HP Client Automation software—

Starter and Standard Editions

Data sheet

Managing client devices effectively and efficiently • Hardware and software inventory
is a mission-critical function for today’s businesses. • Remote control
However, that challenge is being made more complex
• Seamless upgrade to Standard Edition upon
by increasingly frequent and varied security threats,
purchasing a license
more stringent availability and compliance
requirements, and a growing mobile and remote Standard Edition provides key management capabilities
workforce. This volume of change, combined with for both HP and non-HP client devices, with a focus on
what are often manual processes, can stretch quick time-to-value and ease of use. It includes:
already-thin IT resources to the breaking point.
• Software deployment
HP Client Automation software automates the • Application usage metering
management of client devices throughout the complete
• Patch management and compliance
lifecycle, regardless of their physical location, increasing
the IT organization’s ability to deal with these issues • Settings migration
while at the same reducing cost, time, and risk. • OS deployment

Recognizing that no single solution can fit all • Migration path to Enterprise Edition
environments, HP Software offers an edition of HP Enterprise Edition provides a market-leading solution for
Client Automation software that fits your environment’s managing the most complex environments. It includes:
size, complexity, and manageability requirements.
• Desired-state automation
Starter Edition, available as a free download, is designed • Heterogeneous environment support
to provide customers with key management capabilities for
• High scalability
their HP client hardware devices, including:
• Identity-based policy management
• HP PC hardware management
• HP thin-client management
Meet your client
manageability
challenges
It is important for your IT organization to find an
efficient and cost-effective method to keep your PCs
operational and protected at all times. Depending on
the environment, your requirements may range from
focusing on ease-of-use and quick time-to-value, to
enabling strategic IT initiatives in support of business
transformation for longer-term benefits.
HP Client Automation Starter and Standard Editions
have been designed from the ground up to provide an
affordable, easy-to-use, and quick-to-deploy offering
that can solve your pain points immediately.
Common features and benefits
• Ease of deployment—Install and deploy the solution
quickly through an easy-to-install integrated
infrastructure designed for self-deployment.
• Quick time-to-value—Leverage out-of-the-box
functionality for common management use cases.
• Ease of administration—Make use of the single,
integrated Web-based console for centralized
management of your PC environment
HP Client Automation Starter Edition
The Starter Edition is a free version of the product for
managing HP desktops, notebooks, and workstations.
It provides hardware and software inventory, remote
control, HP alert monitoring, HP BIOS and driver
updates, integration with HP Protect Tools, and add-on
support for Intel® AMT. The Starter Edition also includes
hardware and software management capabilities for
HP Thin Clients. What’s more, it can be seamlessly
upgraded to the Standard Edition by purchasing a
license and entering the license key in the
management console.
HP Client Automation Standard Edition
The Standard Edition, available for purchase, includes
all functionality provided in the Starter Edition and
adds operating system deployment and migration,
patch management capabilities, software distribution
as well as software usage metering.
Effective and Efficient
• Quick and easy installation and integration
– Provides a single installation program with
components pre-configured for increased
out-of-the-box capabilities
– Automatically discovers networked client devices
and provides features for quickly importing devices
from LDAP-compliant directory services or flat files
– Utilizes management agents pre-installed on
certain HP hardware
– Enables remote deployment of management agents
to end-user devices
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 Client Automation Starter Client Automation Standard

Hardware and software inventory

Integrated HP hardware
management

Integrated HP hardware alerts

Remotely control devices

Software distribution for HP thin clients only

OS security patch management

Softpaq management

OS image deployment for HP thin clients only

User settings migration

Software usage metering

Distributed infrastructure

Seamless upgrade to Client

Automation Standard N/A

Migration path to Client

Automation Enterprise

• Simplified task management – Improves bandwidth to support deployments to

– Provides an integrated, Web-based management
console to perform all tasks, including managing
client hardware, software, and remote operations
– Offers wizard-driven, step-by-step processes for
scheduling deployments of operating systems,
patches, software, and operating systems as well
as other operations
– Includes an easy-to-use interface for creating reports,
defining dynamic, inventory-based device groups,
and configuring the management infrastructure
• Integrated Web-based reporting
– Provides built-in reports for inventory and software
usage, patch vulnerability assessment, and
software/patch distribution operations
– Provides a point-and-click interface for customizing
report data, creating filters, and more
– Supports context-sensitive reporting for specific
device groups
– Enables easy sharing of live reports between
administrators and managers, and multiple
export options
• Support for mobile and remotely connected users
– Provides checkpoint restart capability for reliable
distribution of software and patches to mobile users
end-user devices using slow and/or intermittent
connections
– Supports users connecting over TCP/IP and
VPN connections
• Comprehensive, accurate and standards-based
inventory management
– Performs discovery and inventory of hardware and
software assets
– Stores collected information in an industry-standard,
CIM-compliant database schema
– Provides a wide range of built-in reports for
inventory, software usage, security and operations,
and enables administrators to take proactive actions
• Fully automated operating system deployment and
migration
– Enables machines to be fully deployed from “bare
metal” or migrated to a new operating system
without ever needing a deskside visit
– Retains individual user settings so that the user’s
system looks and works just as it did prior to the
migration
– Automatically preserves display settings, files, and
preferences of all kinds, even across version upgrades
– Provides options for data security during migrations

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Figure 1. HP Client Automation Standard provides your IT administrators with a single integrated console for hardware and software management. It
includes patch management capabilities that can automatically acquire HP Softpaqs and Microsoft security patches for deployment.
• Automated, continuous patch management
– Performs seamless acquisition and publication of
Microsoft® Windows patches
– Enables ongoing detection of vulnerabilities
– Provides dynamic reporting, showing which
machines are non-compliant and at greatest risk
– Verifies the compliance to assigned patch levels,
reducing the risk of accidental removal, deletion, or
corruption of patches
• Automated, flexible software distribution
– Enables group-driven distribution of applications,
content, and updates
– Performs immediate or scheduled delivery of updates
– Provides both “push” and “pull” deployment
options, enabling administrators to automatically
deploy required software while offering end users
the flexibility to install authorized software on their
own schedules
– Automatically completes assigned jobs to offline
machines when network access is detected
– Supports deployment of MSI applications,
HP Softpaqs, self-executing installation programs,
and delivery of multiple files and folders
• Software usage metering
– Tracks and reports actual software usage, to enable
more efficient license deployment, greater licensing
compliance, and less painful true-ups with vendors
– Distinguishes between applications that are actively
used versus ones that are idle in the background
– Flexible collection options to improve data transfer,
storage, and reporting
– Provides obfuscation capabilities for hiding
personally identifiable information of end users
• Remote device management
– Takes control of problem devices with integrated
remote control capabilities for more effective
troubleshooting
– Enables off-hours deployments to powered-down
systems through Wake-On-LAN and power-
down/reboot management features
• Integrated alert monitoring on HP desktops and
notebooks
– Automatically flags disruptive occurrences on
HP PCs for administrative action
– Includes reports to help pinpoint particular issues such
as chassis intrusion or hardware component failures
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Figure 2. HP Client Automation Standard provides IT administrators with detailed device reports, including hardware and software information.
Additional information, such as BIOS information, hardware alerts and device graphics are available for HP hardware.
• Automated driver and BIOS updates on HP desktops
and notebooks
– Compares HP systems to the latest updates available
from HP on an ongoing basis to determine whether
BIOS or driver updates are necessary
– Automatically acquires and updates relevant
Softpaqs for BIOS, device drivers, and applications
• Integration with HP ProtectTools
– Provides remote initialization of embedded TPM
chips in HP hardware
– Provides integration with HP ProtectTools software
for security management
• Integration with HP Software Out-of-Band
Management Console
– Provides support for managing PCs and notebooks
equipped with Intel iAMT firmware
– Provides capabilities for remotely managing PCs
and notebooks irrespective of the OS or the power
state of the machine
Deploy a solution that can grow with
your changing needs
To get a feel for the value that HP Client Automation
can deliver for your business, you can start
immediately by downloading the free version—HP
Client Automation Starter Edition. With this package,
you can manage your HP client hardware without
incurring additional software costs. You can then
upgrade the product to take advantage of all the
management features within HP Client Automation
Standard Edition by purchasing and installing a new
license key. This upgrade does not require any
additional deployment of the existing management
infrastructure or agents. Your existing infrastructure,
agents, collected data, and acquired software patches
are all preserved in the migration.
HP Client Automation Standard Edition provides a
migration path to HP Client Automation Enterprise
Edition and to the broader, advanced and automated
HP Business Service Automation solution for managing
enterprise computing devices—such as PCs, servers,
workstations, storage and network devices—on any
platform across very large, complex, heterogeneous,
and continuously changing IT environments. In addition,
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Figure 3. HP Client Automation Standard provides a migration path to the broader, advanced, and comprehensive HP Client Automation Enterprise
software for managing a wider range of enterprise computing devices.

HP Client Automation Enterprise Edition

Investment
protection
Desired-state HP Client Automation Standard Edition
automation
Software HP Client Automation Starter Edition
deployment
Scalable to hundreds of HP hardware management
thousands of devices Software usage • Softpaq management • TPM integration

Common
metering • Bios configuration • Hardware alerts

agents
Heterogeneous platform Hardware and software inventory
support Patch management
HP thin client management

Customizable Settings migration Remote control

infrastructure
Common
Out-of-Band management of Intel Active
Unparalleled return on OS deployment Management Technology
investment

your license investment in HP Client Automation is fully

protected. When migrating from HP Client Automated
Standard Edition to Enterprise Edition, you only need to
pay the difference in licensing costs.
For enterprises deploying HP Business Service
Automation solutions, HP can help enhance your
infrastructure through integrations with HP IT Service
Management (ITSM) software solutions to run a
service-centric IT environment closely aligned with
business requirements.
No matter what the size of your organization, HP
provides a complete hardware and software solution to
meet your needs. With HP, you can implement an
integrated PC hardware and manageability solution to
reduce the costs of managing PCs in your environment
immediately, and then grow it over time to fit with your
changing needs.
HP Services
Get the most from your software investment
HP provides high-quality software services that address all aspects of
your software application lifecycle needs. With HP, you have access to
standards-based, modular, multi-platform software coupled with global
services and support. The wide range of HP service offerings—from
online self-solve support to proactive mission-critical services—enables
you to choose the services that best match your business needs.
For an overview of HP software services, visit:
www.managementsoftware.hp.com/service
To access technical interactive support, visit Software Support Online
at: www.hp.com/managementsoftware/services
To learn more about HP Software Customer Connection, a one-stop
information and learning portal for software products and services,
visit: www.hp.com/go/swcustomerconnection
Service Management Services
With Service Management, HP Services professionals help you
optimize your people, processes and technology to transform and
continually improve the way your organization delivers IT services. To
learn more, visit www.hp.com/services/itsm

Support Services for Infrastructure Software

The HP Software Technical Support and Software Update Service
enable all of your ProLiant Essentials and Insight Control software to
be supported in a single offer. To learn more, visit
www.hp.com/services/ProLiantEssentialsservices

Mission Critical and Proactive Services

HP Mission Critical and Proactive Services help you proactively avoid
downtime, and the resulting impact to your business. The services are
delivered by availability experts and business-critical consultants who
are trained and certified in their areas of expertise. For more
information, visit www.hp.com/services/missioncritical

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A complete solution Contact information
Comprehensive training To find an HP Software sales office or reseller near
HP provides a comprehensive curriculum of HP you, visit www.managementsoftware.hp.com/buy
Software and IT Service Management courses. These
For more information about HP Client Automation,
offerings provide the training you need to realize the
contact your HP representative or visit
full potential of your HP solutions, increase your
www.hp.com/go/software
network optimization and responsiveness, and achieve
better return on your IT investments.

With more than 30 years experience meeting complex

education challenges worldwide, HP knows how to
train. This experience, coupled with unique insights
into HP software, positions HP to deliver a better
training experience. For more information about these
educational courses, visit www.hp.com/learn

The smartest way to invest in IT

HP Financial Services provides innovative financing
and financial asset management programs to help you
cost-effectively acquire, manage, and ultimately retire
your HP solutions. For more information on these
services, contact your HP sales representative or visit
www.hp.com/go/hpfinancialservices

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 Technology for better business outcomes
© Copyright 2008 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to
change without notice. 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.

To learn more, visit www.hp.com/go/software

4AA2-0088ENW, May 2008