Lesson 5: Zero Administration for Windows

Zero Administration for Windows (ZAW) is a Microsoft initiative designed to reduce costs associated with using networked personal computers in a corporate environment. The initiative's core set of technologies greatly facilitate the management of users, software, and hardware within an organization, and are intended to eliminate the need for an administrator to touch individual desktops on a network.

This lesson first presents a broad overview of ZAW. It then narrows its focus to concentrate on ZAW's Windows Installer and Systems Management Server (SMS), two key technologies that pertain directly to application deployment.

After this lesson, you will be able to:

• List the key features of the ZAW initiative.
• Understand the basics of Windows Installer technology.
• Understand SMS.

Estimated lesson time: 15 minutes

Features of ZAW

The ZAW initiative is part of the Microsoft Windows Client Strategy. ZAW exists in some measure today within Windows NT Server 4, and is slated to become a major part of Windows 2000. Some of the capabilities of ZAW are:

• Automatic system update and application installation.
• Persistent caching of data and configuration information.
• Central administration and system lock-down.

Automatic System Update and Application Installation

Software installation and maintenance is typically a labor-intensive and error-prone process. Under ZAW, this process becomes much simpler through automation. When a system component, device driver, or a new version of the operating system is available, Windows can automatically update itself with the new components. The system can be configured to boot into a minimal network configuration and check for any updates on the Internet. If an update is found, the system can update itself without user intervention.

Persistent Caching of Data and Configuration Information

Previous lessons in this chapter showed how installation programs must store state and configuration information in the host registry. This method of storage can be problematic in a networked and mobile environment, in which users who are primarily away from their desks cannot access their applications or tools from different locations.

Under ZAW, the local host's data can be automatically reflected to servers, allowing users to log on to different computers on the network and work within the context of their host computers elsewhere. This concept of data and configuration information following a user to another computer is known as persistent caching.

Central Administration and System Lock-Down

To prevent users from installing hardware and software on their computers as they please, ZAW allows the network administrator to hide devices such as disk drives, presenting the user with a single drive letter that represents their home directory.

The Windows Installer

Perhaps the most important part of ZAW for application deployment is the Windows Installer, which automates application installation across a network. The Windows Installer offers many benefits over the conventional installation procedures described in previous lessons, including the following:

• The ability to automatically repair an installed application. For example, if an application's component file is accidentally deleted, the Windows Installer ensures that it is replaced when the application starts without user intervention.
• Automatic installation on an enterprise-wide system with up to thousands of users.
• Installation on demand, in which COM components are installed only when they are first accessed by a client application. This process speeds installation and prevents unnecessarily cluttering the disks of users who do not need the components.

The Windows Installer is not a program but rather a set of services. Setup programs will still exist under ZAW and will interact with the user as before. The Windows Installer does not replace installer products like InstallShield. Rather, such products will undoubtedly become even more important under ZAW as installation becomes more intricate and technology more sophisticated. In the future, InstallShield and other installer products will undoubtedly generate Setup programs that incorporate the features and services of the Windows Installer.

Systems Management Server

Systems Management Server (SMS) is a ZAW service that continually inventories computers on a network. The software and hardware detected on each computer is then listed in an SQL database. Through SMS, a network administrator has instant access to an up-to-date inventory of all computers on the network, without the expense and disruption of a manual inventory.

SMS makes software deployment more efficient, because it provides query functions by which an installation package can gain access to the SMS database. This process allows a Setup program to automatically test each computer before deployment, and install only on computers that meet a specified set of criteria. When it detects a computer that does not qualify for installation, the Setup program can suggest to the administrator any required changes, such as hardware upgrades.

Zero Administration Kit

ZAW is slated to be an integral part of Windows 2000, and many of its features are already available for Windows NT 4.0. For installing ZAW on Windows NT 4.0, Microsoft provides the Zero Administration Kit, which you can download from:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/zak/zakreqs.htm

The entire Zero Administration Kit is a self-extracting file roughly 6 MB in size. If you prefer to receive only the documentation, a separate file in Microsoft Word format (415 KB) is also available for downloading.

Lesson Summary

The ZAW initiative is designed to reduce the labor and costs associated with operating a Windows-based network. ZAW's features include:

• Automatic updating of both the operating system and application files. At regular intervals, the system checks data sources such as Web sites, and as new files become available, downloads them automatically.
• Persistent caching, which allows a computer's data and configuration to follow a user to other locations.
• Central administration and system lock-down, allowing an administrator to protect individual systems by hiding devices from users.

The Windows Installer provides services to installation programs running on a network, making application installation faster and more efficient in its use of disk space. As a system service, the Windows Installer is at work even when no Setup program is running. Because it is always active, the Windows Installer is able to repair applications as needed by automatically replacing files that have been deleted or moved.

SMS maintains an inventory of hardware and software on a network, storing the information in an SQL database. Installation programs can query SMS for a computer's configuration before deployment, and install only on workstations that meet the application's requirements.