Novell Upgrades ZENworks Linux Management Software

cfelde writes "eWeek reports that Novell launched a major new release of its ZENworks Linux Management software at CeBIT on Friday, with the aim of bringing management of Linux desktops and servers on par with that of Windows desktops and servers. ZENworks 7 Linux Management adds remote control, imaging, hardware and software inventory, a Web console, and ZENworks' automated policy management to make it a full life-cycle management suite."

Comments

Addresses Critics Wells

[bigtallmofo]

New features listed in ZENWorks 7 will really help to shutter the FUD in regard to Linux's TCO.

Now CIOs will have an even more robust product to be able to tell their MS reps to stop chanting "TCO" as a reason to stick with/switch to Windows.

wtf?

[Apreche]

with the aim of bringing management of Linux desktops and servers on par with that of Windows desktops and servers

Um, how about a tool that does the reverse? Something that turns the windows registry and software configurations into a bunch of sensible and human readable text files all in a single directory with sane permissions.

Although the imaging is nice. I know way too many imaging programs which do not correctly support certain bootloaders in the mbr.

Re:wtf?

[rikkards]

No offence but the registry is not that hard to figure out, hell it is easier to figure out than setting up Modelines for a wierd monitor in Xorg.
HKLM = Machine specific Settings
HKCU = Link to HK_Users\ = User specific settings
HK_Classes_Root = Link to HKLM\Classes\Software Classes

In both HKCU and HKLM there are Software subkeys which is where apps are supposed to write and user or machine specific settings

Machine specific System Settings (i.e Services, etc) are located in HKLM\System.
In there are CurrentControlSet (curren System Settings) as well as ControlSetx which (I think) are previous settings as well as LastKnownGoodRecovery

Probably the most convoluted section is the Classes but rarely does anyone need to go in there.

It's a little of a different mindset but not that big. The nice thing about Linux is that since they are human readable files there is no singular point of failure (i.e if registry corrupts) but the Registry is still not that daunting and it can be backed up easily by backing up the System state.

Critical need

[The Second Horseman]

Actually, deploying and managing hundreds or thousands of workstations in a policy-driven fashion is critical in a large buisiness network. It's the policy-driven part that's important -- it can really cut down on the number of people you have running around changing workstation configs. The non-corporate elements around here tend to discount these sort of things, but if you're short-staffed and faced with 1,500 workstations, managment and deployment are huge issues. And up until recently, those tools for Linux werent there. They're not really there for MacOS. If you want to beat Windows, you have to not only match what the OS does for managment, you have to have 3rd-party tools as good as the ones available for Windows. And a lot of those 3rd party tools are quite good.

Re:Critical need

[Ed Avis]

On Unix-like systems most of the policy is determined by config files in a user's home directory, which will be the same across all systems. Then there is a small amount of per-system configuration like X server configuration and who is allowed to log in, which can be done by distributing out config files to each host with an overnight cron job. What remains is configuring which software is installed, which is fairly easy to do by setting up a custom repository with yum/apt/smart/whatever.

I must be missing the point here - what is involved in managing desktops in a 'policy-driven fashion'? Perhaps it is more difficult if you can't assume that 99% of the desktop machines have almost identical settings.

To put things another way: hundreds of universities have big networks of Linux desktops, with a varied range of applications and hardware configurations. I don't think many of them shell out for expensive 'policy-driven' tools, yet they manage to enforce sensible policies in the face of fairly hostile and ingenious users (students). I understand the need for extra tools when administering Windows because Windows configuration is otherwise so fiddly and obscure. But I don't see what extra these tools bring to Unix.

Screenshots....

[leonmergen]

... here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Re: Linux Management Software

[legirons]

In other news, one of IBM's new sourceforge projects is SBLIM (Standards Based Linux Instrumentation for Manageability)

"The goal of this project is to provide a complete Open Source implementation of a WBEM-based management solution for Linux. "

Re:No it does not!

[morcego]

Cost of a Linux support person compared to a Winblow -> HIGH

Rightly so, considering that a Linux support/admninstrator can handle, in average, 3 times more users/machines.

Re:What?

[FreeLinux]

The most important question is: what does it really mean for Linux users, administrators and developers?

They are not referring to making Linux like Windows. They are referring to making the management of Linux, through ZenWorks, like the management of Windows, through ZenWorks. This is an important feature for ZenWorks and its users and is a feature that Novell has been missing for some time, despite their previous claims of ZenWorks Linux support.

ZenWorks is a fantastic tool and is extremely powerful. It performs functions such as hardware and software inventory, application installation and removal, remote control, system policy management and more. But, ZenWorks primary area of support has been Windows systems. Novell claimed that it supported Linux and PDA's but, this support was very limited. Now, with ZenWorks 7, the supported features for Linux approach the level of the Windows features that have always been there.

First off, you need to understand what ZenWorks can do. ZenWorks is a system for controlling and managing workstations and servers network-wide from a single location, using policies that are stored in eDirectory, Novell's directory service. With ZenWorks, an administrator can control settings like Windows Policies and KDE kiosk configuration. With ZenWorks an administrator can install and remove applications, patches and configurations remotely from a single location. With ZenWorks, an administrator can install new operating systems or reinstall broken operating systems remotely, from a single location.

Some of these things you can do with Linux already and some of them you can't. Or at least, you can't do them easily. This new ZenWorks is supposed to make it brain dead easy to do these things for 10 systems or 10,000 systems. The key concepts are ease and volume/automation. Sure, you could write a script to ssh into your systems and install some software or what-have-you but, it will be different every time and too often requires some form of manual intervetion. Most importantly, nothing about the script will be useable on Windows workstations. You'll have to use different scripts and scripting languages for those systems so, the overhead is relatively high.

Here are a couple of scenarios. Suppose your working the helpdesk and a user calls to say that their PC isn't working. You open up the management console and quickly locate the PC in question from amongst the thousands in your firm. With two clicks you are connected to the PC and remotely controlling it. Regardless of whether the PC is Windows or Linux, the procedure is the same.

Now you see that the PC isn't actually broken, as the user reported but, it is simply missing an application because the user had moved in from another department and had not yet been configured to use that application. A couple of clicks associates the user with the application and the application is automatically installed and made available to the user. Again, Windows or Linux, the procedure is the same in ZenWorks.

Now, let's suppose that during the install of the application, the user unplugged the PC. I don't know why they did it, they just did it. They're a user, OK? Anyway, for what ever reason the disk is corrupted and the OS is hosed. You instruct the user to restart the machine and choose the appropriate option from the boot menu. The PC is reimaged with a fresh copy of the OS and the appropriate applications are reinstalled. In ten minutes the user is up and running with no user or admninistrator intervention. Again, Windows or Linux, the procedure is the same from within ZenWorks.

Now, let's assume a different scenario. This time, let's assume that your boss has decided that the company will now use the latest Windows 200X on all workstations. This is a massive upgrade that requires not only the installation of a new OS but also the installation or upgrade of numerous applications that were being used before but no longer work under the new Windows version. Even if you use RIS or Ghost

Hey - my* product is on Slashdot

[ezs]

Probably worth giving some background to this project.

ZENworks 7 Linux Management can trace its roots back to Ximian Red Carpet Enterprise.

What we* have done with this project is extended the really strong RPM delivery and dependancy resolution (messaged as software and patch management for Linux) and added much of the traditional ZENworks functionality.

What ZENworks 7 Linux Management aims to do is really change the story for managing Linux in the Enterprise; we're not targetting the hacker community here really (take a look at projects like OpenCarpet).

Novell will be including OS deployment via imaging as well policy-enabled AutoYaST and Kickstart (yes - it's cross distro!)

There will also be inventory and asset management, remote control and support, strong auditing and logging and the ZENworks one-to-many policy management.

Novell BrainShare is next week - we will be showcasing this and have live demo systems. There is also a 'Sneak Peek' online [registration required].

Personally I'm really excited that this will change the perceptions of Linux in the Enterprise - it certainly helps with customer migrations from Windows to Linux.

It's taken a large, distributed, cross discipline team to get this far - I'll ruin my Karma by thanking them all publicly.

* the Novell ZENworks business unit - which includes the Ximian Red Carpet Enterprise engineering and QA team.

Go on - mod me down for not being objective ;)

Re:to late, to little

[ezs]

Sure - if the customer is tying all of their management into Microsoft SMS 2003. The SMS/Vintela story is good if you have Windows guys looking to have some simple Linux management. Contrast this to the ZENworks story that says - "We don't mind what you have". ZENworks will run in a pure NetWare, pure Windows or a pure Linux environment. Most often it runs in a broadly heterogeneous world. You choose who manages what and what to install on and where to administer from.

Re:What?

[FreeLinux]

Now I'm not a system administrator

From your post, obviously not.

Have you heard of rsync? rcp? ssh logins? How about nfs? How about centralized home directories? How about running an application that is stored on the network?

Rsyc - Synchronizes files doesn't really help with specifics like settings in Gconf or updates to Postfix alias databases or RPM installations.

Rcp - insecure. Better to use scp or sftp.

Ssh logins - that's what I said in the original post.

Nfs - File sharing isn't systems management.

Centralized Home directories - the only way to go for network connected uses.

Running apps from the network - excellent when possible. But, doesn't work with some apps, with large apps when bandwidth is an issue, or with people disconnected from the network such as laptops.

Also, many of the above services are not available on Windows, only Linux/Unix. This limits your options for network management as even your environment seems to have Windows as well as Linux.

I'm not trying to flame you but, rather point out that it isn't a case of Windows-centric thinking. It is a case of network-wide management thinking. Thinking in terms of doing as much as possible from a central point with the greatest of ease. Volume and automation.

The imaging that you describe in your environment is likely the same one the ZenWorks uses, PXE booting. While it can be setup on almost any network it is fiddly to say the least. ZenWorks makes its setup much easier and it is only a small part of what ZenWorks does. For instance, can they take a backup image of your workstation remotely because, your hard drives S.M.A.R.T. is predicting a failure or they want to have a backup for some other reason? PXE doesn't do this but, with ZenWorks they can, and now it doesn't matter if your running Windows or Linux.

Re:to late, to little

[killjoe]

I have friends who are MS admins, they hate SMS. Maybe their experience is not typical but they really really hate it.

Also vintella is a canopy company. If you can avoid it you should boycott canopy companies.

on par?

[Tom]

bringing management of Linux desktops and servers on par with that of Windows desktops and servers.

Please don't. The nightmare of windos administration on Linux? There's a reason real professionals prefer Unix systems, and administration is a huge part of it.

This isn't a joke. At my 400 people company, there's half a dozen people employed just to keep the windos network running, plus another half dozen students and other cheap labor forces for simple stuff such as exchanging machines, etc. And I'm not saying it's running especially well.

On the other hand, four Unix admins keep several entire networks of production servers running.

Re:Absolutely

[morcego]

That is true sometimes, of course. But that was not the point I was trying to make.

I was comparing people with comparable skills. Just a question of productivity due to system resources, and the fact that you will have, in the long run, lower suport calls with a unix network.

Most people tend to forget a basic fact about Unix versus Windows. Their learning curves are the inverse of each other.

To learn basic skills, Windows is (usually) easier. But the more you want to advance your knowledge, the harder it gets.

Unix is the oposite. Harder to learn the basics, and keeps getting easier and easier to advance your knowledge.