NAME

pushAgent − Install the Software Distributor agent on remote systems

SYNOPSIS

/usr/sbin/pushAgent

DESCRIPTION

The pushAgent command provides the HP OpenView Software Distributor (SD) user with a way to install the SD agent onto remote systems without explicitly logging into each remote system and running update(1m).  The tool is especially useful configuring a large number of remote systems as SD agents. 

The SD supports two separate configurations:

• SD controller systems

• SD agent systems

SD controller systems are created by installing the full SD product from the installation media (using update(1m)).  SD agent systems are created by using pushAgent to install the SD agent on remote systems.  Once the SD agent has been installed on a remote system using this tool, the remote system becomes a valid target for software distribution tasks. 

EXTERNAL INFLUENCES

Signals

The pushAgent command catches the signals SIGHUP, SIGINT, SIGQUIT, and SIGTERM.  If any of these signals are received, the pushAgent command confirms whether the user wishes to exit.  Note that sending a signal to the pushAgent command while it is installing the SD agent on a remote system may leave that remote system in an inconsistent state, and is therefore not recommended. 

OPERATION

The pushAgent command utilizes an interactive user interface.  To start up the utility, simply type in /usr/sbin/pushAgent.  The program will present a number of alternatives to the user via a terminal-based user interface.  On-line help is available from within this tool. 

Once pushAgent has been started, there are two methods supported to install the SD agent on remote systems.  They are:

• one-by-one

• batch mode

Install the SD agent one-by-one when you only need to install the SD agent on a few systems.  When you select this method, you will be prompted for the name of the remote system.  Once the system name has been entered, pushAgent will install and configure the SD agent on that remote system.  While the installation progresses, the current status of the installation will be displayed.  Finally, the success or failure of the installation is shown.  If the installation failed, the tool will report why, and may suggest a way for the user to remedy the problem so that the installation can be re-tried later. 

Install the SD agent from a batch file when you need to install the SD agent on many systems.  When you select this method, you will be prompted for the name of an input file which contains a list of remote systems.  The pushAgent process then reads the file, and serially installs the SD agent on each system listed in the file.  While the installation progresses, pushAgent displays the current status of the installation.  When the installation process has completed to all of the remote systems listed in the input file, a summary screen is displayed which lists the names of the systems whose installation failed. 

An example input file for the batch installation method is displayed below:

# Accounting Department

hpbob # Bob’s machine

hpfrank # Frank’s machine

# R+D Department

grpserver.co.here.com  # Our server system

15.1.2.3   # IP address of their test machine

For both the one-by-one and batch installation methods, verbose logging information is written to the log file /tmp/pushAgent.log (see the DIAGNOSTICS section below). 

SECURITY

When the installation of the SD agent on remote systems has completed, pushAgent performs some basic configuration of the security Access Control Lists (ACLs) on the remote system.  Specifically, an entry is added to the remote system which will enable full software distribution access by the super-user on the system which is running the pushAgent program.  This super-user will be able to perform software distribution tasks to the remote system without having to further configure its ACLs. 

DIAGNOSTICS

The pushAgent tool supports three log files:

• /tmp/pushAgent.log

• /tmp/pushAgent.old

• /tmp/pushAgent.older

Every time this utility is started, a new log file /tmp/pushAgent.log is created.  The pushAgent command records in this log file the names of the remote systems which had the SD agent installed on, the success or failure of that installation, together with a detailed message on the type of failure if the installation failed.  In addition, log files for the two previous pushAgent sessions are maintained.  The log information from these two sessions is saved in the files /tmp/pushAgent.old and /tmp/pushAgent.older. 

RETURN VALUES

The pushAgent command always returns 0. 

AUTHOR

pushAgent was developed by the Hewlett-Packard Company. 

SEE ALSO

swacl(8), swagentd(8), swconfig(8), swcopy(8), swdepot(8), swinstall(8), swlist(8), swpackage(8), swremove(8), swverify(8), swpackage(4), sd(4), sd(5), and the HP OpenView Software Distributor Administrator’s Guide.

Hewlett-Packard Company  —  Software Distributor 2.0