Enterprise User Manual

Chapter 5

Managing Clients

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Clients are PCs and Servers on which the Enterprise Client software is installed. Enterprise can access and manage these PCs in two modes:

• In Offline mode, Consoles and Schedulers communicate with Client PCs through intermediate folders called Offline Areas. (In a LAN environment, an Offline Area is a convenient file share.)
• In Online mode, the Consoles and Schedulers act directly on the Client PCs through file shares on the Client - either the Admin share, or shares created by the Enterprise Client software.

An Enterprise Site can contain any mixture of Offline and Online Clients. PC-Duo Enterprise stores details about the Client PCs' disks and shares. In Offline mode, only disk related information is held. In Online mode, information about the shares is held. Client disks and shares are referred to in dialogs under the umbrella term of Client resources.

By default, PCs are set up as Offline Clients and the manual describes how Offline mode in most cases. For more information on Online Clients, see Chapter 15, "Online Clients".

Enterprise Clients refresh and push their raw inventory data and check for software distribution tasks at the Offline Area. For more information, see "Controlling Client Behavior".

Viewing Clients in the Console

You can view Client PCs that are registered with the currently selected Site in the Console's Clients folder. To view all the Clients at a Site, select All Clients. To list the Clients belonging to a Group, select the Group in the Clients folder.

The columns in the Client Views are resizable. You to change the widths of a column by dragging the side of a column heading. You can also drag-and-drop column headings to change the order in which they are displayed.

Right-click a Client to add, modify and view the Client data.

Viewing Client Properties

You can view and edit Client Properties using the Client Properties dialog. To display this dialog, right-click a Client in a Clients View and choose Properties from the shortcut menu. The Client Properties dialog displays the Client's stored data. Properties are collected when a Client is added to the database, or when a Update Hardware Inventory, Update Software Inventory or Get User Data Operation has been performed on it.

The Client Properties for Offline Clients includes their Offline ID. This property allows you to locate the data subdirectory for each Offline Client.

You can also locate a Client's data subdirectory by right-clicking the Client and choosing Explore Offline Area from the shortcut menu.

To add a new property, click the Add button. To edit an existing property, select the property and click the Edit button. Both these actions open the Property dialog, which you can use to create or modify individual properties.

Populating the Database with Clients

The Find Clients Operations provides an easy mechanism to keep your Site up-to-date as new Clients are created.

Offline Clients upload their raw inventory data to an Offline Area. This Offline Area can be searched by the Find Offline Clients Operation, which detects new Client data in the Offline Area and saves the Client names to the Site Database.

An alternative to performing a Find Offline Clients Operation is the Offline Scanner. It publishes the Client names and executes an inventory analysis of the new Clients. The Offline Scanner is enabled by default when you create a new Site. You can also activate it from the Site Management folder.

To customize the Find Clients Operation:

1. In the Console, right-click the Find Offline Clients Operation, and choose Customize from the shortcut menu. The Customize dialog is displayed.
2. Select the Autopopulate/Scan tab.
3. Select the Enable offline scan check box.
4. In the Offline area list, select the Offline Area you want to scan for new Clients. If you want to scan all Offline Areas for new Clients, leave the list blank.
5. Ensure the Enable online scan check box is deselected.
6. Click the OK button to save the changes and close the dialog.

   You can define multiple Offline Areas using Offline Paths in the Site Management folder.

Performing a Find Clients Operation

Ensure you have customized the Find Clients Operation before using this procedure. To perform a Find Clients Operation, click the Find Clients Operation in the Console. A message is displayed to show its progress.

When it has finished, the Operation produces a list of new Clients in an Event Viewer window, and adds the Clients to the Site Database.

You can also use the Offline Scanner to identify new Clients at your Site, and to automatically collect hardware and software inventory data for them. We recommend using the Scanner when creating new Sites.

Deleting Clients

You can remove Clients and all the data associated with them from the Database.

1. Select a Group that contains the Clients you want to delete.
2. Right-click the Client you want to delete, and choose Delete Client from the shortcut menu.

A confirmation message is displayed, asking if you want to delete the Client and the Offline Area used to transfer its data to the Site Database.

3. Click the Yes button to delete the Client. Enterprise deletes the Client data from the Site Database and the Offline Area.

   When you delete a Client, the Enterprise Client software on the desktop PC is not affected.

Removing Disk Information

To delete the disk information that Enterprise holds for a Client, right-click the Clients to display the shortcut menu, then choose Delete Resource(s) and select the disk you want to remove.

The Disk information is deleted from the Site Database. The Client PCs are not affected.

Performing Operations on Clients

Most Operations, such as Update Hardware Inventory and Distribute Software, are performed on specific Clients. To select the Clients for an Operation, click the Operation in the Console, and choose the Clients in the Select Clients dialog.

To perform the Operation on all Clients in the Site, select the Clients tab, and click All Clients.

To perform the Operation on specified Clients:

1. In the Clients tab, click the Select Clients option.
2. Select the check box of each Client.

To perform the Operation on Client Groups:

1. In the Clients tab, click the Select Clients option.
2. Select the Groups tab.
3. Select the check box of each Group.

To perform the Operation on Clients from a Group:

1. In the Clients tab, click the Select Clients option.
2. Select the Groups tab.
3. Select the Group Name.
4. Select the Clients from the Member Clients list.

You can select any combination of Clients and Groups. If a Client belongs to more than one selected Group, the Operation is performed on the Client only once.

Organizing Clients into Groups

Groups help you manage and support the PCs in your Site. Because most Operations enable you to select Groups as well as individual Clients, Groups enable you identify and work with Clients that have similar properties.

Groups are displayed in the Console's Clients folder. Enterprise supports two types of group: Fixed and Dynamic.

Fixed Groups

Fixed Groups contain the Clients you select.

To create a Fixed Group:

1. Right-click the Clients folder, and choose Add Group from the shortcut menu. The Add Group dialog is displayed.
2. Select the Fixed group option, and enter a Group name and a Comment.
3. Click OK to close the dialog. The new Group is added to the Clients folder. You can now add Clients to your Fixed Group.
4. To add Clients to the Group:
   1. Right-click the Group, and choose Add Clients from the shortcut menu. The Select Clients dialog is displayed.
   2. In the Select Clients dialog, select the Clients you want to add to the Group and click the OK button.

To remove Clients from a Fixed Group:

1. Click the Group to list its Clients in the Clients View.
2. Select the Client you want to remove, right-click and choose Delete from Group from the shortcut menu.

   To rename a Fixed Group, right-click the Group and choose Modify Group from the shortcut menu. The Modify Group dialog is displayed, enabling you to change the Group name and Comment.

Dynamic Groups

Dynamic Groups enable you to simultaneously process groups of PCs, such as all those in a particular department, or all those with Pentium CPUs.

A Dynamic Group is based on a SQL (Structured Query Language) statement, which selects Clients from the Site Database that matches the specified criteria.

To create a Dynamic Group:

1. Right-click the Clients folder and choose Add Group from the shortcut menu.
2. In the Add Group dialog, enter a Group name and a Comment.
3. Select the Dynamic group option.
4. In the Filter expression field, type a SQL expression to select the Clients for this Group. Alternatively, click the SQL Wizard button to build the filter expression.
5. Click the OK button to list the Clients that match your selection criteria.

To change the Group definition:

1. Right-click the Group and choose Modify Group from the shortcut menu. The Modify Group dialog is displayed.
2. Edit the Filter expression (or use the SQL Wizard), and click the OK button.

   You cannot convert a Fixed Group to a Dynamic Group, and vice versa.

Using the SQL Wizard

SQL Wizard enables you to create database queries using a natural language interface. You can open the SQL Wizard from the Add Group and Modify Group dialogs to create SQL definitions for Groups. You can also open the Wizard from the Database Viewer and use it to select the contents of the Database Views

The SQL Wizard contains of two main areas:

• The Query Builder area at the top of the window is used to construct your query.
• The Preview area at the bottom of the window shows the SQL code generated by the wizard, or a preview of the data selected by the query.

To build a SQL Query:

1. By default, the wizard selects data that matches all the conditions specified in the query. If you want to change the type of query, click all and choose a new Comparison Operator.

For example, to create an expression that lists all PCs belonging to the SALES department or the MARKETING department, choose any. To create an expression that lists all PCs except those belonging to the SALES and MARKETING departments, choose none.

2. Click < Click here to add a new condition >. The default query is displayed.
3. By default, the wizard creates an expression that searches the NODENAME field (the field that records the names of Client PCs) for data that matches your selection criteria. To search another property in the database, click the Field Selector, and select the field you want to search from the drop-down list.

The Condition Selector displays the default search for the field you selected.

4. The Condition Selector contains the searches that can be used to identify data in the selected field. To change the search, select the Condition Selector and select a condition from the list.
5. Select the Condition Value field at the end of the condition, and enter the value you want to identify in the selected field.
6. To add another condition repeat steps 2 through 5. When you have specified all the conditions for your query, click the Generate SQL button to create the SQL expression. The SQL expression is displayed in the SQL Code tab.

For example, to create a Dynamic Group that identifies all PCs with less than 128 Mb RAM:

1. Open the SQL Wizard and leave the all option unchanged.
2. Select Click here to add a new condition, and select NODENAME to display the source menu. In the menu, choose Memory, Total RAM.
3. Select is equal to and select is less than in the data selection menu. Select the blank line and enter 128.

Selecting Fields to Display

When the SQL expression is generated, you can check the query results by selecting the Preview tab. It lists the database records that match your query and the data fields that you can display.

To select data fields for display:

1. Click the Show Fields button. The Select Fields to Display dialog is displayed.
2. To add a field to the display, select its entry in the Available fields list, click Add and select a display option in the drop-down list. The field is added to the Displayed Fields list.
3. If you want to change the order in which the contents of the field are displayed, click the row selector at the left of the field, and, holding the mouse button down, drag the field to its new position.
4. If you want to use the field to control the sort order in which the data is displayed:
   1. Right-click on the entry in the Displayed Fields list and choose Sort result field from the shortcut menu. The field is displayed in the Sorted fields list.
   2. In the Sorted fields list, right-click on the Sorting type column of the field and choose a sort order from the shortcut menu.
5. If you want to remove a field from the list, right-click the field and choose Delete result field from the shortcut menu.
6. Click OK to save your changes and close the window.

   You can use the other options in the Add button menu to calculate totals and arithmetic operations on field values.

Saving and Opening SQL Wizard Queries

You can save and open SQL Wizard queries for later use, or for use in other queries. You can also save your original query in a separate file.

To save a query:

1. Click Save Query, or choose Save Query in the File menu. The Save Query dialog is displayed.
2. If you want to save the SQL expression to a file, select Save SQL to the file, and enter a location and name for the file, or click the File button. By default, SQL files are saved with an extension of .SQL.
3. If you want to save your natural language query, select Save reloadable query to the file and enter a location and name for the file, or click the File button. By default, query files are saved with an extension of .DBQ.

4. If you want to copy the SQL expression to the Windows clipboard ready to paste into Enterprise, select Save SQL to Clipboard.
5. Click the OK button to save the expression, or click the Cancel button to close the dialog without making any changes.

Choose Open Query in the File menu to reload a natural language query into the SQL Wizard.

Configuring the SQL Wizard

The SQL Wizard's Options dialog enables you to specify which Data Source Name (DSN) and Database Structure file name for the SQL Wizard. To display the dialog, choose Options in the Wizard's Tools menu.

The Query tab in the Options dialog enables you to control the SQL expressions generated by the wizard. Select:

New Join Style

To generate SQL expressions that describe relationships using complex JOIN statements (rather than comparative field criteria).

Select Distinct

To eliminate duplicate results by adding the DISTINCT keyword to the SQL expression.

Oracle Joins

To generate SQL code that uses Oracle-style JOIN syntax.

Quote Aliases

To use field alias names in the generated SQL code.

Popup Fields

To organize field selector list items into submenus.

Popup Values

To select field values from a pre-defined list.

Importing and Exporting Groups

You can copy Dynamic Group definitions to other Site Databases using the import and export. These definitions are saved as .GBF files (Group Backup Files). Group Backup Files are text files that list the Filter Expressions which define Dynamic Groups.

To export Group definitions to a file:

1. In the Site Management folder, click Export Groups. The Save As dialog is displayed.
2. In the Save As dialog, select the location in which you want to save the Group definitions, then enter a name for the file.
3. Click the Save button to export the Groups.

To import Group definitions into a Site:

1. In the Site Management folder, click Import Groups. The Open dialog is displayed.
2. In the Open dialog, select the Group Backup File you want to import.
3. Click the Open button to import the Groups. If you import a Group whose name matches an existing Group at your Site, Enterprise adds _[1] to the name of the imported Group.

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