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.

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

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

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?

Click the thumbnails to see more detail. To download the presentation, visit http://www.intel.com/go/idfsessions.

Roadmap - Intel vPro Technology

KVM remote control

Visual remote access - adds another layer on top of things like CIRA.

Architecture overview - remote management console makes secure connection to machine- Yasser shows how chipset/graphics communications to the remote machine.

Out of Office Connectivity

Fast call for help and remote pc assist technology

Remote pc assist - for end users who don't have corporate IT - small businesses, home users

Wireless without running OS - works both in band or out of band

Remote Encryption Management

Supports software full disk encryption, TCG OPAL, and Seagate DriveTrust.

Hi everyone -

If you missed our webinar "Beyond the Firewall: Using Fast Call for Help to Manage PCs with Intel® vPro™ Technology," then you can now watch the recording. The PowerPoint slides are also available; they are attached to this blog posting.

Click to view the recording.

If you were unable to attend our latest webinar, "Enhancing the Symantec Management Platform (Altiris) with Intel® vPro™ Technology," then you can now view it online. In addition, you can download the PowerPoint slides; you'll find them as an attachment to this posting.

Watch the Webinar

Click to view the webinar.

Additional Resources

In addition to all of this great info, Terry has provided additional resources to help you get up to speed quickly:

• General questions about the capabilities of Symantec and Intel vPro technology
  • Combining in-band and out-of-band management scenarios
  • Collection of videos from ManageFusion (March 2009)
    
    
• Using OOB Discovery and more in-depth on agent-less inventory
  • “Do I have vPro in my environment?”
  • Finding exactly which systems have Intel® AMT and their current state
    
    
• How to define and utilize custom network filters
  
  
• Can Symantec utilize the Serial-over-LAN interface?
  • Yes – for boot to BIOS or pre-GUI viewing. Serial-over-LAN can provide interface via VT100/ANSI compliant (i.e. text) remote control.
  • Learn about additional capabilities of the Serial-over-LAN interface.
    
    
• Symantec training course on vPro
  • Visit http://education.symantec.com and click “Client Management Suite” under Section 4: Infrastructure Operations.
  • Select course AT5500 entitled “Altiris Enhancing Out of Band Automation with Intel vPro Technology.”
    
    
• For self instruction (videos are ~2 years old, yet still applicable)
  • Online activation workshop
    
    
• Index of additional resources and insights to using\configuring\deploying vPro in an Altiris environment

Monday, September 14, 2009

Airport city – Avenue ballroom

Have you ever faced the “blue screen of death”? Have you ever watched your laptop or PC get stuck, when the only solution is to reboot and lose

all your data? Want to know how you can save power, save money and move towards “Greener IT”? Wondering how you can protect your valuable data after a laptop is stolen?

Then this conference is for you!

What is Intel® vPro™ Technology?

Laptop and desktop PCs with Intel® vPro™ technology enable IT to take advantage of hardware-assisted security and manageability capabilities that enhance their ability to maintain, manage, and protect their business PCs.

Platform and Services on the same package

Learn about Intel Service-oriented Technology coupled with our Silicon, Firmware and drivers. Hear more about Intel’s new concept Platform Extension Service (PES) – “Driver in the cloud”. Enjoy new services through ISV and Outsourced Service Providers, Intel Resellers, Retail and Telcos.

Intel® Upgrade Service (IUS): Flexibility to add additional features to a PC after purchase via remote upgrade. Intel’s Manageability Engine (ME) provides unique opportunity to “sell up” from a low-end system to a flexible upgradeable system.

Intel® Remote PC Assist Technology (RPAT): Maintain or restore PC health by remotely servicing a desktop PC over the internet.

Provides Out-of-Band support over the internet at a low cost of entry.

Intel® Anti-Theft Technology: PC Protection (Intel® AT): Provides hardware-based client-side intelligence to secure your laptop if it is lost or stolen.

HW-based capabilities provide greater data security, privacy and higher tamper-resistance.

Target Audience:

• IT integrators (Ness, Matrix, Malam etc)
• Telcos (Bezeq International, One, 013)
• Verticals:  IT industry leaders in Health, Academics, Army, government etc.
• Israeli / regional ISVs

Partners:

Intel, Microsoft, Checkpoint, Avalon, SysAid, Support Space, Aternity, Malam team

OEMs – HP, Lenovo, Dell, Acer

PITA - Palestinian IT Association

About the speakers:

Daniel Hershkovitz – Israel Minister of Science and Technology. Professor of Mathematics (Technion).

David Tuhy - General Manager, Platform Products and Technical Marketing Division, Business Client Group, Digital Enterprise Group

Robert Crooke - Vice president and General Manager of the Business Client Group (BCG). He is responsible for directing Intel's vision for delivering innovative business client solutions.

Yishai Fraenkel – Manager of Israel SW design center in Jerusalem. Co-manager the overall Client Component Group Firmware organization

Sinai Bareket – GM Sales and Marketing group - Country manager Israel Greece and Cyprus.

Conference Agenda