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Enterprise User Manual
Chapter 14
Online Clients
Online Clients are accessed directly over the network in real time, using hidden shares. They offer more immediate functionality than standard Clients, but they require the PC to be running and available on the network at the time of access.
With online Clients, PC-Duo Enterprise carries out its operations using background access to the PC hard disk. No intermediary file server is used.
This is similar to Microsoft's Administrative Share concept. PC-Duo Enterprise can apply this concept to all desktops from DOS upwards.
Non-disruptive background access is provided through Microsoft file sharing on Windows for Workgroups and above, and by a PC-Duo Enterprise component for DOS and Windows 3.x.
For Online Clients, the inventory collection programs run quickly and silently, saving the resultant data into files on the local hard disk for later retrieval by background access from a Host, when an inventory scan is performed. This avoids imposing any boot-time network load for Online Clients.
Working with Disks and Shares
PC-Duo Enterprise stores details about online Client PCs' Disks and Shares (referred to as "Resources" in PC-Duo Enterprise). These details are crucial when working with online Clients.
Editing Shares
The Resource Details dialog enables you to add and modify Client PCs' Share resources.
To add a new Share, right-click on the Node in the Nodes View, then choose the Add Resource(s) command from the shortcut menu. The Resource Details dialog is displayed.
To modify existing Shares, select one or more Nodes in the Nodes View, then right-click and choose Modify Resource(s).
By selecting multiple Nodes before performing this action, you can simultaneously modify the relevant Resource for all the selected Nodes.
If you are modifying multiple Nodes' Resource Details, the Node box displays the text SELECTED, to indicate that any changed Disk or
Share details affect all the selected PCs.
- When adding new Share details, use the Test button to check the settings are valid.
You can use the commands in the Nodes View shortcut menu to manage the Disk and Share information which PC-Duo Enterprise holds for Client PCs.
Architecture for Online Clients
Modifying Disks and Shares
The Resource Details dialog enables you to add and modify Client PCs' Disks and Shares.
To add a new Disk or Share for an online Client, right-click on the Node in the Nodes View, then choose the Add Resource(s) command from the shortcut menu. The Resource Details dialog is displayed.
To modify existing Disks and Shares for online Clients, select one or more Nodes in the Nodes View, then right-click and choose Modify Resource(s) from the shortcut menu.
By selecting multiple Nodes before performing this action, you can simultaneously modify the relevant Resource for all the selected Nodes.
If you are modifying multiple Nodes' Resource Details, the Node box displays the text SELECTED, to indicate that any changed Disk or Share details affect all the selected PCs.
When adding new Disk or Share details, use the Test button to check the settings are valid.
Deleting Disks and Shares for Online Clients
You can delete the Disks and Shares which have been defined for a Node by right-clicking on the Node to display the shortcut menu, and choosing the appropriate Resource from the Delete Resource(s) submenu.
Deleting a Disk or Share relates to deleting information from the PC-Duo Enterprise Site Database, and do not affect the actual Client PC's disk.
By selecting multiple Nodes before performing this action, you can simultaneously delete the relevant Resource for all the selected Nodes.
Operations and Online Clients
Operations work differently for online Clients. When an operation is performed on an online Client, it is carried out in real-time using background access to the Client PC. No intermediary file server is used.
This requires the online Client PC to be turned on and accessible over the network at the time of performing the operation. PC-Duo Enterprise accesses online Client PCs interactively by accessing their disk shares.
You can perform the same operation on any mixture of standard Clients and online Clients. PC-Duo Enterprise deals with each type of Client in the appropriate manner.
Generating Inventory Data for Microsoft SMS
PC-Duo Enterprise is able to generate Management Information Files (MIFs) for Microsoft's SMS product. These files can be collected by SMS and loaded into the SMS database. Hardware and Software Inventory Operations can produce MIFs.
The MIFs are placed on the Client from where they are transferred to the SMS logon server by the SMS Client agent.
- PC-Duo Enterprise's SMS interface is available only for online Clients.
Specifying the MIF Area
To integrate with SMS, PC-Duo Enterprise must know where to put the MIF files it generates. This is achieved by flagging one of a Node's Resources to indicate which Disk or Share has the SMS MIF directory:
- Right-click on a Node to display the shortcut menu, then display the Modify Resource submenu.
- From this submenu, select the Resource which contains the MIF directory. The Resource Details dialog is displayed.
Generating Hardware Inventory Data
PC-Duo Enterprise produces details of system configuration that are not available with Microsoft's SMS product, and this is added to the SMS Database, in some cases by expanding the SMS group and in other cases by adding new groups.
The template MIF used by PC-Duo Enterprise has a number of tokenized sections which indicate the main areas of additional information.
Start Component Name = "Workstation" $REDIRECTIONS (MICROSOFT|REDIRECTIONS|1.0) $CPU (MICROSOFT|PROCESSOR|1.0) $PRINTERS (MICROSOFT|PRINTERS|1.0) $SHARES (MICROSOFT|SHARES|1.0) $STARTUPFILES (MICROSOFT|STARTUPFILES|1.0) $MULTIMEDIA (MICROSOFT|MULTIMEDIA|1.0) $ROMS (MICROSOFT|ROMS|1.0)To enable MIF generation, check the per Client MIF box on the Operation's MIF Support tab sheet and enter the Template and per-Client MIF files exactly as shown below:
Generating Software Inventory Data
PC-Duo Enterprise produces more detailed information than is available through the standard Software Inventory process in Microsoft's SMS product. The information can be used to expand the standard SMS Software Inventory database, as follows:
- Package Name - keys onto SMS Package record.
- Package Path - uses PC-Duo Enterprise path format.
- Package Resource - the disk or share name as used by PC-Duo Enterprise.
- Scan Date - written into the standard SMS field.
- Package Version - added by PC-Duo Enterprise.
- Package Type - added by PC-Duo Enterprise.
- Package Vendor - added by PC-Duo Enterprise.
- Package Status - added by PC-Duo Enterprise. This is the status used for change notification, and can have values: New Package, New Version, Normal, Removed.
To Enable MIF Generation:
 Vector Networks http://www.vector-networks.com Voice: +44 (0) 1827 67333 Fax: +44 (0) 1827 67068 info@vector-networks.co.uk |
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