Defining different departments/groups on Notification Agents

Notify allows you to define different departments/groups for Notification Agents. There are two ways to do this:

1. Set a custom department name on the Agent in the Config.dat Configuration file.

Or

2. If the machines are in a domain and are divided into Active Directory Organizational Units reflecting their departments (e.g. Admin, Sales, Support, etc.), you can enable the option Use AD OU as department name. The Agent will then show the name of the OU as the department.

Note: Both ways can be applied locally using the Configuration file or by Group Policy.

Applying the department name locally using the Configuration file
The Config.dat file contains the Notification Server name or IP address, the port number to connect on and the Gateway key that was entered when the Notification Server was installed. The Config.dat file also contains the name(s) of the department(s) that the machine will be in when it connects to the Notification Server.

1. On a machine with Notify Agent installed, launch the AgentConfig.exe. This is located in:
   32bit C:\Program Files\NetSupport\NetSupport Notify
   64bit C:\Program Files (x86)\NetSupport\NetSupport Notify

2. Enter the plain text value in the Key and Confirm Key fields.
3. Either enter a department name or select Use AD OU group for department.
4. Click OK to save the changes.
5. On the Server machine, right click the NetSupport Connectivity Server Console icon in the taskbar and click Open.
6. Select the Agents tab. If all the details are correct, the machine will appear. The department name should appear under ‘Department’.

You can now apply this configuration to all the machines you want to be in the same department.

Note: You will need to modify the Config.dat using the AgentConfig.exe for each department name.

Applying the department name using Group Policy
In a large domain environment, we recommend that the Notification Agent settings are applied using the provided ADMX and ADML files to create the GPO.

First, you need to apply the ADMX and ADML templates to the %Systemroot%\SYSVOL\Domain\Policies\PolicyDefinitions folder in your domain controller.

The templates can be found in (on a machine with the Notification Console installed):

32bit C:\Program Files\NetSupport\NetSupport Notify\ADM Templates
64bit C:\Program Files (x86)\NetSupport\NetSupport Notify\ADM Templates

Place the ADMX files in PolicyDefinitions and the ADML files in the language folder (en-US).

Navigate to the following settings:
Note: We recommend applying the policies to the machines.

Agent configuration: Administrative Templates|NetSupport Notify Agent settings|Agent Configuration|General
Choose between the following two settings:
– Department Details. Set this to ENABLED. Add the department name.
Or
– Use AD OU Group for department. Set this to ENABLED. Set the option Display Computer OU Container to Always.

Notes:
If using the Department Details setting, you will need to apply this GPO at an organizational level.
If using Use AD OU Group for department, you can apply this GPO at the domain level.