NEW !!!! AltirisT IT Analytics 6.0

Altiris IT Analytics Solution software complements and expands upon the traditional reporting offered in most Altiris solutions. It brings exciting new features and capabilities to the Altiris platform by incorporating multi-dimensional analysis and robust graphical reporting and distribution features. This allows users to explore data on their own, without advanced knowledge of databases or third-party reporting tools, empowering them to ask and answer their own questions quickly, easily, and effectively.

The release Notes can be found here

Software Virtualization Solution 2.1 Hotfix 36647 Download

If you are experiencing any of the below problems, upgrade to Software Virtualization Solution 2.1 Hotfix 36647 (or above):

Inserting a new USB device causes system crash
When a layer is active and Print Spooler is restarted printers are removed
Installing Software Virtualization Solution on Vista causes IIS to become inoperable
Software Virtualization Solution exposes a registry bug in Windows, causing a blue screen crash
Memory leaks

More can be found found here

Gathering and Interpreting SQL Deadlock Information

The attached whitepaper in this KB provides details on gathering and interpreting SQL deadlock information.

Link : https://kb.altiris.com/article.asp?article=37501&p=1

Altiris Deployment Solution 6.8 SP2 Release Notes

Upgrade Installations
Upgrading from Deployment Solution 6.8 SP1
Upgrading from Deployment Solution 6.8 (Disable AutoUpgrade due to KB 33129)
Upgrading from Deployment Solution 6.5 SP1
Upgrading from Deployment Solution 6.5
Upgrading from Deployment Solution 6.1

Silent Installation
Deployment Solution allows you to walk through the Deployment Solution installation wizard to create an answer file (install.ini) which automatically sets options when running a silent install. For details on this process see:
Can Deployment Server be installed silently?

What's New in this Release
Improvements for this release include the following new features:

Support for Symantec® Ghost® Imaging
Important: Deployment Solution does not include the Ghost executable or a license to use Symantec Ghost. You must provide a copy of the ghost.exe and/or ghost32.exe imaging executable to enable this support.
Customers currently using the Ghost imaging solution have the option of copying the Ghost executable to the Deployment Server to enable Ghost imaging from the Create Disk Image and Distribute Disk Image tasks.
To add support for Symantec Ghost, on the Deployment Share, create a folder called ghost. Copy ghost.exe (for DOS support) and/or ghost32.exe (for WinPE support) to this folder.
Symantec Ghost is now available for selection in the Create Disk Image and Distribute Disk Image tasks. A configuration file called ImageTools.ini, located in the root of your Deployment Share, contains settings you can change to customize the behavior of Ghost. For example, the default command-line in DOS is:
CreateImageCommandLine=-clone,MODE=create,SRC=1,DST=%IMAGE_FILENAME% -sure
This setting and others can be customized by modifying ImageTools.ini.

Deployment Agent UI on Vista
When installing the Deployment Agent on Vista computers, you now have the option of installing a client-side agent configuration utility. This interface is similar to the configuration interface for the Deployment Agent on other Windows operating systems. To install, select the Control panel applet & UI component option during the DAgent installation.

The configuration utility is launched by selecting Start; Altiris; Deployment Solution; DAgent Configuration.

Wait in Automation Task
To avoid circumstances when a computer might boot into an unmanaged state, a new task, called wait, is provided to cause a computer to remain in automation and wait for instructions.

Thin Client View Enhancements
The Thin Client view has been enhanced with a new get inventory task and a software packages pane.

Remote Desktop Connection for Windows
A new Remote Desktop option has been added to the contextual menu when you right-click a Windows XP* or Vista* computer in the console. This option launches the Windows Remote Desktop utility to enable you to remote control a computer.
Windows XP computers still have the option of using the integrated Remote Control feature of the Deployment Console.

Client Agent Version Report Discrepancy

Problem:
Client Agent Version Report displays different client counts on the Level 0 and Level 1 sections of the report
Cause:
Level 0 SQL query uses vItem view and Level 1 SQL query uses vComputer view. vComputer filters out retired assets.
Resolution:
Change the Level 0 SQL query to query the vComputer view. Replace all instances of vItem in the level 0 query with vComputer.

Categories and Queues Spreadsheet

On the juice site ther is this noce article that will make your live easier when creating categories and queus in Altiris Helpdesk