KACE Systems Management Appliance 14.1 Common Documents - Administration Guide

Using Replication Shares

Using Replication Shares

Replication Shares are devices that keep copies of files for distribution, and they are especially useful if your managed devices are deployed across multiple geographic locations.

For example, using a Replication Share, a device in New York could download files from another device at the same office, rather than downloading those files from a appliance in Los Angeles. A Replication Share is a full replication of all digital assets and is managed automatically by the appliance. Whenever a Replication Share is specified for a label, devices in that label go to the Replication Share to get files.

In addition, you can use Replication Shares to deploy of Managed Installations, patches, or Dell Updates where network bandwidth and speed are issues. Replication Shares are good alternatives to downloading directly from an appliance.

Replication Shares enable an appliance to replicate application installers, patches, upgrades, and script dependencies to a shared folder on a device. If any replication item is deleted from the appliance, it is marked for deletion in the Replication Share and deleted in the replication task cycle. The figure shows a Replication Share configuration and task flow.

Figure 9. Replication Share configuration

To create a Replication Share, identify one device at each remote location to act as a Replication Device. The appliance copies all the replication items to the Replication Device at the specified destination path. The replication process automatically restarts if it is stopped due to a network failure or replication schedule. If stopped, the replication process restarts at the point it was stopped.

Sneaker net share: You can create a folder and copy the contents of an existing replication folder to it. You can then specify this folder as the new replication folder in the appliance. The appliance determines whether the new folder has all the replication items present and replicates only the new ones, which conserves bandwidth. You can manually copy the contents of replication folder to a new folder. The replication folder created in a device follows following hierarchy:

\\machinename\foldername\repl2\replicationitems folder

The device name and folder name is user defined while repl2 is automatically created by appliance. The replication items folder includes the folder for patches, kbots, upgrade files, and applications.

All the replication items are first listed in the replication queue and then copied one at a time to the destination path. Any new replication item is first listed in the replication queue and then copied after an interval of 10 minutes.

Replication items are copied in this order:

Create Replication Shares

Create Replication Shares

You can create Replication Shares on managed devices.

To create a Replication Share you must:

Replication Shares can be created only on devices that appear on the Devices list in Inventory. If the device you want to use is not on the Devices list, you need to create an inventory record for the device before you can use it as a Replication Share.

See Managing inventory information.

NOTE: Enable Failover To Appliance only after testing the Replication Share.

Option	Description
Path	The path the Replication device uses for the Replication Share. Applications are copied from the appliance to this location. For a local drive, use local drive syntax, for example: C:\kace_sma_share For a network drive, use UNC format, for example: \\kaceRep\kace_sma_share\   NOTE: $ notation, for example \\KaceRep\e$, is not supported.
Share Type	Select whether to use a Local Share or UNC.
Credentials	The details of the service account required to connect to the device and run commands. Select existing credentials from the drop-down list, or select Add credential to add credentials not already listed. See Add and edit User/Password credentials.
Label	The label of the devices using the Replication Share. Verify that the selected label does not have KACE_ALT_LOCATION specified. KACE_ALT_LOCATION takes precedence over the Replication Share for downloading files to devices.

View Replication Share details

View Replication Share details

You can view details of devices used as Replication Shares.

Managing credentials

Managing credentials

The appliance enables you to manage the usernames and passwords required for logging in to other systems, such as managed computers and servers, and the information required for Google or SNMP authentication, from a central location.

Credentials that have been added to the appliance's Credentials Management page are available for selection on drop-down lists in the Inventory (Discovery, Provisioning, and Agentless device management), Distribution (Managed Installations, File Synchronizations, and Replication), and Scripting (Configuration Policies and Security Policies) sections.

In addition, credentials that are updated on the Credentials Management page are automatically updated wherever they are used in the various appliance components. You do not need to independently update each item that uses the credentials.

However, the credentials you add to the appliance must match the credentials on the target systems. If you change the credentials on target systems, you must change them on the appliance's Credentials Management page as well.

If the Organization component is enabled on your appliance, you manage credentials for each organization separately.

NOTE: The Credentials Management drop-down list is not available on LDAP configuration pages, and the feature is not used to manage user credentials for accessing the appliance Administrator Console or User Console, which use single sign on and LDAP authentication. See About user accounts and user authentication.