Client Management Suite

I want to try the trial version of Altiris Client Management Suite 7. Will it work from a virtual Windows Server 2003 machine? Or does it require a real hardware server? My Sys Admin's preference is to use virtual, if we can.
Thanks.

Norm

We are trying out AMS7 Beta and CMS7 on Virtual Hardware atm, i.e VMWARE ESXi V4.

you want to take into account that running SQL on a virtual system can be big bottleneck. There are a number of articles available on the kb system, but start here: Altiris KB45597.

For an evaluation, you can use virtual.  Windows Server 2003 32-bit with SQL Express 2005.  Even VMWare Workstation could work, but if you have legitimate server virtualization (like VMWare ESX 3.5), use that.

This explains the OS, SQL, and virtualizations supported:
Platform Support Matrix for SMP 6.x/7x
https://kb.altiris.com/article.asp?article=46349&p=1

To build your production environment, you will want to check out the SMP Capacity Planning document Jim referenced above.
Symantec Management Platform Capacity Planning
https://kb.altiris.com/article.asp?article=45597&p=1

I have CMS 7 running under Workstation 7 on a laptop - runs but slowly. I also have CMS7 running in VM on ESX 3.5 with SQL running on its own VM. Resources on my ESX box are stretched a bit so performance is not great but is usable. I am finding that clients are favouring a virtual environment even to the point that their is no alternative.

Mark

If you want to go virtual, but can't because it isn't yet supported by Symantec, plan for both.  It's looking like I will inherit an old VM box  (4 processors x 2 cores = 8 cores) because they have cheaper licensing for VMWare by using fewer processors (2 processors x 4 cores = 8 cores).  But originally, my SD7 project plan called for physical systems that could work for SD7 or VMWare.  When virtualization is supported for SD7 (hopefully?), SD7 would undergo a Physical-to-Virtual migration to an existing VMWare box, the "old" SD7 retrofitted to VMWare ESX, and then SD7 (now virtualized) moved back over.

SD7 in a virtualised environment is a dead cert, has to be. One of the Symantec SEs I deal with said it wasn't supported right now as insufficient QA had been done to "put their badge on it"
Similar with CMS 7 though IIRC that is supported in ESX 3.5 but not vSphere yet.

As long as you keep in mind that running on Virtual Environment is only recommended up to a few hundred nodes, that won't be a problem. It's not yet supported on production environment, though. I use it on my lab boxes and it works as it's supposed to.

Can we run Altiris Client Management Suite 7 on Windows Server 2008 ?

Altiris Client Management Suite 7 doesn't works on  Windows Server 2008 at this time.

for more details go to https://kb.altiris.com/article.asp?article=46349&p=1

No, but Windows Server 2008 will be supported with 7.1 solutions.  In 7.0 solutions and related Service Packs, you're limited to Windows Server 2003.

Why is the trial of 7.1 not available? We are trying to get rid of our 2003 servers, not build more.

There is a group for the beta program which you need to subscribe to. Beta is planning to be released sometime in September. I like to rant about things I can't change too, but usually I just do it to my monitor.

Our entire infrastructure (30 servers, 4 DB servers) runs on Windows Server 2003 R2 virtual machines.