If you manually copy some files into the Nomad cache from a CD or other media, then you will need to activate this package to ensure that Nomad is able to respond to election requests. In order to do this without restarting the service, then you will need to run the activate command for each package.

NomadBranch.exe -activate=PKG0001E

This is only supported on Nomad 3.x and requires a valid Nomad index file (LSZ or LST) to also be copied across. Nomad will check the contents of the package against the index file and then populate its own registry keys with useful package information. As the index file is checked, the package is considered valid so Nomad can now participate in election requests for this package.

If no Nomad LST or LSZ file exists for this package, then the package will not be activated. The next time the service restarts, the package will be deleted as its contents cannot be trusted.

This is also commonly used during OS deployment. As part of the ConfigMgr task sequence, the Nomad cache can be saved and then recopied to the new OS. Providing Nomad is re-installed, then the packages can be made active again by running the activate command line as part of the task sequence.

Read the complete post at http://www.1e.com/1EBlogs/post/2009/07/10/Activating-a-Nomad-package.aspx