Migrate to Vista

Here you can find more about migrating to MS Vista http://www.easyvistamigration.com/

DS68SP1: Quick Nice to Knows

Installing the Deployment Agent on Vista
The installation program is contained in the Agents folder on the Deployment Share. To install, launch the installation MSI on the computer using and admininstrator account and complete the prompts.
To perform a silent installation, use a command similar to the following:
DAgent.msi -qn server_tcp_addr= 172.19.17.180 server_tcp_port=402.
To remotely install combine the above instructions for a silent installation with a login script or group policy object.
Vista Remote Control
Deployment Solution uses the Remote Desktop feature of Vista to perform remote control. Remote Desktop must be enabled on the remote computer and you must have the required credentials to use remote control.
Vista Software Distribution
Due to increased security in Vista, software must meet the following criteria before it can be distributed using Deployment Solution:
􀁺 "The software you are distributing must be Vista compliant.
􀁺 "The installation is set to run as completely silent.
􀁺 "No user input is required by the installation prcess.
􀁺 "If the package requires additional files, the "copy all directory files" and/or "copy all subdirectories" options are selected to provide these files.
􀁺 "If you are attempting an installation from a remote location or UNC path, only one setup executable is required to complete the installation.
􀁺 "In the Distribute Software Task, you have left the advanced option on the default selection, "Copy files using Deployment Server then Execute," or you have provided appropriate domain credentials to perform a remote installation. See the release notes for additional information.
Vista Run Script Tasks
Due to increased restrictions placed on services in Vista, scripts executed by
Deployment Solution cannot display anything to the user. Scripts requiring user
interaction, including pause statements, will not execute correctly.
Altiris Deployment Solution 6.8 254
Vista Imaging
RDeploy fully supports imaging Vista computers similar to other Windows operating
systems. Additionally, support is provided for the WIM format using ImageX

How to scale Inventory Solution in very large environments

If you read this article you know hwo to configure Inventory

RDP 3.5

Hp Launched his RDP 3.5
Support for Vista and Integrity Servers included...AND....DS6.8SP1
More news after testing

Microsoft Office updates fail to install

Office updates fail to install on client computers. After further investigation, it is discovered that the update returned one (or more) of the following error codes:
1603
1612
-1073741510
-2147467259
1605
Cause
There could be several reasons why these error codes are returned.
The install program for the Office* update program has the Starting Window set to Normal. This causes a command prompt window to appear on the screen and, if a user is not logged on, the update will fail.
The Office update requires access to the source installation files, but cannot find a valid path to where they are stored. Typically, Office installations come from a network share. If these files are moved, or if the path to them changes, the clients become out of date and hold an invalid location in their registry. When the update cannot find these files, it will try to prompt the user for a valid location. Since the update is set to run hidden, the window is supressed and the update fails.
It is possible for the clients to have a valid network location for source files, but when the updates attempts to retrieve those files, the update again fails. This would be caused by running the Office update with the System Account and storing the files on a share with limited access.
If you are using Notification Server 6.0 SP2, then you could be running into a known issue. The Altiris Agent was known to spawn instances of update.exe to install patches, but then did not kill them once the patch was installed. When the next patch goes to install, it will fail because update.exe is already running.
Resolution
Ensure that the update is set to run hidden, see article 23997, "How do I ensure that an Office update will run silently?"
Verify that all clients have a valid path to source installation files. See article 24002, "How do I verify that clients have a valid Office source installation files location?"
Set this update to run using different credentials. See article 22705, "Can I specify an alternate account with which to install updates?"
Apply Hotfix 20 for NS 6.0 SP2 (or just apply SP3). See article 21167, "Patches fail to install with a 1603 error code."
Hint: If the location of the Office Source Install files in article 24002 is on a Network Share, the Update needs to be run with User Credentials that has Network rights. To make this change see article 22705 for how to set up the Bulletins to be installed with a Domain User account. (Verify that this Domain User has rights to the Network share.)Note: It is recommended that the latest version of Windows Installer be installed on client computers. Older versions are known to be a catalyst for the above issues

Altiris HP Client Manager 6.2 Release Notes

Windows VISTA Support
From HPCM 6.2 and later, in addition to other supported operating systems, the following types of Windows VISTA operating systems are supported in HPCM for client computers:
Vista Business
Vista Business x64 Edition
Vista Enterprise x32 and x64
HP Backup and Recovery -- Configure HP Backup
This feature lets the administrator create a backup policy to initiate a backup task of the HP Backup and Recovery Manager on the client computer. An entire system backup is taken as per the schedule mentioned in the policy. Ths feature is available only if the licensed Altiris® Software Delivery Solution™ software (Altiris - SWD Solution) is installed.
Out of Band Management
HP Client Manager now supports computers using Intel* vPro Technology (Intel* AMT). HP Client Manager 6.2 includes Altiris Out of Band Management Solution that you can use to perform discovery, hardware inventory, power management, alerting, and other configuration tasks on HP computers vPro systems, all independently of system power and OS state. HPCM 6.2 includes full reporting of AMT capabilities for HP systems.
This feature lets the administrator access Altiris® Out of Band Management Solution™ software in the Altiris 6.5 Console. A link is provided in the Additional Link section of HP Client Manager Quick Start. This link is available only if the licensed version of Out of Band Management Solution (OOB) is installed.

A lot of new Beta's available from Altiris Notification Server

There are a lot of new beta's available...most of them to support VISTA and X86...
To the right you find a list of the active Beta's
Beta's can be found here

What is Package Replication Solution?

The Package Replication Solution is just an interim solution for customers who absolutely can't wait for Hierarchy. Unless there are critical issues, there will be no update to this. Hierarchy is the solution going forward. Once Hierarchy is out, this solution will be dropped.
This should be compatible with SP3.
Originally this was planned to be released with SP3, but Altiris has decided to give it out only as requested.

Package Replication has been designed for centralized administration of packages in a network containing two or more Notification servers. It allows packages and programs to be created and configured on one NS and transmitted or "replicated" to other NSs. The NS that packages are replicating from is called the "parent NS" and the NS which packages replicate to is called the "child NS".
Note: A Notification Server can be both a child NS, with packages being replicated to it, and a parent NS replicating packages to another NS.
Package Replication is not designed to perform real-time replications. It runs daily at 2 a.m. by default but can be changed manually in Scheduled Tasks.

Office 2007 install fails with SVS layers active

Problem/Symptoms
When trying to install Office 2007 or any of its components, shortly after clicking the Install Now (or Upgrade) button, the install dialog disappears and the please send the error information to Microsoft dialog comes up.
If you look in the log file to be sent to Mircosoft, neer the end you see a line like the following:
Error: ORegistryKey.GetSubKeyNames failure: Cannot get all sub key names for registry "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall" HResult: 0x80070103.

Environment
SVS 2.0 - SVS 2.1 beta 1.6
Any active layers containing registry values under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall Microsoft Office 2007

Resolution
Work-around: Deactivate all layers before installing any Office 2007 components.
The cause of the issue has been identified and testing has reported that this issue no longer exists in current development builds of the product. This should perform correctly in the next release of SVS.

Minimum RAM size needed to run WinPE through PXE in DS 6.5?

Since VMWare Workstation 5.51 and DS 6.5SP1 the standard size of 256MB is no longer enough to boot using WIN PE 2005 in a VMWARE.
In this case WINPE boots and get stuck on the black screen with Please Wait... at the bottom.
Increasing to 300MB or higher solves this problem. After the OS is installed you can lower the Memory size if required

The following article descibes the size needed to boot with WINPE : http://kb.altiris.com/article.asp?article=24672&p=3