Altiris Agent Utility Tool

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IT Management Suite

Issue/Introduction

What is the Altiris Agent Utility tool?

Resolution

Answer

Altiris Agent Utility Tool (AeXAgentUtil)

The Altiris Agent Utility tool (AeXAgentUtil) lets you perform the following functions from the managed computer:

Start and stop the Altiris Agent
Set the default Notification Server the Altiris Agent is configured to
Remove the Altiris Agent from a managed computer
Set up a log file for all running processes of the managed computer

Note:

An Altiris Agent can only communicate with one Notification Server at a time. If you want to change the Notification Server that the Altiris Agent reports to, use this utility.

Running the utility

On the managed computer, open Command Prompt.
Open the InstallPath\Altiris\Altiris Agent directory and enter the following command:

AeXAgentUtil [/Parameter]

where [/Parameter] is the utility parameter you want to perform.

Utility Parameters

The following is a list of the utility parameters you can set to perform various tasks.

AeXAgentUtil

[/?]
[/Start]
[/Stop]
[/Clean]
[/Server:server]
[/Web:web]
[/RegisterMSXML]
[/EnableSmsClient]
[/RegisterClient]
[/ResetGUID]
[/DeleteDevices]
[/UninstallAgents]
[/ListProcess]
[/EnableASP]
[/Log:logname]

Parameter	Description
[/?]	Shows a usage dialog.
[/Start]	Starts the Altiris Agent (6.0 or later).
[/Stop]	Stops the Altiris Agent (Altiris Agent 6.0 or Notification Server Client 5.x).
[/Restart]	Stops and starts the Altiris Agent (6.0 or later).
[/Clean]	Attempts to completely remove the Altiris Agent. This will attempt to detect the relevant version and remove all files and registry entries. Use this if the Altiris Agent installation fails on managed computers.
[/Server:server]	Sets a server as the Notification Server.
[/Web:web]	Sets the URL of the Notification Server. This is only valid if used with /Server. By default, the Notification Server URL is http://server01/Altiris. Example: To add a server with the Notification Server URL specified: AeXAgentUtil.exe Server:server02 Web:http://server02/Altiris
[/RegisterMSXML]	Registers the MSXML library (MSXML through MSXML4).The MSXML library is used by the Altiris Agent and this parameter is provided for your managed computers that do not have the MSXML library registered.
[/EnableSmsClient]	Activates the SMS Client. Note: Installing the Notification Server Client 5.x will automatically disable the SMS Client.
[/RegisterClient]	Registers the DLLs of the Altiris Agent.
[/DeleteDevices]	Deletes the known Altiris legacy device drivers.
[/UninstallAgents]	Deletes all registered agents installed by Altiris solutions (excluding the Altiris Agent).
[/ListProcess]	Logs all running processes to the filename set by /Log. In order to use this, /Log must be set.
[/EnableASP]	Permits the use of ASP pages for IIS 6 or later.
[/ResetGUID]	Deletes the Altiris Agent from the registry. The Notification Server resets it.
[/Log:logname]	Sets the log filename that will be used in the system32 directory. If this parameter is omitted, CEReportEvent logger will be used. Quotes are required if the filename has spaces. Examples: /Log:somelog.log /Log:“long name.log”

Sample Scenario

In this scenario, a user has moved physical location from New York to Seattle. His administrator has instructed him to change the Notification Server his agent reports to. The server in New York is called NS NY1 and the server in Seattle is NS SE1. The user needs to do the following:

On the managed computer, open Command Prompt.
Open the InstallDir\Altiris\Altiris Agent directory and enter AeXAgentUtil [/ Server:NS SE1]. For example: C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\AeXAgentUtil.exe /Server:ServerName /Web:http://ServerName.example.com/Altiris

Next, the same user needs to reset the Altiris Agent GUID and have it reset by the Notification Server it now reports to. From the managed computer, do the following:

Open Command Prompt and then open the InstallPath\Altiris\Altiris Agent directory.
Enter AeXAgentUtil [/ResetGUID].