Chat now with support
Chat with Support

KACE Systems Deployment Appliance 8.2 Common Documents - Administrator Guide

About the KACE Systems Deployment Appliance Getting started Using the Dashboard Configuring the appliance Setting up user accounts and user authentication Configuring security settings Preparing for deployment Managing device inventory Using labels Creating a Windows or Linux Boot Environment Managing drivers Capturing images Capturing user states Creating scripted installations Creating a task sequence Automating deployments Performing manual deployments Managing custom deployments Managing offline deployments Imaging Mac devices About the Remote Site Appliance Importing and exporting appliance components Managing disk space Troubleshooting appliance issues Updating appliance software Glossary About us Legal notices

Configure the date and time

Configure the date and time

The appliance logs deployment operations based on the date and time of the appliance system clock. You can set the system clock to match your timezone to prevent unexpected behavior, such as running resource-intensive backups during high network activity.

1.
On the left navigation pane, click Settings to display the Control Panel, then click Date and Time Settings to display the Date and Time Settings page.
2.
Specify the following settings:

Option

Description

Timezone

Select a timezone in the drop-down list.

Time Setting

Select an option:

•
Automatically synchronize with an Internet time server. Use an Internet time server. If you select this option, provide the server web address in the Server field.
•
Set the clock on the appliance manually. 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.

Time 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.

By default, the system clock is set to synchronize with the Quest KACE time server.

* 
NOTE: You can look up the time servers available for your system clock synchronization process using the NIST Internet Time Servers at http://tf.nist.gov/tf-cgi/servers.cgi.
3.
Click Save.
The web server restarts, and the settings are applied.

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.

Manage files on the appliance

Manage files on the appliance

The appliance comes with a Filesystem Manager, that allows you to manage files and directories on the appliance.

Use the Filesystem Manager page to easily view the file system contents, and add files or directories into the applicable locations, such as the petemp, drivers, restore, drivers_postinstall, and clientdrop directories.

* 
NOTE: This page does not allow you to download files from the appliance file system.
1.
On the left navigation pane, click Tools > Filesystem Manager to display the Filesystem Manager page.
2.
On the Filesystem Manager page, under Current Directory, navigate to the directory where you want to make changes.
For example, to add files or directories to the post-installation drivers directory, navigate to /peinst/drivers_postinstall.
* 
NOTE: You can only make changes to selected directories. If you navigate to a read-only directory, such as peinst, this is indicated on the page.
3.
To add a directory, under Actions, in the Directory Name field, type the directory name, and then click Add Directory.
4.
To add a file, under Actions, complete the following steps:
* 
NOTE: Some directories, such as /peinst/drivers/*/, allow automatic extraction of .zip, .cab, and .msi files. A note appears on the page when you navigate to the applicable directory.
a.
Complete one of the following steps:
▪
Click Select file, and navigate to the file that you want to add.
▪
Drag and drop the file into the indicated location.
b.
Click Upload File.
5.
To delete a file or a directory, click the trash icon on the right of the file or directory name.
* 
NOTE: You can only delete an empty directory.

Configure email notifications

Configure email notifications

You can configure the appliance to send email notifications using an SMTP server.

The Notifications page allows you to specify SMTP server settings, and includes a set of email notification templates that you can edit or disable, as required.

1.
On the left navigation pane, click Settings to display the Control Panel, then click Notifications.
2.
On the Notifications page, click Email Notifications.
3.
On the Email Notifications tab, in the SMTP Settings section, choose one of the following options:

Option

Description

Use Onboard SMTP Server

Select this option if you want to use the internal SMTP server that exists on the appliance.

Use Offboard SMTP Relay

Select this option if you want to send authenticated email through an external SMTP relay. An SMTP relay allows you to route email traffic using a third-party mail server.

•
Relay Host. Type the fully qualified domain name of the SMTP relay host.

Use Offboard SMTP Server

Select this option if you want to use an external SMTP server, and specify the following settings:

•
Username. Type the email address of an account that has access to the external SMTP server, such as your_account_name@gmail.com.
•
Password. Type the password of the specified user account.
•
Host. Specify the host name or IP address of an external SMTP server, such as smtp.gmail.com. External SMTP servers must allow anonymous (non-authenticated) outbound email transport. Ensure that your network policies allow the appliance to contact the SMTP server directly. In addition, the mail server must be configured to allow the relaying of email from the appliance without authentication. If you specify an IP address, enclose the address in brackets. For example [10.10.10.10].
•
Port. Enter the port number to use for the external SMTP server. For standard SMTP, use port 25. For secure SMTP, use port 587 (this is the default value).
•
Encryption. Click and select the encryption type that you want to use, as required: None (Insecure), TLS, TLS with Self-Signed Certificate (Insecure), SMTPS, or SMTPS with Self-Signed Certificate (Insecure).

To test your configuration, in the Test Recipient field, type your email address, and click Send Test Email. After a successful configuration, the appliance sends an email to the specified email address, with Test Email from KACE Systems Deployment Appliance as the subject.

* 
NOTE: If you leave any of these fields empty, and attempt to save your changes, a notification appears next to each field that requires input.
4.
In the Notification Templates section, review the list of available templates.

Option

The appliance sends this notification when..

Appliance Upgrade Available

An upgrade is available for your version.

Appliance Upgrade Completed

An upgrade is successfully installed.

Appliance Upgrade Failed

An upgrade started, but the installation failed.

Remote Site Appliance Sync Completed

A Remote Site Appliance (RSA) synchronization is successfully completed. If you have multiple RSAs, this notification is generated for each remote appliance.

Remote Site Appliance Sync Failed

A Remote Site Appliance (RSA) synchronization started, but it did not complete due to a failure. If you have multiple RSAs, this notification is generated for each remote appliance.

Driver Feed Updates Digest

A list of Dell drivers that are new, updated, installed and updated, and automatically updated drivers that are already installed.

Deployment Started Digest

A deployment process starts. The notification includes a list of all applicable provisioned devices.

Deployment Completed Digest

A deployment is successfully completed. The notification includes the deployment start and end times, followed by a list of all applicable provisioned devices.

Scheduled Exports Digest

A scheduled package export is successfully completed. The notification includes a list of all exported packages.

Daily Appliance Status Digest

Detailed appliance information, sent on a daily basis. The notification includes the appliance maintenance status, support expiration date, the amount of time the appliance was in use, memory, storage, and network details, deployment activity, any linked RSA connection and update data, and a link to the detailed report.

Nightly Update Notifications

Details about nightly updates such as the driver feed version, driver feed revision, and the update status of each the following items: get/set computer name task, Media Manager, and Sysprep Executor

5.
Optional. To change the appearance of the email contents, at the top of the Notification Templates section, under Email Styles, click Show, and in the field that appears, change the CSS style settings, as required. For example, you can change the text fonts, background color, or sizes, as applicable.
6.
If you want to edit a template, complete the following steps:
a.
In the Notification Templates section, in the row containing the template that you want to edit, in the Actions column, click the Edit Template button.
b.
In the email template dialog box that appears, make your edits, as applicable.

Option

Description

Email Subject

The subject of the email. You can use plain text or template variables, as required. You can use one or more template variables listed in the Template Variables field on the right. For more information about the template engine, click the link below the Template Variables field.

Recipients

One or more recipients the email is sent to. If any user emails are created on the appliance, they appear in the drop-down box as you start typing.

Email Body

The content of the email. The template uses a combination of template code, plain text, and template variables. See the Template Variables field for reference.

* 
NOTE: The following line appears at the very beginning of the email body: {{appliance_email_styles|raw}}. Do not remove or change that line, otherwise the text formatting defined in the Email Styles section will not be applied to sent emails.

Enable Notification

To enable an email template, ensure this check box is selected.

c.
Click Save in the dialog box. Alternatively, to discard your changes, click Revert to Default.
The dialog box closes.
d.
To test the template, in the Notification Templates section, in the row containing the template that you want to edit, in the Actions column, click the Test Template button.
An email is sent to each recipient specified in the template. The names of any variables specified in the template appear in uppercase characters. They are not replaced with actual values because the related actions (such as deployments) did not take place when the test email is sent.
7.
On the Notification page, click Save.

Configure User Interface notifications

Configure User Interface notifications

You can configure the appliance to display notifications in the Administrator Console when certain types of manual tasks are performed.

Administrators can configure the notification groups and users for which notifications are generated. A notification bell icon is located in the top-right corner of the screen. When new notifications are available, an orange indicator appears.

User Interface notifications are enabled for administrative accounts by default, all other users must subscribe to them if they want to make the notifications visible. Use the bell icon to show or hide the Notifications pane on the right. Each notification has a time stamp. 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 Dismiss All.

1.
On the left navigation pane, click Settings to display the Control Panel, then click Notifications.
2.
On the Notifications page, click UI Notifications.
3.
If you want to delete all notifications after a certain time period, click Auto Delete Notifications After, and select the desired number of days. The default setting is Never, which preserves all notifications, and is a good option for administrators. For users that do not log in as often, you can choose to delete them after a certain period. Choose from the existing options, or select Custom and type the applicable number of days.
4.
On the UI Notifications tab, review the groups of notifications that you can configure:

Group

Description

Source Media Notifications

These notifications appear when:

•
The upload of source media is completed in Media Manager or using the Source Media Import page.
•
The appliance imports the KACE Boot Environments (KBEs), source media or USMT (Microsoft Windows User State Migration Tool) files.
•
A Windows Imaging Format (WIM) file is imported using the System Image Import page on the appliance.
•
A USB system image installation is created.
•
The Samba share password is changed and updated in all KBEs.

Offboard Storage Notifications

These notifications inform users when offboard storage is enabled or disabled.

Driver Feed Notifications

These notifications are displayed when a user manually installs or removes one or more a drivers from the driver feed. The notification reflects the operation outcome, indicating a success, failure, or error.

RSA Notifications

These notifications appear when a new RSA (Remote Site Appliance) is added to the Systems Deployment Appliance.

Deployment Notifications

These notifications show up to indicate a successful completion of a manual deployment or a failure (as applicable). Success notification include a link to the manual Deployment Details page, and a failure notification link to the Manual Deployment Progress page.

Package Management Notifications

These notifications are displayed to indicate the state of the package import or export, such as the operation start, end, import or export failure, file corruption, invalid contents, state of a manual package import or export, and so on.

5.
Review the information available in columns for each notification group:

Option

Description

Recipients

A list of all users that receive notifications associated with this group.

Enabled

An indication of whether the notifications for this group are enabled on the appliance.

Actions

Allows you to make changes to the group.

6.
To edit a group:
a.
Click the Edit Template button in the Actions column for the selected group.
b.
In the dialog box that appears, click the Recipients box, and select one or more users.
* 
NOTE: You can only choose from the existing users accounts that are already defined on the appliance. The admin user is always assigned to all UI notifications and can not be removed as a recipient.
c.
Select or clear the Enable Notifications check box to allow or prevent notifications from this group from being displayed.
UI notifications are enabled by default.
d.
Click Save to confirm your changes and close the dialog box.
7.
On the Notifications page, on the UI Notifications tab, click Save.
Related Documents

The document was helpful.

Select Rating

I easily found the information I needed.

Select Rating