HP T5735 - Compaq Thin Client Service manual

HP ezUpdate
Administrator’s
Guide
Table of Contents:
Introduction ............................................................................................................ 1
Setup Overview ...................................................................................................... 2
Setting Up the FTP Server......................................................................................... 2
Uploading a Profile Using HP ThinState.................................................................... 3
Other Update Methods ............................................................................................ 4
Downloading New Packages............................................................................... 4
Uploading an Image Using HP ThinState .............................................................. 4
Creating a Custom Update................................................................................... 5
Setting up a Thin Client............................................................................................ 6
Installing Updates.................................................................................................... 7
Stateless Mode........................................................................................................ 7
Troubleshooting ...................................................................................................... 7
Introduction
HP ezUpdate is a flexible tool designed to automatically distribute new images,
packages, profiles, and custom updates to a group of HP thin clients running the HP
ThinPro Operating System. It is best used in combination with HP ThinState to distribute
customizations to a group of thin clients when a full management solution such as HP
Device Manager is not needed.
HP ezUpdate also provides stateless mode support. In stateless mode, the thin client
does not save any connection information or settings to the thin client. Instead, the thin
client downloads a profile from an FTP server and starts up in a special RAM-only
mode. When the thin client is turned off, all connection information and settings are
erased, leaving no information on the thin client for a potential thief.

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This white paper describes how to set up HP ezUpdate on a thin client and server;
how to create new packages and upload profiles and images using HP ThinState; and
how to debug common problems.
The examples in this white paper have been validated on servers running Windows®
XP Professional Edition and the Debian 5.0 (“lenny”) operating systems.
This administration guide applies to the following HP thin clients:
•t5735 with HP ThinPro image M6CL0007
•t5745 with HP ThinPro image M6CL0007
•t5325 with HP ThinPro image M5AR0013
Note:
This white paper does not apply to the HP t5545 thin client
with image M5ST0031 or M5ST0019.
Setup Overview
Complete the following steps to set up HP ezUpdate and a series of thin clients in a
new environment:
1. Set up an FTP server service/daemon on the ezUpdate server.
2. (Optional) Add ezUpdate DHCP tag 137 to the DHCP server configuration.
3. Set up the ezUpdate server directory structure (see Server Setup).
4. Configure the first thin client and upload its profile to the ezUpdate server (see
Upload a Profile Using ThinState).
5. (Optional) Upload image/packages/custom updates to the ezUpdate server (see
Other Update Methods).
6. (Optional) Configure ezUpdate on the remaining clients if a DHCP tag is not used
(see Setting up a Thin Client).
7. Reboot the thin clients, triggering ezUpdate to install new updates.
Setting Up the FTP Server
The first step to configuring HP ezUpdate is to ensure that the FTP server is properly set
up.
1. Verify that you are able to reach the server via FTP. See Troubleshooting for more
information on testing an FTP connection.
2. If the ezUpdate server information is to be supplied by the DHCP server, configure
DHCP tag 137 on the DHCP server. The tag should be:
ftp://username:password@server/path
3. Create a directory on the FTP server in which to put the updates. In this example,
we are calling the directory ezupdate. A sample server layout may also be
included with this documentation. If so, extract server_sample.zip and skip to
step 6.

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4. Verify that a user account has been set up with read/write access to the ezupdate
directory. After the configuration files have been uploaded, disable write access to
increase security.
5. Create a subdirectory inside the ezupdate directory for each hardware platform
(for instance, t5745, t5325, or t5735) on which you would like to install updates.
6. Create a set of directories inside the ezupdate directory for updates:
Image: A full image created by HP ThinState (.dd.gz)
Packages: Debian packages downloaded from the Web (.deb)
Custom: Custom script-based updates (.sh)
PersistentProfile: A permanent ThinState profile (.xml)
StatelessProfile: A temporary ThinState profile to be installed every boot (.xml)
7. Add updates to the appropriate directories. See Uploading a Profile Using
ThinState and Other Update Methods for more information on the various update
methods.
Note:
More than one type of update can be included. Updates will
be installed in the order given in the previous step.
Uploading a Profile Using HP ThinState
Now we can configure our first thin client and upload its configuration to the server.
This configuration can be downloaded by the other thin clients.
1. Configure the thin client exactly as you would like the users to see it. Remember to
include HP ezUpdate configuration settings if a DHCP tag is not used (see Setting
up a Thin Client).
2. Start HP ThinState from the Control Panel Management tab.
3. Select the HP ThinPro configuration and then click Next.
4. Select save the configuration and then click Next.
5. Select on an FTP server and then click Next.
6. Type the requested information in the following fields and then click OK:
Host: The domain name or IP address of the ezUpdate server
Username: The username; should be set to anonymous if anonymous FTP
access is used
Password: The password; can be left blank if anonymous FTP access is used
File directory: The relative path from the ftp root directory. For the example,
the relative path is /ezupdate/t5745/PersistentProfile (or StatelessProfile if
stateless mode is desired).
File name: The name of the profile. This may be the default profile.xml or it
can be changed to a more descriptive name such as Accounting.xml,
kiosk.xml, etc. Ensure that the name ends in .xml so that it can be properly
validated by ezUpdate.
7. Click Finish. The profile is then uploaded to the ezUpdate server.

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Other Update Methods
In most cases, an HP ThinState profile contains all the information needed to set up a
new thin client. In some situations, however, additional configuration may be
desirable. For these circumstances, HP ezUpdate supports several other update
methods.
Downloading New Packages
New software and updates to HP ThinPro are made available on the HP Web site as
Debian package files (.deb). To install package updates using HP ezUpdate,
download the self-extracting executable file from www.hp.com
Uploading an Image Using HP ThinState
and extract the Debian
packages to the /ezupdate/Packages directory on the ezUpdate server. The next time
the thin client is turned on, ezUpdate detects the packages and installs them.
In addition to using HP ThinState to upload a configuration, you can also use ThinState
to upload an image—an exact copy of the thin client’s solid state drive.
Note:
An image of the thin client is more than 250MB, whereas a
profile update is usually less than 500KB. Therefore, updating
a full image using HP ezUpdate is only recommended for
highly customized configurations in which smaller profile,
package, and custom updates are not feasible.
1. Configure the thin client exactly as you would like the users to see it.
2. Start HP ThinState from the Control Panel Management tab.
3. Select the HP ThinPro image and then click Next.
4. Select make a copy of the HP ThinPro image and then click Next.
5. Select an FTP server and then click Next.
6. Type the requested information in the following fields and then click OK:
Host: The domain name or IP address of the ezUpdate server
Username: The username; should be set to anonymous if anonymous FTP
access is used
Password: The password; can be left blank if anonymous FTP access is used
Image directory: The relative path from the ftp root directory. For the example,
the relative path is /ezupdate/t5745/PersistentProfile (or StatelessProfile if
stateless mode is desired).
Image file: The name of the profile. This may be the default
<hostname>.dd.gz or it can be changed to a more descriptive name such as
custom-image.dd.gz, store-front-image.dd.gz, etc. However, ensure that the
name ends in .dd.gz so it can be properly validated by ezUpdate.

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7. Click Finish. The thin client then reboots into the ThinState drive imaging mode
and uploads the image to the ezUpdate server.
Note:
Depending on network speed, uploading the image may take
some time.
Creating a Custom Update
For situations in which profile and package updates are not sufficient and a full image
update is undesirable, a custom update can be created. In this example we are
creating a custom update to installs a file to /usr/bin.
Note:
The directions in this example should be completed on the
ezUpdate server unless specified otherwise.
1. Create the directory Custom/SampleUpdate in the hardware-specific ezUpdate
root directory, for example, t5745/Custom/SampleUpdate.
2. Create a file called install.sh in the Custom/SampleUpdate directory. This script
will be downloaded and run on the thin client.
3. Add the following lines to install.sh:
#!/bin/bash
set -e # Error out if any command fails
SERVER=`mclient --quiet get root/ezupdate/ezUpdateServerUrl`
EZPATH=`mclient --quiet get root/ezupdate/path`
USER=`mclient --quiet get root/ezupdate/user`
PASSWORD=`mclient --quiet get root/ezupdate/password`
URL="ftp://${USER}:${PASSWORD}@${SERVER}/${EZPATH}"
wget $URL/Custom/SampleUpdate/hello_world.sh --directory-
prefix /usr/bin
chmod +x /usr/bin/hello_world.sh
# Remove carriage returns from hello_world.sh if they exist
sed --in-place 's/\r$//' /usr/bin/hello_world.sh
In this case install.sh retrieves the ezUpdate server information from the registry,
uses it to download and install the script hello_world.sh, ensures that the script is
executable, and then removes Windows formatting.
4. Create a file called hello_world.sh in the Custom/SampleUpdate directory and
add the following lines to it:
#!/bin/bash
echo “Hello world!”
5. Create a file called install_order.txt in the Custom directory.

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6. Add SampleUpdate to the first line in install_order.txt. This is to notify clients
running HP ezUpdate that the SampleUpdate custom update should be installed.
If more than one custom update is needed, place each update in its own directory with
an install.sh script and add each update to install_order.txt with one update per line in
the order in which updates should be installed.
Note:
Install.sh is a standard bash script that is downloaded by
HP ezUpdate and run locally on the thin client. All thin client
command line tools and configuration options available to a
local administrator can be run, thus providing complete
control over the thin client.
Setting up a Thin Client
Now that the HP ezUpdate is set up to and loaded with the required updates, we can
configure another thin client to retrieve the updates from the ezUpdate server.
Note:
The thin client comes with ezUpdate enabled by default. If the
DHCP tag for ezUpdate is configured no setup is required,
just turn it on and HP ezUpdate will take care of the rest.
If a DHCP tag is not used, follow the directions below to configure the client to check
for updates:
1. Turn on the thin client and open HP ezUpdate from the Control Panel Management
tab.
2. To ensure that ezUpdate will be run during boot, select Enable ezUpdate on
system startup.
3. If you are using a DHCP tag to automatically send ezUpdate server information to
new thin clients, ensure that Use DHCP tag to detect ezUpdate server is selected
and skip to step 5. If each new thin client will be manually configured for
ezUpdate, clear the selection.
4. Type the requested information in the following fields and then click OK:
Server: The domain name or IP address of the ezUpdate server
Path: The relative path from the ftp root directory. For the example, the relative
path will be /ezupdate. The hardware directory does not need to be specified
as ezupdate detects the appropriate directory.
User name: The username; should be set to anonymous if anonymous FTP
access is used.
Password: The password; can be left blank if anonymous FTP access is used.
5. Click OK.
The thin client is now configured to retrieve ezUpdates. To verify that ezUpdate is
working, refer to Installing Updates.

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Installing Updates
Once the client is configured and the desired updates have been loaded on the server,
restart the thin client to install the updates. All updates are automatically downloaded
and applied at the end of the boot process. All reboots required to complete update
installation are automatically performed by ezUpdate.
If ezUpdate is configured on the client and server and the thin client does not install
the updates, please refer to Troubleshooting.
Stateless Mode
HP ezUpdate provides stateless mode support. In stateless mode, no configuration
settings are saved to the thin client, but instead are downloaded from the ezUpdate
server when the thin client is turned on. The benefit of this is that a lost or stolen thin
client contains no sensitive data such as credentials, certificates, logs, configuration
settings, etc.
To activate stateless mode, follow the directions in Uploading a Profile Using HP
ThinState, but instead of placing the profile in the PersistentProfile directory, place it in
the StatelessProfile directory.
Image, package, custom, and Persistent Profile updates will still be performed before
stateless mode is activated, which allows administrators to provide system updates to a
thin client with stateless mode enabled.
Note:
Enabling stateless mode does not reset the thin client to
factory defaults. If networking is unavailable during startup,
the thin client loads the profile from its solid state drive. This
allows an administrator to choose which action will be taken
if the ezUpdate server or network is unavailable: restarting
the thin client, providing backup connections, or displaying
an error message.
Troubleshooting
Occasionally, everything does not go as planned. If you have gone through the
previous sections but HP ezUpdate is not working, a number of additional actions can
be taken to resolve the problem.
In this section, we will step through each point in the update process, verify that it is
working, and provide resolution guidance if the process is not working.
1. Test network connectivity:
a. Go to the Net Tools tab under System Information.
b. Select the Ping tool, type the server address under Target Host, and then click
Start Process. If the ping is successful you should receive output similar to this:
PING 10.30.8.52 (10.30.8.52) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 10.30.8.52: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.815 ms
64 bytes from 10.30.8.52: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.735 ms

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If you have a long delay with no output, your network may be disconnected.
Check the network cable and network settings in the Control Panel and system
tools. Try pinging other servers or clients. If you can reach other clients on the
network but not the server, ensure that you have the correct server address. Try
pinging by IP address instead of Domain name or vice-versa. In some rare
cases, ping may be blocked on your network. If that is the case, skip to the
next step.
2. Test FTP connectivity:
a. Create a new Iceweasel connection.
b. Go to the ftp server at ftp://<user>:<password>@<server><path>
c. You should be able to browse the ftp server directories. If not, you should
receive an error such as Login incorrect or Failed to connect. At this point, you
need to further troubleshoot the connection to the server. Confirm that you are
using the correct credentials or try connecting from another client. It may be
something as simple as a typo, or something more complex such as a blocked
port.
(for
example, ftp://ezupdate:[e-mail]/test_path).
3. Check logs:
a. If the client can connect to the ezUpdate server but the update is still not
working, the failure is probably captured in the logs. Open a terminal and
view the log for the last update by running cat
/writable/ezupdate/log/ezupdate.log. The log contains a variety of
information about what happened the last time ezUpdate was run. A
successful install usually looks something like this:
date: Sun May 17 11:39:09 EDT 2009
date: Tue Nov 24 16:33:15 EST 2009
supportedProtocols = ftp
server = 16.1.1.1
path = /ezupdate
user = ezupdate_user
password = *password*
protocol = ftp
model = t5745
URL=ftp://ezupdate_user:*password*@16.1.1.3/ezupdate/t5745
Connected to 16.1.1.1!
Checking for image...
Getting directory listing for Image on server
No image found.
Checking for packages...
Getting directory listing for Packages on server
No packages found.
Checking for custom updates...
Retrieving custom/install_order.txt from server
Failed to retrieve custom/install_order.txt
No custom package list found.

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Checking for persistent profile...
Getting directory listing for PersistentProfile on server
Retrieving PersistentProfile/Accounting.xml from server
Downloaded PersistentProfile/Accounting.xml from server
Persistent profile Accounting.xml installed.
Checking for stateless profile...
Getting directory listing for StatelessProfile on server
No stateless profile found.
Successfully updated.
Cleaning up...
Locked file system.
ezUpdate complete.
The ezUpdate log should give a clear indication if there are any problems
with the way the ezUpdate server is set up.
b. If there is no log, then ezUpdate has not been run. Verify that Enable
ezUpdate on system start is selected in the ezUpdate configuration and restart
the client. You can also run ezUpdate manually by running
/usr/bin/ezupdate from the terminal.
c. HP ezUpdate also keeps track of what updates it has installed.
oImage: HP ezUpdate stores the file name of the last image installed by
ezUpdate at /.flash/ezupdate_image.
oPackages: HP ezUpdate relies on the Debian packaging tool dpkg to see
which packages are installed. Use dpkg -l <package name> to see if a
package is installed, or use dpkg -l to obtain a full list of installed
packages. A package will not be downloaded and installed if a package
of the same name and version is already installed.
oCustom: HP ezUpdate stores the name of the custom updates that have
been installed in /writable/ezupdate/custom_updates.
oPersistent Profile: The filename of the currently installed profile is stored at
/writable/ezupdate/persistent_profile.
oStateless Profile: Since all data is wiped on reboot, ezUpdate does not
store information on the currently installed stateless profile.
Note:
To force reinstallation of an update, remove the appropriate
log file or line for the specific update. For packages, remove
an installed package by running dpkg -r <package name>.
© 2010 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein
is subject to change without notice. Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation
in the U.S. and other countries. The only warranties for HP products and services are set
forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services.
Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not
be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.
607202-001, January 2010