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Enterprise User Manual

Chapter 4

Managing Clients

PC-Duo Enterprise manages Clients in two modes - Offline and Online. In Offline mode, Client PCs and Consoles and Schedulers communicate through intermediary areas called Offline Areas. (In a LAN environment, an Offline Area is a convenient file share.) In Online mode, the host components act directly on the Client PCs by accessing file shares on the Client - either the Admin share, or shares created by the PC-Duo Enterprise Client software. Offline and Online Clients can be mixed in a Site Database.

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.

The preferred and default method is Offline, and the rest of this chapter, and the manual in general, assumes Offline mode. For more information on Online Clients, see Chapter 14, "Online Clients".

PC-Duo 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

PC-Duo Enterprise Clients are displayed in the Console's Nodes View, in the top right corner of a Site window. This View lists the Nodes that are members of the currently selected Group.

To view all the Nodes at a Site, select the All Nodes Group in the Groups View.

You can right-click in the Nodes View to display a shortcut menu, containing menu commands which enable you to add, modify and view data for the selected Client.

Customizing the Nodes View

The columns in the Nodes View 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.

Nodes View Totals

The Console status bar displays the number of currently-selected Nodes and the total number of Nodes at the Site. When a Group is explicitly selected, the status bar indicates this by displaying the total number of Nodes in the selected Group. For example:

Viewing Node Properties

You can view and edit Node Properties using the Node Properties dialog. To display this dialog, right-click on a node in the Nodes View and choose Properties from the shortcut menu.

Information in the Node Properties dialog comes from the Node's stored data. Properties are defined when a Node is added to the database, or when a Hardware Inventory, Software Inventory or User Prompting Operation has been performed on it.

The Node Properties for Offline Nodes includes their Offline ID. These properties allow you to locate the data subdirectory for each Offline node.

You can also locate a Node's data subdirectory by right-clicking on the Node 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 of these actions open the Property dialog, which you can use to create or modify individual properties.

Auto-populating the Database with Nodes

The Auto-Populate Operation provides an easy mechanism to keep your Site Database up to date as new Client PCs appear at your Site.

Clients typically upload their raw inventory data to an Offline Area. This Offline Area can be searched by the Auto-Populate Operation, which detects new Client data in the Offline Area and publishes the Client names into the Database.

An alternative to performing an Offline Auto-populate is to use the Offline Scanner, which publishes the Client names and also executes an inventory analysis. The Offline Scanner is typically used immediately after creating a new Site, although you can reactivate it later to detect new Clients.

To Customize the Auto-populate Operation:
  1. At the Console, right-click on the Auto-populate Operation. Depending on the type of Site you created, this Operation may be called Online Auto-populate or Offline Auto-populate.
  2. Choose Customize from the shortcut menu.
  3. When the Customize... dialog appears, select the Autopopulate/Scan tab.
  4. Make sure the Enable offline scan check box is selected.
  5. The Offline area box lets you enter a specific Offline Area to scan for new Clients. You can leave this box empty to scan all Offline Areas. Make sure the Enable online scan check box is deselected.
  6. Click the OK button to save the changes and close the dialog. You can now use the operation.
    Multiple Offline Areas can be defined using the Console's Site, Offline Paths menu command.

Performing an Auto-populate Operation

Make sure you have configured your Auto-populate Operation before using this procedure.

To perform an Auto-populate Operation:
  1. Double-click the Auto-populate Operation in the Operations View. A message box is displayed to show its progress.

    When it has finished, the Auto-populate Operation produces a list of new nodes in an Event Viewer window, and the Node names are added to the Nodes View.

    You can also use the Offline Scanner to identify new Clients at your Site. We recommend using the Scanner when creating new Sites.

    When the Offline Scanner identifies new Clients, a Hardware Inventory and Software Inventory are automatically performed on them.

Deleting Nodes

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

  1. In the Console's Nodes View, select the Nodes you want to delete.
  2. Right-click on a selected Node and choose Delete Node(s) from the shortcut menu.

    A confirmation message is displayed, asking if you want to delete the Node and all its associated data. (This data includes all the information about the Node in the Site Database, as well as the Node's Offline Area data).

  3. Click the Yes button to delete the Node.
    When you delete a Node, the PC-Duo Enterprise Client software on the desktop PC is unaffected.

Deleting Disks

To delete the Disks that are defined for a Node, right-click on the Node to display the shortcut menu, then choose the resource from the Delete Resource(s) submenu.

Note that deleting a Disk removes information from the PC-Duo Enterprise Site Database, and does not affect the Client PC's disk.

By selecting multiple Nodes before performing this action, you can simultaneously delete the relevant Resource for all the selected Nodes.

Performing Operations on Clients

To perform operations on specific Nodes, use the following methods to select multiple Nodes:

Scan on Demand

Scan on Demand exists to enable some operations to be executed in real-time against Offline Clients. There are circumstances where the fully real-time mode of working with Online Clients can be a bonus. For example, it gives you the ability to carry out an instantaneous software inventory of a Client.

Scan on Demand examines and displays the shares already present on an Offline PC. If you are able to provide access information to reach the shares, the operation can be executed in Scan on Demand mode. Details of how to use Scan on Demand are provided in Chapter 5, "Working with Operations".

Organizing Clients into Groups

Clients can be organized into Groups for better Site management. Having organized your Clients into Groups, you can perform operations on an entire Group.

Groups View

Groups are displayed in the Console's Groups View, in the top left area of a PC-Duo Enterprise Site window.

PC-Duo Enterprise supports two types of group: Fixed and Dynamic.

Fixed Groups

Fixed Groups contain specified Nodes only, which you associate with a Group by dragging-and-dropping the Nodes onto the Group.

To Create a New Fixed Group:
  1. Right-click in the Groups View, then choose Add Group from the shortcut menu. The Add Group dialog is displayed.
  2. Make sure the Fixed group option is selected, then enter the Group name and a Comment to describe the Group.

When you have specified a Group name and Comment, click OK to return to the Console. The new Group is selected in the Groups View, and the Nodes View is empty. You can now add Nodes to your Fixed Group.

To add Clients to a Fixed Group:
  1. Select a Group such as All Nodes, which contains the Clients you want to add to your Fixed Group.
  2. Working in the Nodes View, select the Clients you want to add, then drag-and-drop the selected Clients onto the Fixed Group in the Groups View. The Clients are added to the Fixed Group.
To remove Clients from a Fixed Group:
  1. Make sure the appropriate Fixed Group is selected in the Groups View.
  2. Select the Clients you want to remove from this Group, then right-click to display the shortcut menu.
  3. Choose the Delete from Group menu command. The selected Clients no longer belong to this Group. The Nodes themselves are not be deleted - for example, they still belong to the All Nodes group.
    To rename a Fixed Group, right-click on the Group and choose the Modify Group command from the shortcut menu. The Modify Group dialog is displayed, enabling you to change the Group name and Comment.

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

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 database which match the specified criteria.

To create a Dynamic Group:
  1. Right-click in the Groups View and choose Add Group from the shortcut menu.
  2. In the Add Group dialog, enter a Group name and a Comment and select the Dynamic group option to display the Filter expression box.
  3. In the Filter expression box, type a SQL expression to select the nodes for this Group. Alternatively, click the SQL Wizard button to build the filter expression, then click the Paste SQL button to enter the expression.
  4. Click the OK button to list the Nodes that meet the criteria you specified.
To change a Dynamic Group's SQL Definition
  1. Right-click on the Group and choose Modify Group from the shortcut menu. The Modify Group dialog is displayed.
  2. Make your changes to the Group name, Comment and Filter expression, and click the OK button.

Using the SQL Wizard

PC-Duo Enterprise's SQL Wizard enables you to create database queries using a simple natural language style interface, without having to learn all the complexities of SQL.

You can launch the SQL Wizard from the Add Group and Modify Group dialogs to create SQL definitions for Groups. The SQL Wizard is also useful in creating Database Views, and can be launched from Database Viewer windows.

Using the SQL Wizard

The SQL Wizard interface consists of two main areas:

To build a SQL Query:
  1. In the SQL Wizard's Query Builder (in the top part of the window), notice the all option in the first line. If necessary, click on this word to change the type of query.
  2. Click on the text < Click here to add a new condition > - to create a new condition line.
  3. Click on the field selector (initially showing NODENAME, which is the first item in the list). A list of fields is displayed. Select the field you want to work with from the drop-down list.
  4. Click on the condition selector (starting with is showing initially) and select the appropriate condition from the menu.
  5. Click on the empty value line at the end of the condition, then enter the value you want to use.

    Repeat this procedure for each condition you want to add to the expression.

Selecting Fields to Display

To specify which fields are displayed in your query results, click the SQL Wizard's Show Fields button to open the Select Fields to Display window. It comprises three main areas:

Available Fields

Lists the database fields available for selecting, organized into logical groupings.

Displayed Fields

Lists the fields you have selected to display. To add a field to this list, select the appropriate item in the Available Fields list and click the Add button - when the drop-down menu appears, choose Add Field.

Sorted Fields

To sort the order in which displayed fields appear, drag-and-drop items in the Displayed Fields list. To change the sorting type (Ascending or Descending) for a field, right-click on that in the Sorted Fields list.

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

Generating SQL Code in the SQL Wizard

After creating or modifying a query, you can create the actual SQL code by clicking the Generate SQL button in the SQL Wizard. Alternatively you can press F5, or choose the Tools, Execute menu command.

When the SQL code is generated, you can check the query results using the Preview tab. When you are satisfied the query is working correctly, click the SQL Copy button to copy the code to the clipboard.

Saving and Opening SQL Wizard Queries

You can save and open your SQL Wizard queries for later use as dqb (Database Query) files. To save a query, use the File, Save Query menu command.

To open a query at a later date, use the File, Open Query menu command. The saved query is displayed in the SQL Wizard's Query Builder.

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 this dialog, choose the Tools, Options menu command.

The Query tab in the Options dialog enables you to control the style of the SQL code generated by the SQL Wizard. The available options are:

Option
Description
New Join Style
Select this option if you prefer the generated SQL code to describe relationships using complex JOIN statements (rather than comparative field criteria).
Select Distinct
If selected, this option adds the DISTINCT keyword to the SQL code, so that duplicate results are eliminated.
Oracle Joins
The generated SQL code uses Oracle-style JOIN syntax.
Quote Aliases
This option enables field alias names to feature in the generated SQL code.
Popup Fields
Select this option to organize field selector list items into submenus.
Popup Values
Select this option to enable you to select from a pick list of possible values (if they have been defined for certain fields).

Importing and Exporting Groups

You can import and export Group definitions to and from different PC-Duo Enterprise Sites. These definitions are saved as .GBF files (Group Backup Files).

Group Backup Files are text files that list the individual Node names of Fixed Groups, or the Filter Expressions which define Dynamic Groups.

To save your Group definitions in a file:
  1. In the PC-Duo Enterprise Console, right-click in the Groups View.
  2. Choose the Export Groups menu command from the shortcut menu.
  3. When the Save As dialog appears, browse to the location where you want to save the Group definitions, then enter a name for the file.
  4. Click the Save button to export the Groups.
To import saved Group definitions:
  1. Right-click in the Console's Groups View and choose the Import Groups menu command from the shortcut menu.
  2. In the Open dialog, select the Group Backup File you want to import.
  3. Click the Open button to import the Groups. Any Groups with identical names to existing Groups at this Site are duplicated, except for the All Nodes Group.

Controlling Client Behavior

Client behavior in PC-Duo Enterprise is controlled by several parameters in the LUCLIENT.INI file. LUCLIENT.TXT in the \PC-Duo Enterprise directory on the Client PC includes commentary on all the sections of the LUCLIENT.INI file. You should read these files before implementing a major PC-Duo Enterprise roll-out.

Collecting Inventory Data and Distributing Software

PC-Duo Enterprise Clients refresh and push their raw inventory data, and check for software distribution tasks at the Offline Area. The frequency at which this occurs is defined by two parameters in the LUCLIENT.INI file.

PushDaysInterval

Controls the frequency with which CLBOOT pushes the Client's inventory data to the Offline Area and checks for any software distribution jobs. It is set to 0 days, by default, for testing purposes. However, because this will result in your Client Inventory data being refreshed at every SnapshotMinutesInterval, you should reset this to 1 or greater when PC-Duo Enterprise goes live.

SnapshotMinutesInterval

Controls the frequency with which CLBOOT is run. It is set to every 60 minutes by default (and can be adjusted to a minimum setting of 10 minutes).

Used in combination, these parameters enable you to control when and how much work is carried out on your Clients. For example:

Software Metering

Software Metering Agents run on each Client and collect raw data on what software is being used and how long it is used for. Metering is controlled by the following parameters:

ScanSecondsInterval

Controls the frequency with which the Metering Agents poll the Client and take a snapshot of all applications that are currently open. Snapshots are taken every 10 seconds by default.

SnapshotMinutesInterval

Controls the frequency with which the metered data is saved to a new file ready for transfer to the Offline Area. The metering data is saved every 60 minutes by default.

SwmPushHoursInterval

Controls the frequency with which the metered data is transferred to the Offline Area. Metering data is transferred to the Offline Area every 24 hours by default.

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