WebAdmin for Windows v6.0 to Real-Time System Manager v6.1 upgrade

jawhite5150 · 12-30-2005, 01:57 PM

I'm wondering if anyone has upgraded their WebAdmin for Windows 6.0 install to the Real-Time System Manager 6.1?

When I upgraded mine, it added a new set of Tools under Tasks called RTSM (it has broken out the tools into individual applets rather than flyout menus in WAFW) and upgraded the xml in Resource Manager to have a Real-Time tab in it.

Since it's integraded in Resources Manager now, you can't query a machine that isn't in your NS Database, it errors out.

The "upgrade" also left all the old WAFW tools behind.....broken.

You can't uninstall anything and NS Repair doesn't work because it modified the xml. I tried using the aeXconfig.exe command to uninstall the solution but it only rips out the backend and leaves all the interfaces intact.

I now have a Frankenstein Notification Server that has two identical solutions half way running. Am I alone on this one or did Altiris do a great job testing all this stuff before the release?

Nick · 12-30-2005, 02:12 PM

I haven't done the upgrade. To be honest I haven't messed with WAFW much at all.

I have been keeping an eye on your thread over at the altiris forum to see if anything came from it.

I think the main reason others haven't seen this is that it isn't used very much, but I'm just guessing there.

I wish I could offer you more advice.

Mike · 12-31-2005, 02:14 AM

I'm noticing that it leaves a bunch of broken buttons in Helpdesk. Is there any other broken links that you are discovering? I haven't tried to use it on an "unmanaged machine" yet. It's still agentless, so it should work.

On the plus side, it adds the WAFW functionality as a tab in Resource Manager where it really should be for managed systems anyway to better integrate it with the rest of the system. It also has alot of new features like changing the location of the page file or renaming a logical drive and complete activity logging (last one didn't have any logging save errors). Pretty freakin awesome.

Down side, it definitely broke the link in Helpdesk and from what Jimmy has experienced, sounds like there is issues connecting to systems that are not managed; possibly because it wants a guid to find connection properties. We'll have play around with this.

Nick is right that its not one of the most popular tools which I think Altiris hopes to change. WAFW was a really nice tool, but not incentive enough for most to upgrade to cms 2. Hopefully they'll sort out the rest of the Real Time System Manaqer hiccups, too bad they weren't sorted before it went live!

Nick · 01-01-2006, 12:12 PM

I did some research and found out that RTSM, by design, is not meant to be used on systems that are not in the NS database. I'm not sure on the particulars but that is what I heard.

Jimmy,

Is there any chance you can give me a detailed rundown on what your system is that is having this problem? I want to see if I can help replicate this in my lab.

Mike,

Can you give me detail on what you are seeing as well? No promises but I may be able to get a small bit of traction on this.

I'm on vacation right now so not sure how often I'll be able to check in but will definitely look at it as soon as I get back.

Mike · 01-01-2006, 01:52 PM

Sure! Thanks for kicking this message around.

One of the features of Helpdesk solution is that when you pull up an "Asset" either by being associated with an "Incident" or by searching for the "Asset" directly, there are three buttons that you can use to interact with that asset, provided the solutions are installed:

Remote Control w/ Carbon Copy
Resource Explorer
Web Administrator for Windows

When WAFW was upgraded to RTSM, the 'web admnistrator' button still remained in Helpdesk. When you click it, it tries to open the WAFW web service ie: "http://altiris/Altiris/WebAdminForWindows/connect.aspx?connect=ntlm&host=COMPUTERNAME"

This no longer exists so it basically throws a 404: "Description: HTTP 404. The resource you are looking for (or one of its dependencies) could have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable. Please review the following URL and make sure that it is spelled correctly. "

This is a huge bummer for anyone who's spent some time integrating WAFW with HD because there are alot of custom "Tasks" that utilize thw WAFW web service, like one-click password reset, ping and traceroute commands. Anyone who has dev'd these will find that they are all broken now.

I've descovered that you can change the URL to "http://altiris/altiris/RTSM/connect.aspx?...." but it no longer allows you to pass the 'NTLM&host' parameter and requires that you select a resource from a resource picker.

Yeah I'm not liking this. This is going to brake alot of stuff for my Helpdesk peeps. I'm going to try to get the word out not to upgrade until Altiris gets this part sorted out as it breaks allot of stuff for my Helpdesk people.

This should definitely be "Sticky".

Nick · 01-01-2006, 08:33 PM

Great information Mike!

Soon as I get back from vacation I'm going to install WAFW on one of my lab servers and see if I can replicate this.

Thanks for making this thread a sticky. I definitely think this is something the community should be aware of.

If anyone else has information that will help in replicating errors like this please let us know.

Thanks,

vortex0007 · 01-02-2006, 11:02 AM

From our information, this is a known issue and the service pack for Helpdesk that is about to be released will correct this issue.

Nick · 01-02-2006, 12:13 PM

Bryan,

Thanks for the information!

Mike · 01-02-2006, 12:14 PM

Thanks for the tip Bryan, though I will add that I'm running HD Sp3 Beta and I still experienced it.

vortex0007 · 01-03-2006, 01:11 AM

Working with Altiris Technical support, the following SQL script was provided to completely remove Web Admin for Windows from the Notification Server database. I must stress that this script should not be used for any product other than Web Admin for Windows.

Please ensure you have a backup copy of your database before attempting this action.

DECLARE @GUID varchar(40)
--REM Replace GUID with Product GUID of the Solution you wish to Remove from the Altiris Database
SET @GUID = '{B2CF75A5-C442-4945-A979-1EAFDD182A76}'

Delete from Item where Guid = @Guid
Delete from Item where ProductGuid = @Guid
Delete from Item where SecurityGuid = @Guid
Delete from ItemClassUserCreatable where ProductGuid = @Guid
Delete from ItemDeleted where ItemGuid = @Guid
Delete from ItemNameCache where ItemGuid = @Guid
Delete from LicenseStatus where ProductGuid = @Guid
Delete from SecurityACE where EntityGuid = @Guid
Delete from SecurityACEChanged where EntityGuid = @Guid
Delete from SecurityEntity where Guid = @Guid
Delete from String where BaseGuid = @Guid
Delete from StringCacheRN where BaseGuid = @Guid

jawhite5150 · 01-03-2006, 11:44 AM

I have done quite a bit of hacking and chopping to get things back to a manageable state. Running aeXconfig on the RTSM and WAFW solutions got me back to the point where i could reinstall WAFW and get those links running again but the RTSM solution is still there because of the 'Altiris Real-Time Infrastructure' it installs and doesnt allow you to uninstall because it's a one-way XML change.

The icons and links for WAFW came with the Helpdesk install and not with the WAFW install. The wanted to leave grayed out links in Helpdesk so you ask questions and buy their add-on solution. Unfortunatly removing WAFW wont take out the broken links.

Mike · 01-05-2006, 11:31 AM

.....and the links aren't repurposed to connect to RTSM or deactivated... Just broken

BTW, to any readers who are using this thread to troubleshoot their own problem; the AeXConfig script Jimmy is refering to for uninstalling the RTSM or any other solution can be found in Altiris KB article #NTSWR201602

jawhite5150 · 01-06-2006, 06:50 PM

FYI....
Altiris is researching this "enhancement" as incident #124828.

Mike · 01-13-2006, 01:11 PM

Having installed the latest HD Service Pack, I can confirm that the "Web Admin for Windows" link still exists and is still broken. If you choose to upgrade to RTSM, the only solution at the moment is to manually edit the templates and remove the broken WAFW link. You would then access the RTSM functionality (new web admin for windows) from the resource manager.

However, it did upgrade all of my "Tasks" that used WAFW (one-click password reset, etc) to use RTSM, so it's not as broken as it was before. One might be able to live with it, but here's a big catch for alot of people: WAFW worked on computers that aren't registered in the DB. This was great for really spread out organizations that can't install our agent on all of the systems they support. RTSM will not work on systems not registered with a GUID in the Altiris DB.