Labs

Along with its basic Carbon Copy remote-control software for single users, Altiris offers a web-based version for the larger business. Carbon Copy Solution is one of a range of products aimed at desktop management, software deployment and support and is designed to make remote-control and file-transfer tools directly accessible from a browser.

The product range is built around the Altiris eXpress Notification Server (NS), which looks after each installed Solution and manages software distribution to each client. This requires an SQL database to store client details, and smaller sites can use the bundled copy of MSDE (Microsoft Data Engine).

Installation of the NS is nicely streamlined, as all required components are automatically installed if not already present. The next task is to deploy the NS client to each workstation.

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You can use the NS administration console to push the software out to selected systems or allow them to pull it in from a pre-prepared web page.

With this installed, each client can now access the NS and receive downloads of new applications or configuration changes. The Carbon Copy Solution component is then loaded into the NS console and a package is created to install an agent to systems selected from the console discovery routine. A useful feature of the NC client is it allows you to make changes to Carbon Copy configurations and push them to all workstations.

Collections are used to keep workstations in manageable groups and you can view a list of those running the Carbon Copy agent. On selecting one, you'll find the support tools provided are basic. A remote-control session allows you to take over a client, send keystrokes and have a voice or text chat. The system can also be remotely rebooted, but you don't get any drawing tools and you can't blank their screen or lock the keyboard and mouse.

During testing, Carbon Copy was unable to complete either file copy test in less than 40 minutes. We advised Altiris' support team, who agreed that we'd uncovered a flaw in the software and suggested using the standalone version instead, but we declined this offer. To make matters worse, Altiris suggested downloading a utility from its support site, which we found was infected with a Trojan Horse virus.