Intel vPro Expert Center Blog

vPro used for all the wrong reason's

josh.hilliker@intel.com — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:07:12 GMT

Thewebsiteisdown.com gives us a new installment. While I agree this is possible from the admin standpoint, I don't encourage you to try it at this scale.

vPro: Looking for a tool that will work with your ISV?

florence.lo@intel.com — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:16:47 GMT

Take a look at the posted document on Radmin (Remote Administrator). This free tool (Viewer) allows technicians to gain access to AMT basic functions and will work with any provisioned ISV under SMB or Non-TLS Enterprise Mode. This tool can be provided to IT Techicians who may not have access to the ISV console to perform the basic AMT functions on a provisioned client.

http://communities.intel.com/docs/DOC-4309

Known Issues wiki: LANDesk, MS ConfigMgr, Remote BIOS update, and more.

michele.gartner@intel.com — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:19:31 GMT

Here's a compilation of some of the issues that were added in the last few months to the Known Issues, Best Practices, and Workarounds wiki:

Check out the latest newsletter for Intel vPro Technology

michele.gartner@intel.com — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:29:34 GMT

Our most recent issue of the Intel vPro Technology Heartbeat was published this morning. This newsletter is a compilation of Intel vPro resources that were collected over the last two weeks. In this issue, check out the article series on Intel Active Management Technology that was published by our partners at the Intel Software Network's Manageability community. We also have a bunch of webinars coming up around Windows 7 and Dynamic Virtual Computing. Registration links are in the newsletter!

Read the newsletter, or subscribe to receive it in your inbox automatically.

Connect with us on myitforum.com about Microsoft & Intel vPro Technology

josh.hilliker@intel.com — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:44:03 GMT

It's been way to long since I did a video, so here's a quick one.. I highly encourage you to subscribe to the vPro lists on myitforum.com. Here's a quick video of me showing you how..

vPro: Are you experiencing a very large IntelAMT database?

terry.c.cutler@intel.com — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:23:55 GMT

Take a look at a recently posted document providing insights on what might cause a rapidly expanding database, key learnings how to minimize the growth and provide good performance, and more.

http://communities.intel.com/docs/DOC-4306

The document may be updated over time, depending on requests, inputs, and so forth

One week without social media really does have an impact

josh.hilliker@intel.com — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:49:49 GMT

Over the last week I decided to take a journey, one without social media and interacting with folks online. What I learned is the following:

Took longer to do my job (it’s true!!)
Missed out a few key interactions that would have helped me – it’s true, I am now combing back through to look a few posts – example: Spiceworks just announced a new plug in capability that is leveraging vPro
Realized I was not sharing as much as I could have – I was working on win7 & vPro for SMB, defining the ease of use of both technologies in the 3-5 PC space. I missed sharing this information out to the team and group.
Had a few dialogues around me missing something online – a few folks ping’d me throughout the week if I had seen certain things (from technology to people movement inside Intel)

So why does this matter to vPro? Well, I believe part of the success of realizing your vPro value is to use our community, interact with us on twitter and be a part of the technology adoption and usage. I also realized that usage of our technology is not confined to how we believe it will help you, but also how it will be used in different situations, location’s, and relevant to your business.

If you want to connect with us, here’s who’s on twitter for vPro? Here’s a few accounts.

IntelvPro twitter.com/intelvpro

SmartchickPdx twitter.com/smartchickpdx

Joshprostar twitter.com/joshprostar

I also missed the interactions online that I usually participate in throughout the week.

Where did the Ctrl-P go on Lenovo vPro systems?

terry.c.cutler@intel.com — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:55:36 GMT

Earlier this year, Lenovo made a small change on their T400 and related platforms. The Ctrl-P option disappeared when attempting to access the MEBx (Management Engine BIOS Extension screens for Intel Active Management Technology). If you browse through the Lenovo BIOS update posting, there is a brief mention of this change.

The main reason was to improve boot times. The difference is a few seconds. All of the Intel AMT functionality is still present.

To access the MEBx screen, press F12 during the POST process to access the Boot Menu.

The option "Enter ME Configuration Screens" will access the MEBx.

The option "Initiate a Remote Connection" is for the Client Initiated Remote Access (CIRA), more commonly referred to as "Fast Call for Help" - the ability for Intel AMT to make a call home for assistance.

Call for Topics - Intel vPro

josh.hilliker@intel.com — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:40:26 GMT

HI all,

Internally we are cooking up a # of topics that we would like to share from Use Cases, BIOS versions, form factor's, etc.. However we wanted to ask you first as a community, what would you like to hear more on? What piece of vPro do we need to show more?

Let us know.. leave a comment or shoot me an email josh@intel.com.

Thank You

Josh H

Newsletter Published: Intel vPro Technology Heartbeat

michele.gartner@intel.com — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 22:31:07 GMT

This week's newsletter highlights success stories by Intel IT, BMW, Valerent, Compucom, and Computacenter. In addition, find our latest webinar offerings, known issues, and quick links to useful documents on the Intel vPro Expert Center.

Click here to view the newsletter.

Want to receive this bi-weekly newsletter in your inbox? Click here to subscribe.

Dell Client Manager and Intel vPro configuration

terry.c.cutler@intel.com — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 18:19:47 GMT

In recent weeks, I've received a number of questions about Dell Client Manager 3.0 ability to configure Intel vPro technology.

I have not had the opportunity to review the latest official documentation from Symantec\Altiris or Dell on how to configure Intel vPro technology.

Therefore, this blog provides my perspective and approach. As I'm working with Altiris 7 and vPro on an almost daily basis, authoring a complete set of new documentation has not been accomodating to present schedules, tasks, etc.

I ask for your patience and understanding. This is by no means the final and complete answer - it's a "best effort"

A few key points to keep in mind.

Dell Client Management version 3 is based on Altiris 7
A video posted at http://vproexpert.blip.tv/file/1900890/ - about 5 minutes into that video the focus is on configuring
Much of the Altiris\vPro configuration requirement for Altiris v7 are very similar to v6. The above posted video will highlight the differences.
For an Altiris v6 vPro configuration baseline, see material posted about 2 years ago - http://www.symantec.com/connect/videos/video-workshop-intel-vpro-activation
If you are totally new to Intel vPro technology, I invite you to first learn what the technology is capable of doing. Here is one article resource example - http://www.symantec.com/connect/articles/combining-band-and-out-band-management

So - you've started to deploy Intel vPro systems from Dell and are using their Dell client manager.

Altiris 7 requires SCS 5.x to configure vPro. If vPro is already configured - it's just a matter of enabling OOB Discovery and configuring the Pluggable Protocol Architecture (PPA).. see blip.tv video referenced above.

On the Dell Client Manager, check to see if the following fileshare exists – “\\localhost\nscap\bin\x86\Out of Band Management\IntelSCS”

If so – within that directory, find AMTconfserver.exe. This is the Intel SCS service installation. File should be version 5.0.2.4

On the Dell Client Manager, check for “c:\Altiris OOB Configuration” directory. If present, you should see two files – Interop.AeXClient.dll and OOBProv.exe.

The preferred approach is to install Intel SCS via the Altiris (or Dell Client Manager) interface... but sometimes that scripted install fails without direct indication as to what happened. Although a little advanced, it may be best to directly install the Intel SCS... which is the configuration service for Intel vPro technology.

Two key challenges I’ve seen in directly installing AMTconfserver.exe is that the webdirectories (AMTSCS and AMTSCS_RCFG) need to be set to no TLS and the the integration to SCS via the OOBprov.exe is not done. The TLS settings are handled via the advanced installation options. The OOBprov.exe is the configuration script which checks the Symantec\Altiris database against the IntelAMT database for new records, matching UUID\FQDN, recent vPro configuration events, and so forth.

As to what configuration script will be used, this setting is made in the IntelAMT database. My preference is to use the SCS console to adjust the setting. SCS console is available with the full download at http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/download-the-latest-version-of-intel-amt-setup-and-configuration-service-scs/... The other good item here is the updated version of SCS 5.x (presently SCS 5.2.0.34B)

So that's the brief summary.

As stated previously - my intent was not to provide a complete answer, yet to provide a brief insight and references.

Interested to hear from the community. Did this help? More information needed?

Class Highlights PROS005 Thieves Beware: Intel® Powered Notebooks Will Turn Into Bricks When Stolen!

michele.gartner@intel.com — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 22:43:43 GMT

Here are some photo highlights from the Intel Anti-Theft Technology session at IDF. You can download the presentation at http://www.intel.com/go/idfsessions. Click on the thumbnails to see fullsize pictures.

Sneak peek at the KVM feature in 2010 Intel vPro platform

terry.c.cutler@intel.com — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 02:48:54 GMT

During IDF2009, there were a few demonstrations on the upcoming embedded KVM (Keyboard, Video, Mouse) in the Intel vPro technology platform.

Here's a sneak peek of the technology. One system shown - one screen is the embedded KVM, the other screen is a more than $150/port enterprise KVM solution. Can you tell which is which?

More will be coming about the technology, how it works, how to configure, when it will be available, etc, etc. For now - here is the teaser.

vPro: What is PC Alarm Clock and why would you need it?

terry.c.cutler@intel.com — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 05:19:08 GMT

After working with Intel vPro technology for over 3 years - I still get surprised by little features that appear in the product. Some features might not sound too interesting at first, but upon seeing how these are used my opinion changes.

One such features is the "PC Alarm Clock" capability in AMT 5, with software development support in the Intel AMT SDK 5.1.

An overview of this features is explained at http://communities.intel.com/docs/DOC-3483.... why that article is posted in the Server Room area of Open Port I do not know.

I was at IDF2009 this week and had a chance to visit the McAfee showcase booth. What I saw was very impressive. PC Alarm Clock provides a uniform "wake-up" at a defined time with an indication of what caused the power-on. Was the system powered on because of a user hitting the power button or did the PC Alarm clock trigger the event? Before visiting the McAfee booth, my first thought was "hey - that can be done via a system BIOS". Well - I got some education.

Not all OEM BIOS setups support a timed wake-up. If they do - having a uniform access to configure\control across OEMs would require disparate tools. Plus - having a mechanism for an agent to know whether the system was powered due to user local to system or scheduled time is helpful. Plus - an Intel AMT power-on event to a collection of systems is possible IF those systems are connected and IF you are okay with a unicast message to each system thus having a potential delay from first system to last system that powers on. Plus - with PC Alarm Clock within Intel AMT - the time is synchronized. Etc, etc

So here's the situation. To avoid disrupting work hours with anti-virus scans or other maintenance routines... what if the system were scheduled to power-on at 3am to perform these tasks. If powered on via PC Alarm clock, what McAfee agent will do is sense this and know that it's time to run a scan, and so forth. At the conclusion of the scan, the McAfee setup will gracefully shutdown the system. Thus - all assigned systems get a set time to power-on... and at that set time, all systems power-up, check to ensure it was a scheduled power-on, run the scan, and then return to an off start gracefully.

Ok - to some that might seem too simple to really matter. But to me, after working with various management solutions and Intel vPro technology - that's a better cool approach. It's a difference of push vs. pull... and when you're talking about hundreds or thousands of systems being orchestrated to perform an event... that little feature called "PC Alarm Clock" in the right hands such as McAfee... it's pretty cool

What do you think?

Meet Trevor Sullivan - vPro Expert

josh.hilliker@intel.com — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:52:27 GMT