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KACE KBOX 1000 Series (v3.1)
by Bob Kelly

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KBOX Scripting

To say scripting is a feature is a bit vague, does this mean you can run scripts on remote systems the way you would deploy a command line installation? Well, yes and no—the scripting support of the KBOX goes quite a bit further. Specifically, it provides a way to conditionally run commands and affect changes to a machine without writing a script at all. At least not a traditional script.

Tasks are the individual steps being carried out by the script. In each script, you can have any number of tasks. Whether or not a task is executed is dependent upon the success or failure of the previous task and any rules for performing subsequent tasks. There are two types of scripts you can create: policies and jobs. Policies are generally used to perform tasks that will be repeated, such as checking to see whether McAfee Antivirus is installed and working. Whereas jobs are used to perform one-time tasks, such as uninstalling software or moving files. You may specify criteria to determine who runs the script and on what schedule it should be run.

A scripting job can contain several steps broken up into the following functional elements:

  • Verify – your “If” statement, what you want to check for (if anything)
  • On Success – If the item you have verified is true, this action is to be taken
  • Remediation – If the "verify" check does not resolve true, this action is taken
  • On Remediation Success – If the remediation action is successful, this action is taken
  • On Remediation Failure – If the remediation action is not successful, this action is taken

So for those keen on scripting, the VBScript equivalent of this logic would appear as follows:

If <Verify> then
    <On Success>
Else
    <Remediation>
    If Error then
        <On Remediation Failure>
    Else
        <On Remediation Success>
    End If
End If

There are quite a few built in actions you can choose for each element. Some examples include: search the file system, verify a file or directory, verify the status of a process or service, and check for registry keys and values. You can even check the number of subkeys at a certain level of the registry. Essentially, they have done a very good job of providing built in steps which will cover most checks and actions you might want to use. When you choose one of these provided steps, you are then prompted to enter its parameters. For example, if you said you wanted to verify a service was running, you would need to specify the service name.

In the very few areas where I find room for improvement, it would be nice to see an option to select from a list of known values for these parameters. In the example of checking for a process, KBOX knows all the processes that have been detected on your network, so it would be helpful it this knowledge was used to provide a list (to help ensure you don’t mistype such a value-- some process names include a file extension and some do not). The selection options might be provided for services, software and other collected data.

With the power behind this features, I can easily find those getting used to this interface desiring this control for software deployment (as opposed to the simpler built-in distribution support). Instead of installing and reporting success or failure, this would allow you the ability to verify dependencies, what actions are taken, what is logged, what is done in the event of a failure, etc.

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