How to reconnect inactive clients to Altiris Deployment Server

rticle ID: 35439

There are a few methods of getting client computers reconnected up to the Deployment Server. Usually after the server has been down for a while and then it starts up, it takes clients a while to reconnect. This is because at first they attempt to reconnect at frequent intervals, but they add longer and longer timers after they receive no response. If these AClients receive a directed Wake on LAN packet from the Deployment Server on UDP 402, they will attempt to immediately reconnect to the Deployment Server.

There is a utility that can be found in article 34227, "How can I force my clients (AClient) to check in to the Deployment Solution server (or refresh its connection)?" This utility can send out a Wake on LAN packet out to AClients and will cause them to reconnect to the Deployment Server.

Sometimes a wake up packet will not cause a client computer to reconnect to the Deployment Server. It could be that the AClient process is not running (the service is stopped), the process could be in a hung state, or in some other state that is not listening to wake ups. In this case, the client computer needs to have the AClient.exe process started or restarted. Doing this on each inactive client can be very time consuming, however, so a process has been made to help automate this.

The VBScript file can be found on https://kb.altiris.com/utility/getfile.asp?rid=2865&aid=35439  and should be started from the Deployment Server to restart AClients on inactive client computers. This script queries the database (using the same ODBC connection that the Win32 console uses) and gets a list of all inactive client computers. It then attempts to connect remotely to the services of each of those computers and stops and restarts the "Altiris Client Service," that is, the AClient.exe process. With each attempt, it also logs to a text file if it was successfull or not with each client computer. This can take a long time if many client computers are disconnected from the network or powered off because of the timeout period for each client.

Grtz,

Gert

ps. Feel free to leave a comment if you find this information helpfull and don't forget to click on an AD ;-) , THX once more