pushAgent(1M)

NAME

pushAgent — install the Software Distributor agent on remote systems

SYNOPSIS

/usr/sbin/pushAgent [-a additional_diskspace] [-m machine_name| -t target_file] [-x prompt_rootname=[true|false]

Remarks:

This command applies only to the HP OpenView Software Distributor product. It is not part of the SD-UX command set shipped with the HP-UX operating system.
For an overview of all SD commands, see the sd(5) manual page by typing:
man 5 sd

DESCRIPTION

The pushAgent command provides the HP OpenView Software Distributor (SD-OV) user with a way to install the SD agent onto remote systems for the first time or to replace SD-UX. The tool is especially useful when configuring a large number of remote systems as SD agents.

The SD supports two separate configurations:

SD controller systems
SD agent systems

SD controller systems are created by installing the full SD product from the installation media. SD agent systems are created by using pushAgent to install the SD agent on remote systems. Once the SD agent has been installed on a remote system using this tool, the remote system becomes a valid target for software distribution tasks.

The pushAgent command has two different basic modes of operation: interactive and command line. Command line mode is entered when either -m or -t is specified on the command line. If neither of these options is specified, interactive mode is used.

In interactive mode, the program will present a number of alternatives to the user via a terminal-based user interface. On-line help is available from within this tool. Use interactive mode when you only need to install the SD agent onto a few systems. When you select this method, you will be prompted for the name of the remote system. Once the system name has been entered, pushAgent will install and configure the SD agent on that remote system. While the installation progresses, the current status of the installation will be displayed. Finally, the success or failure of the installation is shown. If the installation failed, the tool will report why, and may suggest a way for the user to remedy the problem so that the installation can be re-tried later.

In command line mode, all machines which need the SD agent are listed via the command line (on the command line itself with the -m option or in a batch file with the -t option). Install the SD agent via -m when you have to install the SD agent on just a few systems, but do not want to use the interactive mode.

Install the SD agent from a batch file when you need to install the SD agent on many systems. When you select this method, you must provide an input file which contains a list of remote systems. The pushAgent command reads the file, and serially installs the SD agent on each system listed in the file. While the installation progresses, pushAgent displays the current status of the installation. When the installation process has completed to all of the remote systems listed in the input file, a summary screen is displayed which lists the names of the systems whose installation failed.

An example input file for the batch installation method is displayed below:

# Accounting Department 
hpbob # Bob's machine 
hpfrank # Frank's machine 

# R+D Department 
grpserver.co.here.com  # Our server system 
15.1.2.3   # IP address of their test machine 

For both modes, verbose logging information is written to the log file /tmp/pushAgent.log (see the DIAGNOSTICS section below).

For both modes, access to the remote machines is first attempted via remsh. If remsh access fails, rexec access is attempted. If rexec access is not already set up for the remote machine, pushAgent prompts for the remote machine's root password.

If you are using pushAgent on an HP-UX 10.x system, you will be prompted for the name of a source depot which contains the SD commands. This depot will most likely be your SD media (on which the SD product was delivered). You will only be asked for the name of the source depot once per invocation of pushAgent.

pushAgent expects SD for different architectures to be already loaded on the system. The location is /tmp/sd. If you do not have enough space on your /tmp file system, you can create a soft link to a file system with enough space.

If the SD product for the target system's architecture is not loaded on the target system, pushAgent prompts you for the source depot that contains SD. pushAgent then loads SD into /tmp/sd on the target system.

pushAgent does not remove /tmp/sd so that SD will be available on the system for subsequent pushes. If you need the disk space, you can remove /tmp/sd manually.

Options

pushAgent supports the following options:

-a: Specifies how much additional disk space must be present on each of the target machines in the file system containing /usr. This is space above and beyond what SD itself will require. The number is specified in Kbytes. The default is 0. This option is useful when you have other software which will be installed after the SD agent, and you want to make sure both it and the SD agent will fit on your remote system.
-m: Specifies a single machine to install the SD agent on. Multiple -m options are allowed on a single invocation of pushAgent.
-t: Specifies a file containing a list of machines to install the SD agent on (a batch file).
-x prompt_rootname=: This option is useful when your remote system's root user is something other than root. Valid option values are either true or false (default is false). If set to true, pushAgent will prompt for both the remote root name and the remote root password if access to the remote machine via remsh fails. If set to false, only the root password will be prompted for (the user root is assumed).

EXTERNAL INFLUENCES

Signals

The pushAgent command catches the signals SIGHUP, SIGINT, SIGQUIT, and SIGTERM. If any of these signals are received, the pushAgent command confirms whether the user wishes to exit. Note that sending a signal to the pushAgent command while it is installing the SD agent on a remote system may leave that remote system in an inconsistent state, and is therefore not recommended.

SECURITY

When the installation of the SD agent on remote systems has completed, pushAgent performs some basic configuration of the security Access Control Lists (ACLs) on the remote system. Specifically, an entry is added to the remote system which will enable full software distribution access by the super-user on the system which is running the pushAgent program. This super-user will be able to perform software distribution tasks to the remote system without having to further configure its ACLs.

DIAGNOSTICS

The pushAgent tool supports three log files:

/tmp/pushAgent.log
/tmp/pushAgent.old
/tmp/pushAgent.older

Every time this command is started, a new log file /tmp/pushAgent.log is created. The pushAgent command records in this log file the names of the remote systems which had the SD agent installed on, the success or failure of that installation, together with a detailed message on the type of failure if the installation failed. In addition, log files for the two previous pushAgent sessions are maintained. The log information from these two sessions is saved in the files /tmp/pushAgent.old and /tmp/pushAgent.older.

RETURN VALUES

The pushAgent command returns:

1: if an invalid command line option is used or if a batch file is incorrect.
2: if the user prematurely exits from the program.
0: in all other circumstances.

LIMITATIONS

pushAgent is not supported on SunOS. Refer to Using HP OpenView Software Distributor on Sun Platforms for more information on how to distribute the SD agent to remote workstations running SunOS.

pushAgent is not supported for installing to PC controllers.

AUTHOR

pushAgent was developed by the Hewlett-Packard Company.