Reviewing Workstation Inventory

An extremely useful action you can perform on workstations you are managing is checking the inventory for the particular workstation you are working on. The inventory provides you with useful information about the hardware and software installed on the workstation.

Accessing the workstation's inventory enables you to determine whether there are any obvious hardware or software problems or incompatibilities in the system. For instance, you could determine that the workstation is running an outdated version of software that needed to be upgraded. You could then upgrade the application using ZENworks application distribution.

The following list details the specific information you can get from the Inventory list:

• General — General information gives you the basic information about the workstation such as the name , user , serial number, and so on. It also gives you login information.

• Software — Software information includes everything about the software installed on the workstation from the operating system to the specific drivers being used. The software option includes:

  • Software Vendors — Lists the vendors of the software installed on the workstation. By clicking on a vendor, you can see a list of applications by that vendor and determine which version of the application is installed.

  • Device Drivers — Lists drivers installed for each device on the system.

  • Operating Systems — Lists the operating system or systems installed on the workstation.

  • NetWare Client — Shows the version of the NetWare Client.

  • Inventory Scanner Information — Displays the version and mode of the inventory scanner that's running on the workstation.

• Hardware — Lists all the hardware installed on the workstation. This includes everything from hard drives to port information. By clicking a listed hardware component, you can get detailed information about that component, thus allowing you to assess the hardware needs of the workstation.

• Network — Gives you the DNS name of the workstation.

• System — Includes general information about the basic system components such as the motherboard and CPU.

Remote Controlling a Workstation

On some occasions, it is necessary to remote control a workstation from any other workstation in the tree. You can remote control a workstation via the IP or IPX protocol and from any workstation in the network; however, you must have Novell Directory Services rights to control the workstation. Before you can remote control a workstation, you must complete the following:

1. The proper remote control agents must be present on the workstation. This can be accomplished by installing the ZENworks for Desktops 4 agent that ships with the product.

   Additionally, you can deliver the agents to the workstation via the ZENworks for Desktops 4 Application Launcher. When ZENworks for Desktops 4 is installed into the tree, several application objects are created for the remote control agents for the Windows NT/2000/XP and Windows 98. If you have the Application Launcher launched from the login scripts of your user , you can force-run the deployment of these agents to ensure that all workstations have the proper agent.

2. The workstation must have registered with Novell Directory Services and have a workstation object imported and associated with the Workstation Policy Package if you want to use eDirectory rights to control who can remote control a workstation or a user. Alternatively, with ZENworks for Desktops 4 you can remote control this process using a password and IP address. This is launched from the Tools menu of ConsoleOne. The password you enter must be the same password that the user entered into the remote control agent.

   A good way to test that you have got a good association is to modify some of the policies associated with the workstation and determine whether the changes take effect. One thing to do is to change the remote control policy so that the icon shows on the taskbar or the desktop and then determine whether this takes effect on the workstation. By doing this, you know that the workstation is associated with the object and that the system is communicating properly with Novell Directory Services.

3. You must have rights to perform the remote control. When the remote control session starts, the session manager (program that runs from ConsoleOne) determines whether you have rights to remote control the workstation. Additionally, the agent also verifies that you have rights to control the workstation.

   The rights to remote control a workstation can be given in several ways. One way is through the ZENworks Manage Remote Operators wizard launched from the Tools, Management Remote Operator in ConsoleOne. This wizard walks the tree starting at the specified container and makes sure that the users specified gain rights to remote control the workstations. Additionally, you can go to the workstation object itself and add users to the Remote Operators page. When they are added to this page, they are given rights to remote control this workstation.

Once the system is set up with the workstation, you can remote control any registered workstation that you have rights to remote control. To remote control a workstation, you need to do the following:

1. Start ConsoleOne.

2. Browse in the tree to the particular workstation object for the workstation that you want to remote control. Highlight the workstation object. You can start remote controlling the workstation by right-clicking and selecting Actions, Remote Control on the workstation object menu, or you can view the details of the workstation and launch remote control from the Remote Management page, Remote Operations button.

3. The remote control session manager verifies that you have rights and then attempts to connect to the remote control agents on the workstation associated with the object. The agent then responds and begins the remote controlling of the workstation, and you are presented with a window on your machine that represents the desktop of the remote machine. You now have control of the remote workstation until you exit the remote control session.

You can configure the remote control from the remote control policy of the Workstation Policy Package discussed in Chapter 9, "Setting Up a Workstation Policy Package."