PDA Management with IBM Tivoli Configuration Manager

100 PDA Management with IBM Tivoli Configuration Manager

4.1 Case study overview

In this scenario, we model a fictitious pharmaceutical company. Our customer

has a requirement to update its sales force with the latest price and stock list and

on the three following type of PDAs:

򐂰 Nokia 9290 Communicator

򐂰 Palm V

򐂰 Toshiba Pocket PC e335

All of these PDA devices are given to the traveling sales force. The sales force

receives the actual price and stock list in a PDF file. In this case, we also need to

deploy the appropriate version of a PDF reader software. The company’s

objective is that each time users of the sales department connect their devices to

their host PCs, which are connected to the company network, they should

receive the latest version of the price and stock PDF file, if available. A new PDF

file is created on the first business day of each week. The company would like to

manage all devices from one central point, preferably the entire device

management environment rolled out on one single server, as described in

previous chapters. There is no requirement for securing the environment with

IBM Tivoli Access Manager, since all operations will be done at the corporate

office. The company has a total of 1500 devices in a mix of the three types

mentioned above.

We used the IBM Tivoli Configuration Manager and the Tivoli Web Gateway

component to provide the PDA device management solution. We followed these

steps:

1. Since the requirement is to manage all pervasive devices from a centralized

location, we installed all the required components on a single box

.

The

following software is installed:

– IBM DB2 Universal Database Enterprise Edition Version 7.2

– IBM DB2 Universal Database Enterprise Edition Fixpack 7 (Version 7.2.5)

– IBM WebSphere Application Server Advanced Edition Version 4.0.1

– IBM WebSphere Application Server Advanced Edition Fixpack 3 (Version

4.0.3)

– IBM Tivoli Framework Version 4.1

– IBM Tivoli Configuration Manager Version 4.2

– Tivoli Web Gateway

For instructions on how to set up such an environment, refer to Chapter 2,

“Getting the environment up and running” on page 13.

Chapter 4. Managing pervasive devices 101

2. We created the Policy Region structure shown in Figure 4-1 in the Tivoli

environment. The resource groups are subscribed to the relevant Profile

Managers to enable us to distribute software packages or inventory profiles to

the devices. For information on creating Policy Regions and Profile

Managers, please refer to

Tivoli Management Framework User’s Guide

Version 4.1

, GC32-0805-003 manual.

Figure 4-1 Policy Region structure

The naming convention presented in Figure 4-1 represents:

– Pr = Policy region

– rg = Resource group

– Pf = Profile

102 PDA Management with IBM Tivoli Configuration Manager

– sp = Software package

– Pm = Profile Manager

– The [device_type] variable can be:

• palm

• nokia

• wince (used also for PocketPCs)

3. Depending on the PDA type, we will set up the IBM Device Agents either on

the PDA and or on the PDA’s host PCs, and connect them to the Resource

Gateway.

Table 4-1 IBM Device Agents

4. Once the device is connected to the Resource Gateway, we will sort them into

the relevant resource groups:

– Nokia devices - rg.pervasive_devices.nokia

– Palm devices - rg.pervasive_devices.palm

– Wince devices - rg.pervasive_devices.wince

5. The devices have no PDF reader software installed yet. We have decided to

use Acrobat Reader for Palm and PocketPC PDAs, and PDF+ for Nokia

devices. We will create the software packages, import them to the already

created Profile Managers and initiate the Software Distribution.

Table 4-2 Platforms and PDF reader software

Note: According to the naming convention rules of IBM Tivoli Configuration

Manager Software Distribution, the software package profile has to have a “^”

character in its name (for example,

software_name

^

version_number

).

Device Type IBM Device Agent name

resides on the host PC

IBM Device Agent name

resides on the device

Nokia 9290 EUPCInstaller.exe N/A

Palm V CondInst.exe DMSAgentResources.PDB

PvcPalm.prc

Config.PDB

Toshiba Pocket PC E335 N/A ceagent.arm.CAB

PDA platform PDF reader software to deploy

Nokia 9290 Communicator PDF+

Palm V Adobe Acrobat Reader for Palm OS

Toshiba Pocket PC E335 Adobe Acrobat Reader for Pocket PC