ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/networking/software
/RMDB_TopTools.txt
and the update packages are stored in the directory:
ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/networking/software /TopToolsRMDB/
HP Netserver
The index for Netservers is located at:
ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/servers/software/ toptoolsrmdb.txt
and the update packages are stored in the directory:
ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/servers/software/
Note: Copying all update package files will require
more storage space than may be practical. A file
toptools_packages.txt has been provided that
lists the update packages supported by RMDB.
For More Information
Connect to the following web site for further
information on Toptools.
www.hp.com/toptools/doc/manuals.html
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