Intel AMT Active Management Technology

[theeldergeek]

Intel AMT Active Management Technology ??? WTF !?!?

Whatever this is, it's disabled on some new Dell PC's we've just purchased and I don't know whether I should enable it, leave it disabled or simply ignore it!

I've Googled this 'technology', and can see what it is for, but is of any use to me in a school, and if it is, how the feck do I enable it ?!?!

TIA

[flyinghaggis]

We're in the process of setting up our batch of Dell PCs (Dell Optiplex 755's) and they've got this option aswell. You can't disable it within the BIOS (though you can disable it showing the shortcut key on POST) as it seems to be a seperate control chip onboard access (much like a RAID controller/etc).
I'm going to log on and change the defautt password on all of the PCs we setup for the Intel just to make sure the kids don't find out about it and decide to have a play. When you change the default passord it needs to uber-strong BTW or it will be rejected (> 8 chars, upper/lowercase/, contain a number and contain a special char)!!!!!!!!!
It appears to be something that allows you to access BIOS settings, Power on computers and generally remotely carry out tasks that would normally require you to be on the local PC. It sounds good in theory but does anyone have any documentation to hand before I go for a trawl on the web looking for info?

I guess Intel's site would be the first post of call ?

[flyinghaggis]

The Plot thickens. It looks like our Dell Optiplex 755s have Intel ME but don't have the AMT features (see link below). Apparently you only get the full set of functions if you specifiy that you want the management chip when you order it :-

Intel® Software Network Blogs Is your Dell Optiplex 755 Business PC Intel AMT capable?

It would still be good to know if anyone's had experience of it so we know if it's something worth looking at in future as the features it has sound like they could be useful?

[PeterW]

Its part of the vPro feature set, Business PCs: Manageability, Flexibility, and Peace of Mind Built In

I would be quite interested to know if anybody is currently using this and which systems managment software they are running.

[m1ddy]

We have it on our 755s as well. After RIS'ing the machines, It still had an error in device manager which went away after installing a driver that contained the AMT software. The problem is there is a popup everytime a child logs on which they must click ok to get rid of. Anyone know a way of getting rid of this?

Jon

[JoshProStar]

We have it on our 755s as well. After RIS'ing the machines, It still had an error in device manager which went away after installing a driver that contained the AMT software. The problem is there is a popup everytime a child logs on which they must click ok to get rid of. Anyone know a way of getting rid of this?

Jon

Jon..

My Peer, Ajay Mungara, wrote a blog on this @ Intel Software Network Blogs Instructions to disable the Intel AMT privacy notification popup

Let me know if it does not work.

Josh H (Intel )
vPro Community Manager

[srochford]

AMT is "really useful" but not very easy to get to grips with.

If you have MS System Centre Operations Manager or System Centre Essentials then there's a management pack to let you communicate with the AMT stuff.

Key thing is that you get a second "lights out" communication channel to the PC - as long as it's got power and is plugged into the network you can remotely manage the machine. This means that you can power it up, go into the BIOS, watch it boot off the network, use a CD in your local machine as if it was in the remote machine and much, much more besides.

As an example, user phones up to say "my machine won't boot; it just blue screens". You can reboot it, "insert" a Windows PE (or Bart etc) CD and get into a recovery environment. You can then copy off the files from the machine (or make a ghost image of it) and then reboot and do a fresh install. All this happens without you leaving your desk.

You can also do things like monitoring just about everything remotely, run virus scans, force updates and so on. Some of this is possible without AMT but you just get much, much more!

One problem I can see (and it can be a big problem in a school!) is that if someone unplugs the machine from the network or turns off the power at the wall then you're still going to have to walk down and deal with it.

The other issue I know is the need to give a secure password at the start and (I think) to get a certificate on the machine so it knows which management machine it can trust (and your little darlings can't remotely take over machines and format the drives!)

[JoshProStar]

One problem I can see (and it can be a big problem in a school!) is that if someone unplugs the machine from the network or turns off the power at the wall then you're still going to have to walk down and deal with it.

TRUE! If it's not plugged in (desktop) we have a problem & time for a walk to the location of the machine.

If interested here is the full description of the technology. Intel Open Port: Intel vPro Expert Center Blog: AMT Overview - Foundational Video

Josh H