Using Clitravl.exe to Configure Travel Mode on SMS Clients

by Dana Daugherty

By applying the appropriate
switches this utility can be used to turn Travel Mode on or off and
turn prompts on or off. This utility is a must for SMS
implementations with multiple sites that have traveling laptop
users.
Dana Daugherty keeps us up to date on the Traveling
Mode issues, identifies a way to fix the 60 day client deinstall,
and offers a download to help fix the problem.

The nature of the SMS client is to immediately
de-install itself if it 1) is logged on to a network that is not
defined in the boundary of it’s Installed site. 2) and can
still contact it’s Installed Site’s CAP. Also, a client will
de-install itself after 60 days if it 1) is logged on to a network
that is not defined in the boundary of it’s Installed site. 2) and
can not contact it’s Installed Site’s CAP. 

Turning Travel Mode on will stop the above behavior.
There are two ways to turn it on: 

1) Go to Control PanelSystems Management icon. Select
“This computer logs on from different locations.” Two negatives to
this method; A) You have to visit each PC B) This causes dialog
boxes to appear when a client logs on to a network that is not
defined in it’s Installed Sites boundary properties. The dialog
boxes ask the user if they want to be removed from their installed
site and be assigned to the new one (like they know).

2) Run Clitravl.exe at a command line from a client.
Here is the syntax: clitravl.exe /Travel=On /Travel=Off /Prompt=On
/Prompt=Off. To find the current status of Travel Mode only run
Clitravel.exe with no switches.

Practical Application- My company has had a wide
spread network problem. For some reason our clients are picking up
the wrong subnet mask. This of course is causing many SMS clients to
uninstall themselves because they have a network address that is not
defined in their Installed Site boundary property. Also 30% of our
work force are traveling laptop users. 

As a work around, I created an SMS Installer package
that calls Clitravel.exe /Travel=On /Prompt=Off and pushed it to all
clients. I also created an SMS Installer package for each of my 9
sites that calls SMSMan.exe /A (no-prompts) and then clitravel with
the above switches. So at this point all current SMS clients have
received Clitravel as an advertised program and all new clients will
run it during their initial installation.