Server management tasks

You can perform the following basic server management tasks in the SA Client:

Refreshing the server status

Refresh a server to see if anything has changed on the server since you last looked at it in the SA Client. Refreshing a server retrieves the latest server information from the model repository and displays it. Refreshing a server’s status is good idea from time to time to make sure you are looking at current data on the server.

For more information on server statuses, see Ways to use the Device Explorer.

To refresh a server’s status:

  1. Launch the SA Client. From the Navigation pane, select Devices.
  2. Select one of the server categories, such as Device Groups, All Managed Servers, Unprovisioned Servers, or Virtual Servers. (You cannot refresh server status of unmanaged servers or a device group.)
  3. Select one or more servers.
  4. Right-click or select the Actions menu and select Refresh Server.

Deactivating a server

Perform the following steps to deactivate a server:

  1. From the Navigation pane, select Devices > All Managed Servers. The All Managed Servers list appears.
  2. Or, search for the server that you want to deactivate.
  3. Select the servers that you want to deactivate.
  4. Choose Actions > Deactivate SA Agent. A confirmation dialog box prompts you to confirm deactivation.
  5. Click OK. The Manage Servers list refreshes and the server appears with a deactivated icon.
  6. You cannot deactivate an SA Core server, only managed servers.

Rebooting a server

You can reboot a single server or a group of server immediately, or schedule the reboot for a later time. If you choose to reboot a group of servers, all servers contained in the group will be rebooted.

In order to be able to reboot a server, your user needs to belong to a user group that has the Reboot Server permission. For more information, contact your SA Administrator.

If you are rebooting a hypervisor server that is hosting other virtual servers, then all virtual servers being hosted by that hypervisor will be shut down as well. Whether or not the hosted virtual servers get rebooted depends upon the individual virtual server’s configuration.

To reboot a server:

  1. Launch the SA Client.
  2. From the Navigation pane, select Devices > All Managed Servers or > Device Groups.
  3. Include these scripts in a software policy related to the server you want to reboot: reboot_script.txt, to_MAINTENANCE, to_OK.
  4. Alternatively, before you reboot, run the following script to set the server to maintenance mode before you reboot the server: to_MAINTENANCE.
  5. Select a server or group of servers, right-click, and select Reboot Server.
  6. In the Reboot Server window, step one lists the server or servers you have selected to reboot. Click Next.
  7. In the Scheduling page, choose if you want to reboot the server or group of servers immediately, or at some later time and date. To run the reboot at a later time, select Run Task At:, and then choose a day and time.
  8. Click Next.
  9. In the Notifications page, by default your user will not have a notification email sent when the reboot finishes, whether or not the reboot job is successful. To add an email notifier, click Add Notifier and enter an email address.
  10. (Optional) You can specific if you want the email to be sent upon success of the reboot job () and/or failure of the reboot job ().
  11. (Optional) You can specify a Ticket Tracking ID in the Ticket ID field. The ticket ID field is only used when SA Professional Services has integrated SA with your change control systems. It should be left blank otherwise.
  12. Click Next.
  13. In the Summary View page, click Start Job to reboot the selected server or group of servers. When the job has run, click View Results to view the results of the reboot job.
  14. In the Job Status page, you can see the progress of the job if you ran the job immediately. If the job is scheduled to run, you can close the window, and to view the job details, from the left side of the SA Client, select Jobs and Sessions > Job Logs.
  15. Run the to_OK script to reset the server to normal mode.

SA Tasks that Reboot a Server

There are a few other SA tasks that will initiate a server reboot, depending on the options set in the task:

  • Installing or uninstalling a patch on Windows or UNIX servers. See "Server patching" in the SA Use section for more information.
  • Remediating a Patch policy. See "Server patching" in the SA Use section for more information.
  • Installing a package and remediating a software policy. See "Software management" in the SA Use section for more information.

Opening a remote terminal

To open a remote terminal for any managed server:

  1. From the SA Client navigation pane, select the Devices tab.
  2. In the navigation pane, select All Managed Servers.
  3. Select a managed server.
  4. Select the Actions menu or right click and select Open With > Remote Terminal. For some operating systems, this displays a menu of users with which to log in, typically root, Administrator and root administrator. Otherwise this opens a window to the managed server.
  5. If a menu of users is displayed, select the desired user to log in with. Otherwise skip this step.
  6. Log in to the remote terminal.

Changing the user passwords on managed servers

You can change the password of any user on any of your managed servers using the SA Client. Perform the following steps.

  1. In the SA Client, select the Devices tab. This displays the Device Groups node and the Servers node in the navigation panel.
  2. Under the Servers node, select All Managed Servers or Virtual Servers. This displays all the corresponding servers. Select one or more servers, or under Device Groups, select one or more device groups.
  3. Select the Actions menu or right click and select Run Extension > Change User Passwords for Selected Servers.

    Or, if Run Extension > Change Passwords is not shown, select Run Extension > Select Extension. This displays the Select Extension window and lists the available extensions. Select Change User Passwords for Selected Servers in the Select Extension window then select OK.

    This displays the Run Program Extension window showing the servers and device groups you selected.
  4. You can optionally add servers and device groups with the Include Devices button or remove selected servers and device groups with the Remove button.
  5. Select the Next button to display the Program Properties with the name of the extension you are running. Verify that it is the Change User Passwords for Selected Servers extension.
  6. Select the Next button to display the Options screen.
  7. Run as root or Administrator: This setting specifies the login credentials to use on the managed servers to perform the change password action. Select Yes to use root or Administrator. Select No to perform the operation as the user whose password you are changing. If you selected No, you must enter the user’s current password.
  8. User: Enter the user name whose password you want to change. This user must be a valid user on all the selected servers.
  9. Current Password: If you selected No for “Run as root or Administrator, enter the current password of the user whose password you want to change. If you selected Run as root or Administrator for the credentials, the current password is not needed.
  10. New Password: and Confirm New Password: Enter the new password.
  11. Program Timeout: This specifies how long to allow the job to run before aborting if it does not finish. This setting can be useful to ensure the job runs within a maintenance window.
  12. To skip the remaining settings and start the job immediately, select Start Job. Otherwise, select the Next button to schedule when to run the password change job.
  13. Schedule - Specify whether you want the job to run immediately or in the future. If you want the job to run in the future, specify the start time and date.
  14. Select Next to display the Email Notifications screen.
  15. Email Notifications - You can request that an email message be sent when the job finishes. Use Add Notifier and Remove to change the recipients.
    You can optionally add a ticket identifier to the job for tracking purposes. The ticket identifier is retained with the job information.
  16. Select Next to display the Job Status screen.
  17. Job Status - Select the Start Job or Schedule Job button. This runs the job or schedules it to be run in the future and displays the Job ID number in the window banner. You can use the Job ID number to look up the job under the Jobs and Sessions tab.

    Once the job finishes, you can view the results. Select a server to display the results for that server.
  18. Select Close. At any time you can view the job results by selecting the Jobs and Sessions tab in the SA Client navigation panel and locating the job in the job history.