KACE Systems Management Appliance 14.0 Common Documents - KACE Service Desk Administrator Guide

Configure appliance General Settings without the Organization component

If the Organization component is not enabled on your appliance, all appliance General Settings are available at the Admin level.

If the Organization component is enabled on your appliance, see Configure Admin-level or organization-specific General Settings.

Go to the Admin-level General Settings page:

On the left navigation bar, click Settings, then click ControlPanel.

On the ControlPanel, click Customize General Configurations link under the General Settings section to display the General Settings page.

In the General Options section, provide the following information:

Option	Description
Last updated	Read-only: The date the information was changed and the name of the organization.
Company Name	Enter the name of your company.
Administrator Email	Enter the email address of the appliance administrator. System-related messages, including critical alerts, are sent to this address.
Company Email Suffix	Enter the domain from which your users send email. For example: example.com.
Enable mobile device access	Enable or disable Mobile Device Access to the appliance. Mobile device access enables you to interact with the appliance using the KACE GO app on iOS and Android smart phones and tablets. Administrators can use the app to access Service Desk, inventory, and application deployment features. See Configuring Mobile Device Access.
Session Timeout	Set the number of inactive hours to allow before closing user sessions and requiring users to log in again. The default is 1. The User Console and Administrator Console have Timeout Session counters to alert users of this time limit. Only periods of inactivity are counted. The counter restarts when the user performs any action that causes the console to interact with the appliance server, such as refreshing a window, saving changes, and changing windows. When the counter reaches the limit, the user is logged out, unsaved changes are lost, and the login screen appears. The Timeout Session counter appears in the upper right of each console.

In the Client Drop File Size Filter section, specify a file size.

Options

Description

Client Drop File Size Filter

A file-size filter for the organization's Client Drop location.

The Client Drop location is a storage area (Samba share) for the organization on the appliance. This storage area is used to upload large files, such as application installers and appliance backup files, to the appliance. Uploading files to the Client Drop location is an alternative to uploading files through the Administrator Console using the default HTTP mechanism, which can result in browser timeouts for large files.

The Client Drop Size filter determines whether files uploaded to the organization's Client Drop location are displayed on the Upload and Associate Client Drop File list on the Software Detail page. For example, if the Client Drop Size filter is set to 1 GB, the Upload and Associate Client Drop File list shows files that are 1 GB in size or larger. Files that are less than 1 GB in size are not displayed on the list.

Application files are moved from the organization's Client Drop location to the appropriate area when the file is selected on the Software Detail page and saved.

Appliance backup files that are placed in the Client Drop location are automatically identified as appliance backup files, and they become available for selection on the Backup Settings page within five minutes. See Copy files to the appliance Client Drop location.

In the User Console section, specify customizations for the User Console text:

Option	Description
Title	The heading that appears on the User Console login page. The User Console is the web-based interface that makes applications available to users on a self-service basis. It also enables users to file Service Desk support tickets to request help or report issues. To access the User Console, go to http://<appliance_hostname>/user where <appliance_hostname> is the hostname of your appliance.
Welcome Message	A welcome note or description of the User Console. This text appears below the title on the User Console login page.

In the Acceptable Use Policy section, select policy settings:

Option	Description
Enabled	Enable the appliance to display your policy, and require users to accept the terms of your policy, when they access the Administrator Console, User Console, or Command Line Console, or log in using SSH or FTP.
Title	The heading of the policy to be displayed on the login page of the User Console.
Message	Details of the policy, which are displayed below the Title on the login page. Users must agree to the terms of the policy before they can log in to the User Console.

In the Log Retention section, select the number of days to retain log information. Log entries that are older than the selected number of days are automatically deleted from the log. See Access appliance logs to view Microsoft Exchange Server errors.

In the User Notification Retention section, select the number of days to retain user notification. Any user notifications that are older than the selected number of days are automatically deleted from the Notifications pane. See Configure user notifications.

In the Share With Us section, specify data sharing options.

NOTE: To validate your product license, Quest collects minimal license-related information, such as the MAC Address of the appliance, the version of the appliance software, the license key, and the number of managed devices, regardless of the data sharing options selected in this section.

Option	Description
Share summary usage data...	(Recommended) Share summary information with Quest. This information includes appliance status, uptime, and load averages, as well as the number of devices, Managed Installations, and applications being managed by the appliance. This option is recommended because it provides additional information to Quest Support if you need assistance. In addition, data shared with Quest is used when planning product enhancements.
Share detailed usage data...	(Recommended) Share detailed information with Quest and share anonymous information with ITNinja.com. This information includes Agent and appliance crash reports, user interface usage statistics, and inventory information, such as application titles. Quest uses this information to help improve the Software Catalog, and ITNinja uses anonymous data to identify relevant content on http://www.itninja.com for dynamic feeds to the appliance Administrator Console. ITNinja.com is a community website where IT professionals can share information and research on a wide variety of systems management and deployment topics. The ITNinja feed is a feature that dynamically displays software deployment tips and other contextual information on relevant pages in the appliance Administrator Console. To enable the ITNinja feed, you need to select Share detailed Usage data.... This setting shares information anonymously with ITNinja. The ITNinja feed is available only if Share Summary Usage Data... is selected, and it is available only on pages related to software deployment, such as the software, Managed Installation, and File Synchronization detail pages. The feed is not available on the Software Catalog detail page. Clear this option to prevent the appliance from sharing inventory data with the ITNinja community. However, clearing this option does not remove any information that has already been shared. For more information, contact Quest Support.
Share extended patch diagnostics	(Recommended) Share detailed patch diagnostics with Quest.

In the Locale Settings section, specify locale preferences. These preferences determine the formats used for date and time information displayed in the Administrator Console.

Option	Description
Organization Locale	The locale to use for the organization’s Administrator Console and User Console.
Command Line Console Locale	The locale to use in the Command Line Console, which uses the konfig user account.

10.

In the Ignore Client IP Address Settings section, enter the IP address or addresses to ignore. Separate each address with a comma. Ignoring IP addresses is useful when multiple devices could report themselves with the same IP address, such as a proxy address.

11.

In the License Usage Warning Configurations section, select the percentage to use for the warning threshold and critical threshold for software license usage. If you have configured software License assets, threshold information is displayed on the license-related widgets on the Dashboard.

12.

In the Update Reporting User Password section, provide the password of the account required to run reports on the organization. You cannot change the Database Name or the Report Username.

13.

In the Data Retention section, select the options for retaining data on the appliance. You can retain this data for a specified number of months, Forever, or never save it (Disabled).

Option

Description

Retain Device Uptime Data

The amount of uptime data to save for devices. Device uptime data refers to the number of hours of each day that your managed devices are running. You can retain this data for a specified number of months, Forever, or never save it (Disabled).

Retain Metering Data

The number of months that metering data is retained in the appliance database.

Metering data is information about how applications are installed and used on the Windows and Mac devices that you manage. Metering data that is older than the selected number of months is deleted on the first day of every month. See About metering information.

Retain Uncataloged data in the Software Catalog

Whether or not to retain information about Uncataloged applications in the appliance database.

Uncataloged applications are executables that are in the appliance inventory but that do not appear in the Software Catalog, and the appliance retains information about those applications by default. For organizations with a large number of managed devices, however, retaining this data might greatly increase the size of the database. This could increase the time it takes to load pages in the Administrator Console and the time it takes to perform database backups.

Select this check box to retain data for Uncataloged software in the appliance database. Clear the check box to disable data retention.

If data retention for Uncataloged software is disabled:

•

Agents on managed devices continue to upload full inventory information, and raw data related to applications is fingerprinted. If data sharing is enabled, data is also uploaded to the Quest KACE Software Catalog. See Configure data sharing preferences.

•

The appliance continues to store information related to Cataloged applications and Locally Cataloged applications in the organization database.

•

Reports for Cataloged applications continue to work as expected. However, reports related to Uncataloged applications show only those applications that are part of Cataloged software titles.

14.

In the Device Actions section, click Add New Action, the select the scripted actions to enable.

Device Actions are scripted actions that can be performed on managed devices. There are several pre-programmed actions available. To add your own action, select Custom Action in the Action menu, then enter the command in the Command Line text box.

The following variables are available for device actions:

KACE_HOST_IP

KACE_HOST_NAME

KACE_CUSTOM_INVENTORY_*

When device actions run, the appliance replaces variables with their appropriate values.

For KACE_CUSTOM_INVENTORY_ * replace the asterisk (*) with the name of a software application associated with a custom inventory rule. When the device action runs, the name is replaced with the custom inventory rule value for the device. Enter the software application name in uppercase characters. The allowed characters are: [A-Z0-9.-]."

NOTE: Most actions in the Action drop-down list require you to install additional applications for them to function. For example, using DameWare requires you to install TightVNC on your device as well as on the device you want to access.

This feature is only supported on Windows devices. The Windows device you are running the device action from must have the KACE Agent version 9.0 or later agent installed and connected.

When you initiate device through the agent, the action executable must be placed in your %PATH%. The agent is 32-bit, so on 64-bit Windows devices, use %windir%/System32 as an alias to the %windir%/Wow64 directory. If you need to run a program that's located in the %windir%/System32 directory on a 64-bit Windows system, you must use the %windir%/SysNative virtual directory. You can either add %windir%/SysNative to your %PATH% environment variable or provide a fully-qualified path by prepending %windir%/SysNative to your executable when defining your machine action.

15.

To use custom Administrator Console, User Console, report, and KACE Agent alert logos and background colors, in the Login Screen Options sections, provide the following information.

Option

Description

Admin Console Login Background Color

User Console Login Background Color

You can access the appliance from the following levels:

•

Administrator Console shows organization-related features.

•

System Administration Console provides access to appliance-related features.

•

User Console makes applications available to users on a self-service basis. It also enables users to file Service Desk support tickets to request help or report issues. To access the User Console, go to http://<appliance_hostname>/user where <appliance_hostname> is the host name of your appliance.

When you select an organization in the Administrator Console, you can specify a different background color of the Administrator Console and User Console login screens. Any colors specified on the organization level override system-level settings. For information on how to configure system-level settings, see Configure appliance General Settings with the Organization component enabled.

Click and use the color chooser to specify the color that you want to appear in the background of the login screen. You can select the color using the mouse, or specify the RGB values, as needed. When you close the color chooser, the HTML Color Code field on the right displays the HTML code of the selected color. To undo your selection, click Reset and start over.

NOTE: The color chooser is not supported in Internet Explorer 11.

In each applicable section, click Choose File, and specify the graphic file that you want to use as the custom logo in the Administrator Console, User Console, system-generated reports, and in KACE Agent alert that appear on managed devices.

The supported graphic file formats are .bmp, .gif, .jpg, and .png with the exception of KACE Agent alerts that only support .bmp files. Any logos configured on the organization level override system-level settings.

To see default KACE Agent alerts and sample customized versions, refer to the following illustrations. For examples of default and custom logos in the Administrator Console, User Console, and system-level reports, see Configure appliance General Settings with the Organization component enabled.

Figure 7. Default Alert logo

Figure 8. Custom Alert logo

16.

If you manage Lenovo devices, you can retrieve their warranty information. To do that, in the Manufacturer Warranty API Keys section, provide the Lenovo API keys to obtain the warranty data. Lenovo requires only a key. These values are stored encrypted in the database.

Important:

IMPORTANT: To obtain warranty information, you must configure the manufacturer's warranty API keys. For complete instructions, visit https://go.kace.com/to/k1000-help-warranty.

When configured, the device warranty information appears on the Device Details page in the Inventory Information group when you select an Lenovo device. For more information, see Groups and sections of items in device details.

Option	Description
Lenovo	Select this option if you want to obtain warranty information for your managed Lenovo devices. If this option is selected and you clear it, the Lenovo key is removed from the database.
Key	The API key for obtaining warranty information for managed Lenovo devices.

17.

Click Save and Restart Services.

The appliance restarts.

Configure appliance date and time settings

Configure appliance date and time settings in the Settings section of the Administrator Console. If the Organization component is enabled on your appliance, date and time settings are available at the System level.

It is important to keep the appliance date and time settings accurate, because many calculations are based on these settings.

Go to the appliance Control Panel:

◦

If the Organization component is not enabled on the appliance, log in to the appliance Administrator Console, https://appliance_hostname/admin, then select Settings > Control Panel.

◦

If the Organization component is enabled on the appliance, log in to the appliance System Administration Console, https://appliance_hostname/system, or select System in the drop-down list in the top-right corner of the page, then select Settings > Control Panel.

Click any of the following in the Date and Time Settings section:

◦

Set appliance timezone

◦

Enable Network Time Protocol

◦

Manually set appliance clock

The Date and Time Settings page appears.

Specify the following settings:

Option

Description

Timezone

Select a timezone in the drop-down list.

Time Setting

Select an option:

•

Configure Network Time Protocol. Use an Internet time server. If you select this option, provide the server web address in the Server field.

•

Manually configure date and time. Set the appliance clock manually. Specify the time and date in the drop-down lists. The Hour drop-down list uses a 24-hour clock format.

Server

Use an Internet time server to set the appliance time. Enter the web address of the time server in the text box. For example: time.example.com.

Click Save and Reboot.

The web server restarts and the settings are applied.

NOTE: During the restart, active connections might be dropped. When changes are saved, the page automatically refreshes after 15 seconds. After the appliance web server restarts, the updated date and time appear in the bottom right of the Administrator Console.

Managing user notifications

Review user notification alerts

Configure user notifications

User notifications on the appliance alert you about specific events that require your attention.

These alerts appear on the Notification pane, accessible by clicking the bell icon in the top-right corner of the screen. Administrators can review or edit notification configurations, as needed.

Review user notification alerts

The appliance displays user notification alerts in the Administrator Console when it encounters certain predefined conditions.

The list of triggered user notifications can be accessed using the bell icon, located in the top-right corner of the screen. Use this icon to show or hide the Notification pane, as needed. An orange indicator appears on the bell icon when new notifications are reported. After reviewing all new notifications, the indicator disappears.

Each notification alert that appears in the list is triggered by the related notification configuration. For more details, see Configure user notifications.

The background color of an alert indicates the alert severity: info (blue), warning (yellow), warning (red). This is also determined in the notification configuration.

Notification items always include a time stamp, indicating when the alert occurred. They remain on the list for a configured amount of time, even if the appliance re-boots. You can edit the notification retention period on the General Settings page, as applicable. For more details, see Configure appliance General Settings with the Organization component enabled.

Some notifications include links that you can use to drill down to the object associated with the notification. For example, if you see a license expiration notice, the link in the notification takes you directly to the license instance that is about to expire.

If a notification applies to more than one item, such devices or licenses, in most cases multiple notification alerts appear, one for each applicable item. When the appliance runs a patch schedule against one or more devices, patch completion messages appear in the notification panel when ten percent of each target device is completed, for the first ten devices. For more information about patch schedules, see Configure patch schedules.

Also, when a notification configuration is associated with one or more users, the resulting notification alerts are displayed only to those users in the Administrator Console. When notification configurations are not linked to any users this way, all users with administrative permissions logged into the Administrator Console can see the related notifications. This mechanism does not apply to the System Administration Console which always shows all notifications to all users.

You can delete individual notifications by clicking the Delete icon in the top-right corner of each entry in the list. To clear the list of notifications, click Delete All.

Do one of the following:

◦

Log in to the appliance Administrator Console, https://appliance_hostname/admin. Or, if Show organization menu in admin header is enabled in the appliance General Settings, select an organization in the drop-down list in the top-right corner of the page next to the login information.

◦

Log in to the appliance System Administration Console, https://appliance_hostname/system, or select System from the drop-down list in the top-right corner of the page.

The Dashboard or System Dashboard page appears.

In the top-right corner of the screen, click the bell icon to display the Notification pane.

Review the list of notifications.

Optional. You can delete individual notifications, or all of them, as applicable.

◦

To delete a notification, click the Delete icon in the top-right corner of the notification alert.

◦

To delete all notifications, and clear the entire list, in the top-right corner of the Notification pane, click Delete All.