Application Resilience Policies for SmartDeploy Client

You can activate an Application Resilience policy for SmartDeploy® Client to collect information about the functional status of SmartDeploy Client installed on your Windows devices and view the results in reports. You can also configure the policy to attempt to repair or reinstall the client.

Application Resilience policies for SmartDeploy Client are supported on devices running a supported version of the Windows operating system and one of the following versions of SmartDeploy Client:

  • 3.x or higher

    NOTE  Significant software changes in higher versions may cause health checks to become invalid.

  • 2.x

If you select Report higher versions as Compliant, higher versions report Compliant without running health checks.

In addition to checking the version, the following table describes the health checks performed:

Component Test performed
Services Installed Running Signed by

SmartDeploy Client Service (SDClientService.exe)

 P P

Prowess Consulting, LLC
Component Test performed
Services Installed Running Signed by

SmartDeploy Client Service (ClientService.exe)

 P P

Prowess Consulting, LLC

You can configure an Application Resilience policy for SmartDeploy Client to enable the Application Resilience (RAR) component A lightweight software component of the Absolute agent that detects the status of third party applications installed on a device. The component may also attempt to repair the third party application if it is non-compliant. The RAR component is deployed on a device only when the device is associated with a customized policy group and that policy group's Application Resilience policy is activated. to attempt to repair SmartDeploy Client if it's not functioning, or reinstall it if it's missing or can't be repaired.

NOTE  Depending on the Absolute product licenses associated with your account, the Report and repair option, and the Report, repair, and reinstall option may not be available.

The RAR component of the Absolute agent can respond to the following issues:

Issue

Resolution
Repair
The SmartDeploy Client Service (SDClientService.exe) isn't running The RAR component restarts the service.
The SmartDeploy Client Service (SDClientService.exe) isn't installed and the service's executable can be detected on the device

The RAR component reinstalls the missing service.
Reinstall

The SmartDeploy Client Service (SDClientService.exe) isn't installed and the service's executable cannot be detected on the device

The RAR component downloads and installs the configured version of the client.

NOTE  Downgrades are not supported. If the version installed on a device is higher than the expected version, no action is taken.
The SmartDeploy Client failed to be repaired, or the expected version isn't installed

You can configure an Application Resilience policy for SmartDeploy Client to enable the Application Resilience (RAR) component A lightweight software component of the Absolute agent that detects the status of third party applications installed on a device. The component may also attempt to repair the third party application if it is non-compliant. The RAR component is deployed on a device only when the device is associated with a customized policy group and that policy group's Application Resilience policy is activated. to attempt to reinstall SmartDeploy Client if it's not functioning or missing.

NOTE  The Report and repair option isn't supported. Depending on the Absolute product licenses associated with your account, the Report and reinstall option may not be available.

The RAR component of the Absolute agent can respond to the following issues:

Issue

Resolution
Reinstall

The SmartDeploy Enterprise Client Service (ClientService.exe) isn't running, or isn't installed

The RAR component downloads and installs the configured version of the client.

NOTE  Downgrades are not supported. If the version installed on a device is higher than the expected version, no action is taken.
The expected version of SmartDeploy Client isn't installed

The installer:

  • must be an MSI file

  • can have any file name

The RAR component looks for the following files names when checking pre-cached installers:

Component File name
Installers SmartDeploy_Client_Setup.msi

Before you activate an Application Resilience policy you need to configure the policy. You need to configure the application version in addition to the settings in Configuring Application Resilience policies.

To configure the application version:

  1. Under Application version, select the version range of SmartDeploy Client you expect running on your devices from the drop-down.

  2. Under SmartDeploy Client version, enter the version of SmartDeploy Client you expect to be running on your devices.

    • The target version must be a sequence of digits separated by a period.

    • You can use wildcard "*" characters after the major version, for example 2.*, 2.0.*, 3.*, or 3.0.*.

    IMPORTANT  Make sure the version you are entering is consistent with version range you selected in Application version.

If you selected the Report and reinstall option or the Report, repair, and reinstall option, you also need to configure this setting in addition to the settings in Configuring Application Resilience policies.

To configure the Smart Deploy Client specific setting:

[Optional] Under Additional installation commands, enter the applicable installation command-line parameters to configure any settings not covered by the policy configuration. For more information on available parameters, see SmartDeploy's documentation.