Troubleshooting Maintenance Utilities

You can give users the option to use maintenance and troubleshooting utilities provided by independent software vendors (ISVs) and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). These utilities can provide users with the ability to troubleshoot hardware-related problems. In addition, these utilities provide an easy way to update client computer systems; for example, a vendor may provide a way to upgrade a flash BIOS using the remote installation process.

Maintenance and troubleshooting utilities are installed by using an external Setup program provided by the ISV or OEM. The Setup program will copy the required files to the RIS server; in addition, it will create an answer file and copy that to the RIS server. When you open the Remote-Installation-Services Properties dialog box, the RIS server will parse the answer file and display the installed utilities on the Tools tab.
Users can use these third-party utilities by initiating a network service startup and then selecting the Maintenance and Troubleshooting option. However, these utilities will not be available to users unless you have used Group Policy to give users access to maintenance and troubleshooting utilities. You can also modify the NTFS permissions on the individual answer files to restrict access to any given utility. For example, you can ensure that a flash BIOS utility is available only to users who have that particular BIOS by assigning the Read permission on the answer file for that utility to only those users. The next lesson wraps-up this module.