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Corey T. Morris
1

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Intel® IT Director v1.5 Release

 

We are pleased to announce the release of IT Director v1.5. The release is available for download at: IT Director Download

 

 

We would like to hear your feedback!  Use the "Discussions" tab within this community and post your comments about the Intel IT Director version 1.5!

 

Key enhancements over v1.1 are:

  • Intel® AMT and standard manageability detection and provisioning
  • Security Monitoring (agent presence)
  • New usability enhancements
  • IT Director supports multiple chipsets. IT Director will install and function on the following chipsets:
    • Intel® Q45, Q43, Q35, G41 or B43(upgraded) Express Chipsets

 

New to IT Director?

Watch a quick animation demo of IT Director, an intuitive and easy to use Small Business application,  at IT Director Website

1 Comments Permalink Tags: it_director, vpro, smb, amt, smbtalk, corey_t_morris, manageability, coreysmbpro, unmanaged
Corey T. Morris
1

Intel® Upgrade Service enables down-the-wire hardware upgrades after a system's been purchased, providing new levels of platform flexibility to service providers and end users alike. With the purchase of a PC with qualifying CPU and upgradeable chipset, you'll get future-ready flexibility designed to change with your growing needs.

Visit the main web site at: http://www.intel.com/go/intelupgradeservice/   

Currently we have a Level I Manageability Upgrade available which is designed to bring a platform from “Standard Manageability” to “Intel® Active Management Technology (AMT) 5.0”.   

Questions?

What are the minimum system requirements?

 

Intel® Q45 Express Chipsetbased motherboard with a non-Intel® vPro™ Technology Processor attached. Upgrades will not be supported for platforms based on Intel® Celeron® processors.

Where to buy hardware and/or upgrades?

 

Click here to learn how to buy hardware and/or upgrades!

Please post any questions/comments to this blog post and we will be happy to assist!

Regards,

CoreySMBPro

1 Comments Permalink Tags: amt, service, smb, coreysmbpro, upgrade, manageability, corey_t_morris
Corey T. Morris
0

All,

 

Wanted to share a great post by Gael Holmes (Intel) who recently posted in the Intel® vPro™ Expert Center .   See the original post here: http://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/2009/02/19/intel-amt-what-you-need-to-know-about-solide-r-and-smb/ also a copy provided below...

 

We recently made available to our Intel AMT Developers the first version of the SCS (Setup and Configuration Server) Lite tool. Eventually this tool will morph into a full blown setup and configuration server that supports all the infrastructure that SCS 5.0 now supports. This "Lite" version, however, is very "Lite" as the name implies. It does not require (or support) SQL database, AD, TLS.  It, instead supports one touch and remote provisioning using the SCS Service, the SCS Console, and the Activator tool. This tool currently provisions an Intel AMT Client in "Enterprise Mode" without TLS.

Many developers, or users, may have been provisioning their systems in what we call SMB (Small to Medium Business) mode manually and then they may decide to try out the new SCS Lite tool and realize suddenly they can no longer do a SOL/IDE-R (Serial Over LAN/IDE-Redirect) operation on the same AMT Client they did this on prior to provisioning with the SCS Lite Tool.

What is going on here is simple. When we provision our AMT systems manually (SMB mode) we enable SOL and IDER options in the MEBx BIOS extentions (otherwise there will be no SOL/IDE-R actions) and the Redirection port gets enabled automatically. This is not the case when provisioning in Enterprise mode (because it is a security issue to enable the port and leave it open.) Software vendors who provision their systems in Enterprise Mode (whether or not they have TLS) know that their software must open the port in order to have a successful SOL/IDER session and then they are expected to close the port when the session is over.

If someone is running a Manageability Application that was designed to work on AMT systems that were provisioned in SMB mode, but now they have been re-provisioned in Enterprise Mode, the Manageability APP may not open the port and so SOL/IDER will not work unless the redirection port is enabled.

This Screen Shot (From the Manageability DTK) shows what is enabled on an AMT Client after provisioning with the SCS Lite, or other Enterprise provisioning tool. Note that "Redirection Port" is Disabled. Simply click on the box next to "Disabled" and this will allow SOL/IDER sessions to occur.

 

This Screen Shot shows the SOL/IDER settings that occur automatically when the AMT Client is provisioned using SMB Mode - Note that the Redirection Port is automatically enabled and the AMT system is free to perform SOL/IDER sessions.

Note that whether the system is being provisioned in SMB mode or in Enterprise Mode we still must enable SOL and IDER in the MEBx Extensions. If we fail to enable them in the BIOS or in our Profile (for the SCS) then we cannot perform SOL/IDER at all - and this has nothing to do with the enabling or disabling of the Redirection Port.

Moving forward it will be necessary for all Manageability Apps to check the status of the Redirection Port and then open the port prior to initiating the SOL/IDER session (and then close the port when the session is complete.) By putting this flow into your code base, you are covered when communicating with the devices that are configured in either SMB or enterprise mode.

These are the API's of interest in this flow:

  • SetEnabledInterfaces - Make sure SOL and IDE-R are set as enabled interfaces
  • GetRedirectionListenerState - Gets the current redirection listener status
  • SetRedirectionListenerState - Set the redirection listener state to enabled if not already enabled.
0 Comments Permalink Tags: vpro_expert_center, manageability, amt, smb
Corey T. Morris
1

“Yes we can!” - SCS 6.0 now reaches the SMBs

 

Overview

When we first got back to the drawing board and thought about new SCS Architecture, for SCS6.0, we had several things in mind.

It was clear that the existing provisioning flow (end to end) had to be simplified – Feedbacks from the field, showed that the required IT setup and configuration interaction required steep vPro specific learning curve, even before the actual provisioning process that happens through the SCS tool.

We also realized that in order to improve the ISV integration we had to listen to Key ISVs’ trends. Some of them requested the ability to configure vPro from the local host while others - SMB/MSP ISVs had different needs.

Interoperability and scalability were also 2 focus items when we started the new design.

The plan was to hit the road with a new agile development methodology – SCRUM.

In parallel, we decided to break the setup and configuration logic into different components that ISVs can use as their building blocks.

This new architecture allows ISVs greater flexibility in order to provide a more integrated solution that will be easier to use by IT administrators, or on the other hand, can be used by small scale ISV who are not interested to deal with provisioning as part of their offering.

Let the SCRUM begin!

 

SCRUM is defined as agile development process that allows teams to deliver usable software periodically throughout the life of the project, absorbing change and new requirements as the project proceeds.

Working agile for us, meant being able to divide the SCS deliverables into short iterations (“sprints” ) and by the end of each sprint be able to provide “potentially shippable” product - Something that can be actually used by the customers.

This way, in an incremental effort, we are sharing more features and high quality releases on a regular basis.

This is how the SMB requirements started floating around. First, through several email threads and then, after the team looked at the requests, they all said: “Yes we can!”

In an effort to reduce the number of tools trying to solve similar problems to the customers, and in reality only adding to the confusion, we defined the following milestones for SCS6.0:

•    Release #1 – Q1’09 (ww03’09) - SCS 6 Technology Preview #1 - SMB Provisioning

•    Release #2 – Q2’09 (ww15’09) - SCS 6 Technology Preview #2 - Enterprise Provisioning

•    Release #3 – Q3’09 (ww32’09) - SCS 6 Technology Preview #3 - Maintenance, Installer and improvements

•    Release #4 - Q4’09 (ww45’09) - SCS 6.0 Final - AMT6 Features Support

 

The Lightweight provisioning and the SMB provisioning story

 

The recent technology preview provides a lightweight solution aimed for small and medium business (SMB) customers. In the spirit of the SCS 6.0 approach, pre-requisites were reduced to minimum: No DB is needed (XML based solution is the alternative), No configuration is needed - Profile is ready. It can be installed on any windows based host, No prerequisites from the “server” and … Low footprint on the host system.

In only 3 simple steps, that take only few minutes, the user can now configure the machine (with or without PSK).

All that is required is:

•       User step 1: IT installs SCS 6.0 LW with default profile out of the box

•       User step 2: IT buys RCFG certificate

•       User step 3: IT remotely distribute host based Activator (Through existing Management consoles that are out there already, in the organization)

Or … with PSK:

•       User step 1: IT installs SCS 6.0 LW with default profile out of the box

•       User step 2: IT remotely distribute host based activator

•       User step 3: IT admin creates USB file containing PSK/PID pair to be consumed by the Intel® AMT (One touch end-user restart is required)

Lastly, there is also an option to do Local USB key configuration through the Activator’s GUI in SCS 6.0. This manual configuration takes 2 steps:

•       User step 1: User insert USB key containing GUI Activator SCS 6.0 application

•       SCS Activator Determine Local AMT State

•       SCS Activator creates setup.bin file containing all information needed to configure the system (using user input regarding password and        information if no DHCP is present)

•       SCS Activator formats the USB key then copies both setup.bin file and the Activator application to the disk again.

•       User Step 2: USB Key – Reboot & Approve

•       End User Shut Down Applications and Reboot PC

•       End User “Approve” BIOS AMT Provisioning Process

Under the hood

 

For those interested to know what’s going on under the hood, the new SCS6.0 technology preview #1 contains 3 elements:

• AMT Configuration Server Service — A Windows service (known as the SCS service) performs the steps required to make an Intel AMT system operational. (This includes Intel AMT Release 2.0 and later releases.) The configuration is determined by a configuration profile stored in an xml file. The SCS service exposes a WMI interface for managing the configuration file, creating and importing USB keys and performing configurations (see the MOF API section for details on the interface). The SCS service writes log messages to a file.

• Intel® vPro™ Technology Activator Utility — This application runs on an Intel® AMT system. It performs a diagnosis of the current state of the Intel AMT system and triggers the SCS (via its WMI interface) to perform configuration or unconfiguration.

• SCS Console — A GUI application for managing the SCS configuration profiles and creating and importing USB keys via the SCS WMI interface.

The new technology will be demonstrated in 2009 ISMC, but you also have the ability to download it and experience it yourself. The ease of use of the Intel® AMT Setup and Configuration Service (SCS) 6.0 first Technology Preview can be checked here:

http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/download-the-intel-AMT-SCS-technology-preview/

See also a simple demo that shows the usage of this release using the link above listed under "Additional Information": Sprint 5 Demo

1 Comments Permalink Tags: corey_t_morris, scs, amt, smb, shai_kavas, manageability, 6.0
Sasa Milasinovic
6

As an first MSP in Eastern Europe, I had a dilema which software or solution to use.
I made my decision but still I'm not  sure did I made a good decision.

Before I make my finall decision, I tried couple of software and mostly I'm was looking for a solution that can satisfied all the needs.

I wish to manage vPro platforms and non vPro platforms as well.

Solutions which were more apropriate to vPro platform has a lot of problems with non-vPro machines, SNMP devices etc...

The other one were very good with non-vPro platforms and SNMP devices but were poor with vPro platforms.

Still, I don't have a perfect answer, which solution is the best for MSP bussines and my personal opinion is that combination of few solutions are the only possible winning combination.

Normally, there is no recepies for perfect combination, as well but there is always a "winning" combination for specified situation.

I would be very greatfull if someone share some experiance with me in finding the best combination for MSP bussiness and to find out the best possible way for this kind of bussiness.

From my experiance, vPro is just a "cream of chocolate cake" and lots of "free" software for vPro is only something which should promovate technology in small bussiness companies.

But when we get to some serious bussiness !?!?

Regards,

Sasa Milasinovic

6 Comments Permalink Tags: vpro_expert_center, managed_services, manageability, msp, use_case, power, smb, vpro, unmanaged, amt, case_study, yutro.com, provisioning, sasa, yutro

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