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KACE Systems Management Appliance 13.2 Common Documents - Administrator Guide

About the KACE Systems Management Appliance Getting started
Configuring the appliance
Requirements and specifications Power-on the appliance and log in to the Administrator Console Access the Command Line Console Tracking configuration changes Configuring System-level and Admin-level General Settings Configure appliance date and time settings Managing user notifications Enable Two-Factor Authentication for all users Verifying port settings, NTP service, and website access Configuring network and security settings Configuring Agent settings Configuring session timeout and auto-refresh settings Configuring locale settings Configuring the default theme Configure data sharing preferences About DIACAP compliance requirements Configuring Mobile Device Access Enable fast switching for organizations and linked appliances Linking Quest KACE appliances Configuring history settings
Setting up and using labels to manage groups of items Configuring user accounts, LDAP authentication, and SSO Deploying the KACE Agent to managed devices Using Replication Shares Managing credentials Configuring assets
About the Asset Management component Using the Asset Management Dashboard About managing assets Adding and customizing Asset Types and maintaining asset information Managing Software assets Managing physical and logical assets Maintaining and using manual asset information Managing locations Managing contracts Managing licenses Managing purchase records
Setting up License Compliance Managing License Compliance Setting up Service Desk Configure the Cache Lifetime for Service Desk widgets Creating and managing organizations Importing and exporting appliance resources
Managing inventory
Using the Inventory Dashboard Using Device Discovery Managing device inventory
About managing devices Features available for each device management method About inventory information Tracking changes to inventory settings Managing inventory information Finding and managing devices Registering KACE Agent with the appliance Provisioning the KACE Agent Manually deploying the KACE Agent Using Agentless management Adding devices manually in the Administrator Console or by using the API Forcing inventory updates Managing MIA devices Obtaining Dell warranty information
Managing applications on the Software page Managing Software Catalog inventory
About the Software Catalog Viewing Software Catalog information Adding applications to the Software Catalog Managing License assets for Software Catalog applications Associate Managed Installations with Cataloged Software Using software metering Using Application Control Update or reinstall the Software Catalog
Managing process, startup program, and service inventory Writing custom inventory rules
Deploying packages to managed devices
Distributing software and using Wake-on-LAN Broadcasting alerts to managed devices Running scripts on managed devices Managing Mac profiles Using Task Chains
Patching devices and maintaining security
Using the Security Dashboard About patch management Subscribing to and downloading patches Creating and managing patch schedules Managing patch inventory Managing Windows Feature Updates Managing Dell devices and updates Managing Linux package upgrades Maintaining device and appliance security Manage quarantined file attachments
Using reports and scheduling notifications Monitoring servers
Getting started with server monitoring Working with monitoring profiles Managing monitoring for devices Working with alerts
Using the Service Desk
Configuring Service Desk Using the Service Desk Dashboard Managing Service Desk tickets, processes, and reports
Overview of Service Desk ticket lifecycle Creating tickets from the Administrator Console and User Console Creating and managing tickets by email Viewing tickets and managing comments, work, and attachments Merging tickets Using the ticket escalation process Using Service Desk processes Using Ticket Rules Run Service Desk reports Archiving, restoring, and deleting tickets Managing ticket deletion
Managing Service Desk ticket queues About User Downloads and Knowledge Base articles Customizing Service Desk ticket settings Configuring SMTP email servers
Maintenance and troubleshooting
Maintaining the appliance Troubleshooting the appliance
Appendixes Glossary About us Legal notices

Add and edit Task Chains

Add and edit Task Chains

A Task Chain is a collection of tasks that can run in a specific order. Use the Task Chain Detail page to add and edit Task Chains.

1.
Go to the Task Chains list page:
a.
Log in to the appliance Administrator Console, https://appliance_hostname/admin. Or, if the Show organization menu in admin header option 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.
b.
On the left navigation bar, click Distribution, then click Task Chains.
2.
Do one of the following:
◦
Select Choose Action > New.
◦
Click the name of a task chain.
3.
In the Configure section, specify the following options:

Option

Description

Name

The name of the task chain.

Enabled

Select this check box to allow this task chain to run.

Description

A brief description of the task chain.

4.
Still in the Configure section, specify the devices on which you want the Task Chain to run.
◦
To choose devices that belong to labels, in the Configure section, under Labels, click Manage Associated Labels. In the Select Labels dialog box that appears, select one or more labels associated with the devices that you want to select. Close the dialog box.
◦
To choose devices by operating system, click Manage Operating Systems. In the Operating Systems dialog box that appears, select the OS versions in the navigation tree, as applicable.

You have an option to select OS versions by their family, product, architecture, release ID, or build version. You can choose a specific build version, or a parent node, as needed. Selecting a parent node in the tree automatically selects the associated child nodes. This behavior allows you to select any future OS versions, as devices are added or upgraded in your managed environment. For example, to select all build current and future versions associated with the Windows 10 x64 architecture, under All > Windows > Windows 10, select x64.

5.
In the Schedule section, specify the schedule settings:

Option

Description

None

Run in combination with an event rather than on a specific date or at a specific time.

Every n hours

Run at a specified interval.

Every day/specific day at HH:MM

Run daily at a specified time, or run on a designated day of the week at a specified time.

Run on the nth of every month/specific month at HH:MM

Run on the same day every month, or a specific month, at the specified time.

Run on the nth weekday of every month/specific month at HH:MM

Run on the specific weekday of every month, or a specific month, at the specified time.

Custom

Run according to a custom schedule.

Use standard 5-field cron format (extended cron format is not supported):

* * * * *
| | | | +────────day of week (0-6)(Sun=0)
| | | +────────month (1-12)
| | +────────day of month (1-31)
| +────────hour (0-23)
+────────minute (0-59)

Use the following when specifying values:

•
Spaces ( ): Separate each field with a space.
•
Asterisks (*): Include the entire range of values in a field with an asterisk. For example, an asterisk in the hour field indicates every hour.
•
Commas (,): Separate multiple values in a field with a comma. For example, 0,6 in the day of the week field indicates Sunday and Saturday.
•
Hyphens (-): Indicate a range of values in a field with a hyphen. For example, 1-5 in the day of the week field is equivalent to 1,2,3,4,5, which indicates Monday through Friday.
•
Slashes (/): Specify the intervals at which to repeat an action with a slash. For example, */3 in the hour field is equivalent to 0,3,6,9,12,15,18,21. The asterisk (*) specifies every hour, but /3 restricts this to hours divisible by 3.

Examples:

•
15 * * * * Run 15 minutes after every hour every day
•
0 22 * * * Run at 22:00 every day
•
0 0 1 1,6 * Run at 00:00 on January 1 and June 1
•
30 8,12 * * 1-5 Run weekdays at 08:30 and 12:30
•
0 2 */2 * * Run every other day at 02:00

View Task Schedule

Click to view the task schedule. The Task Schedule dialog box displays a list of scheduled tasks. Click a task to review the task details. For more information, see View task schedules.

6.
In the Tasks section, add one or more Tasks.
a.
Click New Task to add a Task.
b.
In the New Task area that appears, click Task Type and select from the available types, as required.
Some task types:
▪
Have an Abort on Failure option. Selecting this option causes the task chain to stop executing on a given machine if it fails on that machine.
▪
Allow you to select a specific user-defined task, such as Wake-On-LAN, Scripts, and Patch Schedules.
▪
Run all applicable Tasks on the machine, such as the Managed Installation (MI) and File Synchronization (FS) tasks.
Also, certain task types, allow you to select a specific user-defined task. Other task types, such as the Managed Installation (MI) and File Synchronization (FS) tasks run all applicable MI or FS tasks on the machine.
The selected Task appears in the Tasks section.
7.
To reorder the Tasks in the Task Chain, in the top-right corner of the task area, click , and drag and drop the Task into a desired place in the sequence.
8.
To delete a Task from the Task Chain, in the bottom-right corner of the task area, click .
9.
Click Save.

To run a task chain, select it on the Task Chains list page, and click Choose Action > Run.

Patching devices and maintaining security

Patching devices and maintaining security

Using the Security Dashboard
About patch management
Subscribing to and downloading patches
Creating and managing patch schedules
Managing patch inventory
Managing Windows Feature Updates
Managing Dell devices and updates
Managing Linux package upgrades
Maintaining device and appliance security
Manage quarantined file attachments

The appliance enables you to patch managed devices to improve software functionality and protect devices and networks from vulnerabilities.

Using the Security Dashboard

Using the Security Dashboard

About the Security Dashboard widgets
Customize the Security Dashboard

The Security Dashboard provides an overview of patching processes for the selected organization (if applicable), or the appliance.

If the Organization component is enabled on the appliance, and you are logged in to the Administrator Console (http://appliance_hostname/admin), the Security Dashboard shows information for the selected organization.

You can access the Security Dashboard if one or more roles associated with your user account grants access to this dashboard. If you want to hide it, edit your user roles, as needed. For more information, see Add or edit User Roles.

* 
TIP: The appliance updates the summary widgets periodically. To update most of the widgets any time, click the Refresh button in the upper right of the page: . To update most individual widgets, hover over the widget, then click the Refresh button above the widget. Some widgets may require additional steps.

About the Security Dashboard widgets

About the Security Dashboard widgets

Security Dashboard widgets contain information about the overall patch compliance for your managed devices.

This section describes the widgets available on the Security Dashboard. If the Organization component is enabled on your appliance, the widgets show the information for the selected organization at the Admin level.

This dashboard provides an overview of patch compliance in your environment, and the information about patching processes. Use it to quickly review the level of system patches installed on managed devices and look for any indicators that can improve your system security. For example, you can focus on the device patch compliance and review your patching schedules to ensure the latest system updates are installed and running on your managed devices.

Widget

Description

Critical Patch Compliance

This widget shows the deployment progress of patches that are marked as critical. If the Organization component is enabled on your appliance, the widget shows the information for the selected organization.

Dell Updates

This widget displays the number of Dell applications, BIOSs, and firmware updates that can be applied to managed devices. The updates are categorized as Moderate, Important, or Critical, depending on the urgency of the update. After a Dell Update schedule is created, data appears in the widget. See Configure Dell Update schedules.

If the Organization component is enabled on your appliance, the widget shows the information for the selected organization.

Compliance By Machine

This widget displays a donut chart, where each section of the chart indicates the percentage of patch compliance for each managed device. Hovering over each section of the chart displays the percentage of the patch compliance for the selected device.

You can change the information that appears in the widget by choosing the patch publisher, operating system, label, classification, severity, KB number, and availability date. You can also switch between bar chart and donut views, as applicable. You can also install multiple instances of this widget on the Security Dashboard using a different set of parameters in each instance.

Compliance By Patch

This widget provides a donut chart, where each section of the chart indicates the percentage of compliance for each applicable patch. Hovering over each section of the chart displays the percentage of the compliance for the selected patch.

You can change the information that appears in the widget by choosing the patch publisher, operating system, label, classification, severity, KB number, and availability date. You can also switch between bar chart and donut views, as applicable. You can also install multiple instances of this widget on the Security Dashboard using a different set of parameters in each instance.

Patch Installation Progress

This widget shows the progress of patching tasks that are running on managed devices. If the Organization component is enabled on your appliance, the widget shows the information for the selected organization.

Patches Deployed

This widget displays the number of patches that are currently deployed.

You can change the information that appears in the widget by choosing the patch publisher, operating system, label, classification, severity, KB number, and availability date. You can also switch between bar chart and donut views, as applicable. You can also install multiple instances of this widget on the Security Dashboard using a different set of parameters in each instance.

Patches Failed

This widget displays the number of patches that failed to deploy.

You can change the information that appears in the widget by choosing the patch publisher, operating system, label, classification, severity, KB number, and availability date. You can also switch between bar chart and donut views, as applicable. You can also install multiple instances of this widget on the Security Dashboard using a different set of parameters in each instance.

Patches Released

This widget displays the number of patches that are released and available for deployment.

You can change the information that appears in the widget by choosing the patch publisher, operating system, label, classification, severity, KB number, and availability date. You can also switch between bar chart and donut views, as applicable. You can also install multiple instances of this widget on the Security Dashboard using a different set of parameters in each instance.

Patching Tasks Completed

This widget shows the progress of patching tasks, such as detect, deploy, and rollback tasks, on managed devices. If the Organization component is enabled on your appliance, the widget shows the information for the selected organization.

Reports

This widget contains links to common patching reports. Use them to quickly generate a specific report, such as Critical and Recent Bulletin List , Devices not compliant by patch, and others.

SCAP Summary

This widget provides information about SCAP scans that have been performed on devices. If the Organization component is enabled on your appliance, the widget shows the information for the selected organization.

Views

This widget contains links to common patching pages and wizards, including any custom views that you created. Use them to quickly navigate to specific pages, such as the Patch Catalog. If you have any custom views, they are sorted alphabetically. If you want the custom views to appear in a specific order, you can prefix their names with numbers, as needed.

Windows 10 Releases

This widget shows a bar chart, with each item in the chart representing a particular Windows 10 release and the number of managed devices running that version. This can give you an idea of how many devices are candidates for published Windows 10 updates.

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