[sims] Installing SIMS from Solus3 on non-domain member PCs

[mtillbrook]

Hi

I have got a school who have a large number of teacher laptops which are not on the school's domain. The staff logon onto them locally.

 

They have decided recently that they need SIMS installed on some of these laptops and the school is running SOlus3.

 

Any ideas? Solus3 doesn't like that fact that the computer isn't on the domain. Even though you can add in the computer to the Solus3 environment by its name and IP address, when you come to put in a username and password, it needs to authenticate against the domain by the looks of it.

 

I'm sure someone else must have come across this and found a solution?

 

Thanks in advance!

[Rawns]

Do they connect to the network at all? If they do, you can export the SOLUS3 agent installer in the S3 UI. This will allow manual installation of the agent onto the laptops in question. Once they are are plugged into the network, they 'should' connect to the SOLUS3 deployment server (firewall and DNS permitting). You can then add them to the appropriate channel (SIMS Workstation) and then deploy the client to them.

[superfletch]

@Rawns is right.

 

Use the SOLUS 3 Server console to export the agent installer to a shared folder which the users/local admin can access.

 

Run the installer with elevated priveleges

 

Head back to the SOLUS 3 console and update environment adding the machines from "Browse Agents" into the correct Channels (SIMS / FMS / Discover)

 

IME - Putting them on the domain if at all possible will be much more reliable overall.

[mtillbrook]

Thanks however, after i got the agent installed, it didn't show up in the Solus3 console. Is there a way to force Solus to go off and scan the network for clients as it didn't really seem to.

[Ghostgame]

No way as far as I know.

When adding a workstation\laptop in the SIMS channel, you can search for a workstation by its IP address. Might be worth a shot to see if the SOLUS3 console can pick them up at all. (Not sure if it only looks for IP's in the domain only)

 

You could also try replacing the server name with the server IP in the Sims.Solus3.Agent.AgentService.exe.config file on the workstation\laptop.

As soon as those agents where installed on the laptops, they should have appeared in the SOLUS3 agents.

 

But @superfletch is right. It would be easier adding the laptops to a domain.

[superfletch]

Thanks however, after i got the agent installed, it didn't show up in the Solus3 console. Is there a way to force Solus to go off and scan the network for clients as it didn't really seem to.

 

1) Check all the firewall settings on the client (a quick and useful check is to see if you can see the machine via "net view" on the server).

 

2) Yes - but it will only scan the domain environment properly, for workstations not on the domain a manual install as described by @Rawns is the recommended way to do it.

 

Firewall settings:

 

netsh firewall set notifications DISABLE
netsh firewall set service type = FILEANDPRINT mode = ENABLE
netsh firewall set portopening protocol = TCP port = 52965 name = SOLUS-3-DS
netsh firewall set portopening protocol = TCP port = 52966 name = SOLUS-3-AGENT
netsh firewall set portopening protocol = TCP port = 8739 name = SOLUS-3-AGENT-UI
netsh firewall set service type = REMOTEADMIN mode = ENABLE
netsh firewall set portopening protocol = TCP port = 137 name = NetBIOS
netsh firewall set portopening protocol = UDP port = 138 name = NetBIOS_1
netsh firewall set portopening protocol = UDP port = 139 name = NetBIOS_2

[Aelfwine]

Installing SOLUS3 on non-domain workstation

 

These notes were made while using SOLUS3 Deployment Server 3.5.20 so may change for future versions but will hopefully help anyone else trying to add non-domain workstations to SOLUS3.

 

From the SOLUS3 Deployment Server UI click on System Settings button in the Deployment Environment section.

 

Click on Export agent installer about halfway down on the right.

 

Select a location on the network that you can get to from the client machines.

 

This location will then have 5 files which are used to install the SOLUS3 agent manually. From my tests the included batch file didn’t work but it contained important information needed by the installers.

 

Right click on the SOLUS3AgentInstaller.bat and select Edit

 

In this file are two lines that start with net.tcp, the first one is the agent address and the second is the Deployment Service address, (also available from SOLUS3 on the page you clicked Export agent installer).

 

Run either the SOLUS3AgentInstaller_x32.msi or SOLUS3AgentInstaller_x64.msi depending on your OS.

 

On the screen asking you for the Agent Address and the Deployment Service Address enter the details from the batch file, it will look something like this:

 

net.tcp//localhost:52966

net.tcp//servername:52965

 

On the next screen asking for the key location click on Change and browse to where you saved the files from the export (It's looking for the Solus3.Keys.DeploymentService.Public.xml file)

 

Just run through the rest as default options, once complete the workstation will appear in the SOLUS3 Deployment Server UI. You now need to define the packages you want on, this workstation. From the SOLUS3 Deployment Server UI:

 

· Click on Solus3 Agents button

· Click Update Environment

· Select SIMS from the drop down menu on left (or FMS / Discover if you want them installed)

· Click on Select Computers in the SIMS Workstation section

· Click the Add button

· Click on Browse agent computers button on the left, you should now see your non-domain workstation on the list

· Select the computer name from the list

· Click Add then Save and Save putting in your domain username and password as normal.

 

This should now install the software on your non-domain workstation. I've done this successfully in Windows 7 and Windows 8 workstations, hope it helps others.

[Ghostgame]

@Aelfwine Stupid question I know but have you tried right clicking on the .bat file and selecting 'run as administrator'?

[mavhc]

If the agent address is localhost, does it not just listen on localhost and therefore the server can't connect to it?

[mavhc]

If the agent address is localhost, does it not just listen on localhost and therefore the server can't connect to it?

 

Interesting, if it's 127.0.0.1 it does, if it's localhost it doesn't, weird