What Is ZENworks for Desktops?

ZENworks for Desktops is a desktop management system that has been developed by Novell, Inc. The ZENworks in ZENworks for Desktops stands for Zero Effort Networks and is named to reflect the lack of effort required for users and the minimum effort necessary for the administrator to manage the desktops in their systems.

The goal of ZENworks for Desktops is to reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) for dealing with all the workstations in the network. This is achieved by special attempts to reduce the effort necessary to manage the desktops.

ZENworks for Desktops is segmented into three desktop management and maintenance areas, which are discussed in the following sections. These include Application, Workstation, and Remote Management.

Application Management

The ZENworks Application Management area for Desktops is designed to easily deploy applications from the network to individual desktops. These applications can be automatically installed on the workstation, cached for later installation, or just have an icon applied to a desktop that references a software executable or installation bundle on a server in the network. All the applications that are deployed to the desktop enable the administrator to control when they are deployed, how they are applied, and who or which desktops get certain applications.

ZENworks for Desktops also enables you to customize the settings for each user by referencing values in Novell Directory Services (NDS) or eDirectory and embedding them in the Registry keys and files for the particular applications. Then, when that application is deployed to the desktop, these values are customized for the particular user. In addition to customization, the ZENworks for Desktops Application Management portion includes the capability to help you equalize the usage on the network through its load-balancing features. ZENworks attempts to make the application always available with its fault-tolerance features.

With the integration of NDS, ZENworks for Desktops Application Management ensures that the applications follow the users to whichever desktop they use in the network, keeping their connection to the network always functioning in a familiar way.

ZENworks for Desktops Application Management has features that enable you to distribute and assign applications to users, thus making the management of application for desktops and your users on the desktop simple and consistent.

ZENworks for Desktops Application Management features are currently provided for the following platforms: Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows XP.

Workstation Management

Workstation Management refers to the capability of the administrator to affect direct changes on the desktop and manage the Registry, Novell clients, desktop images, printers, and even ZAW and ZAK policies (that is, Windows Group Policies) of the Windows operating systems. With the Novell Directory Services advantages, you can make changes to a Configuration object that affects the client, for example, and then apply those changes to all or a portion of the workstations in your entire organization. Due to the inheritance rules of NDS, and the introduction of Workstation objects into the tree, these Configuration objects can be applied to many users and workstations in the tree by associations with objects, groups, or containers.

Microsoft introduced to their Windows environments the products ZAW (Zero-Administration Workstation) and ZAK (Zero-Administration Kit) as a first step in enabling administrators to manage the workstation. These products resulted in Registry settings that could be stored in a .POL file and then accessed by each workstation as it attaches to the server. These Registry settings would then be applied to the workstation, resulting in the interface the administrator wanted for the users.

ZENworks for Desktops has taken the ZAW and ZAK features of Windows to the next level by providing these Registry manipulations (resulting in desktop changes) and placing them into the NDS tree. Rather than having to create a .POL file and deploy it across the network servers, an administrator can administer the same features in NDS. Once the ZAW and ZAK features have been administered into the NDS system, that "policy" can then be applied to any workstation in the system or follow any users as they move from desktop to desktop, regardless of which server they are working on in the tree. Novell, through ZENworks for Desktops, has truly introduced fault-tolerance and manageability to these policies introduced by Microsoft.

ZENworks for Desktops also enables the administrator to create a Configuration object for the Novell client. Then all workstations that are associated with this Configuration object use the configurations specified to manage the client. There was one customer that was told by Novell that in order to fix the problem they needed to change only one line in the NET.CFG file of the client. The customer was not too happy because they had over 10,000 clients of that type and determined that it would take them years with their current staff to make that change. Now, with ZENworks for Desktops, the administrator can make the change in one Client configuration policy object and the change is then forwarded to clients of all associated workstations. The change becomes effective the next time the users log into the system. This one change is made in minutes instead of years.

In addition, the ZENworks for Desktops Workstation Management feature includes a desktop hardware inventory. An inventory sweet spot is stored in the Workstation object. It is associated with the physical workstation device. This inventory can be useful to administrators in understanding the workstation capabilities as they manage and maintain the desktop.

Additionally, ZENworks for Desktops provides a complete hardware and software scanning capability that is stored in a separate database. A link exists between the Workstation objects and the database, allowing you easy access to the scanned information. Reports are also included with ZENworks for Desktops that provide you useful, tabular information of what is stored in the scanned database.

Included with the ZENworks for Desktops Workstation Management features are enhanced versions of the original Workstation Manager 1.0 (WSM) features that include dynamic Windows NT/2000 account management. Enhanced versions of the account management give even greater control to the NT administrator. When these users log into NDS, they have a local account automatically created and customized for the particular user. When they log out, this account can remain or can be removed from the local Windows NT/2000 system.

Through the ZENworks for Desktops Workstation Management features, Novell provides the capability to manage all desktop aspects including access to basic Windows features and to the automatic printer deployment. Like many ZENworks for Desktops features, these capabilities follow users as they move across the organization from one workstation to another, including the printer drivers and printers.

ZENworks for Desktops Workstation Management features are currently provided for the following platforms: Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows XP.

Remote Management

The ZENworks for Desktops Remote Management feature includes the capability to discover information about the workstation and to perform some remote diagnostics and repairs on that workstation. As mentioned earlier, ZENworks for Desktops introduces into the tree a new object representing the workstation. This Workstation object is associated with the physical desktop and is a repository for information about the specific desktop. The administrator can then use this information in determining how to most effectively maintain and repair that desktop.

In addition to the introduction of the Workstation object, the Remote Management feature of ZENworks for Desktops provides the administrator with the capability of eDirectory Authenticated Remote Control. The eDirectory Authenticated Remote Control feature keeps anyone who does not have rights to control a particular workstation from being able to control the system remotely. This way administrators and users are assured that only authorized personnel can remote control their desktops.

To help in workstation diagnostics and repair, Remote Management of ZENworks includes remote diagnostics, and file transfer capabilities. These also require proper rights in the eDirectory tree in order to perform the tasks.

ZENworks for Desktops Remote Management features are currently provided for the following platforms: Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows XP.



Novell's ZENworks for Desktops 4. Administrator's Handbook
Novell ZENworks for Desktops 4 Administrators Handbook
ISBN: 0789729857
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 198
Authors: Brad Dayley

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