This is the first part of a series about Adaptiva OneSite. Keep checking back to the WME blog for more.
OneSite is an add-on for SCCM that virtually eliminates the need for multiple primary or child sites and remote distribution points. It allows for organizations with multiple physical sites to operate as one site. It can cut way down on hardware costs and network bandwidth when shipping packages across the WAN. It transmits data using the Adaptiva Protocol, which analyzes your network bandwidth and adjusts its transmission speed so that it does not take over your network.
For OneSite to work, the Adaptiva client must be installed on all clients. This client only needs to be on devices where you need the capabilities of OneSite. You must also be running at least SCCM 2007 SP2 or any version of SCCM 2012.
Adaptiva also makes use of a “virtual cache”. It downloads the data to free space on clients in a local network. All clients in that network then uses this copy of the package. This eliminates the need for a distribution point at each site or office. The elimination of this distribution point is where the cost savings come into play. Organizations no longer need that physical hardware at every site or office. There also is no technical reason to have another primary or child site at the satellite offices.
The system runs with a series of policies, similarly to the policies in SCCM. These policies are defined within the Adaptiva Workbench and applied based on collections in SCCM. When a policy is created, the administrator assigns it to a collection imported from SCCM. There is a corresponding policy to almost everything Adaptiva. I will cover the installation of the Workbench in this post, and there will be a detailed post later devoted solely to the Workbench.
Adaptiva Server
There are three main pieces to the Adaptiva system. The first piece is the server. It is recommended to install the server on directly on your SCCM primary site server. The server piece should be installed in the highest possible point in your hierarchy. A parent site can manage a child site, so there’s no need to install the server piece on child sites.
Adaptiva also uses a SQL database. For the simplest installation, install the Adaptiva database into the same instance as your SCCM database. Though not required, this is the simplest method.
When the server piece is installed, the installer automatically opens a series of ports in the firewall to allow for client/server communication. See the installation guide for these ports, as they may need to be opened on your border routers in your environment.
The installation of the server piece is pretty straightforward. Be sure right-click and run as administrator, as the installer will error if you don’t. Make sure you have a super admin login account for the system. This is not an AD account and is created directly in the system. Once the system is installed, you can add additional users to the system.
Adaptiva Workbench
This is the second piece to the system. This is where most of the action happens. This is a separate install, and can be installed on the SCCM server or on the administrators’ computers. Again, installation of the Workbench is pretty straightforward. When you launch the Workbench, input the server name and your credentials to access the system.
The Workbench must also be launched as admin every time you use it. Because of this, I would modify the shortcut compatibility to always launch as administrator. This setting is under the Compatibility tab of the shortcut properties. I will go into more detail about the Workbench later in this series.
Adaptiva Client
Finally, the client must be installed on any device that you want to be able to use the features of Adaptiva. It can be installed manually, or with command-line switches. The switches you probably want to use is -cleaninstall (installs a clean client and removes previous installations) and -servername (FQDN of Adaptiva server). This can be made into an SCCM package or application for deployment to devices or for use in task sequences. The client installation automatically sets the correct firewall rules for the client to function.
For detailed installation instructions, see the Adaptiva Installation Guide, which can be downloaded here.
Adaptiva Client Health Check
Another Adaptiva solution is the client health check. This is a client health checker not tied to SCCM. It checks the status of clients and reports back issues to the Workbench. Administrators can then schedule the client to be automatically remediated, or remediate it manually. The ability of remediation can be customized through scripts, so the administrator can control what happens. These remediations can be scheduled, so that they occur outside of business hours. There are devoted screens and reports to client health that I will cover in later posts about Adaptiva.
Come back next week for another post about Adaptiva.
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