Creating Custom Platforms

On occasion, you may have some special custom distributions that your company has created based on one of the supported platforms of ZENworks Linux Management. These custom distributions can be recognized by ZENworks, and then RPMs in the bundles can have the new custom distributions as targets, enabling you to identify that the RPM is for those device types only.

To create a new custom platform, complete the following:

1.	Launch ZENworks Control Center.
2.	Select the Configuration tab at the top of the browser.
3.	Select Platforms from the Management Zone Settings.
4.	Scroll to the bottom of the screen and select Add from the Custom Target Platforms snapshot. You are presented with the dialog box shown in Figure 14.1. Figure 14.1. Add Platform dialog for creating custom target platforms.
5.	The simplest way to fill in the custom platforms is to copy a default platform that is similar to your custom system and then edit the contents. Select a similar platform by clicking on the drop-down menu list and selecting an existing target platform. Press OK.
6.	You are presented next with the Add Platform dialog, with the fields defaulted to your copied platform (see Figure 14.2). Edit the fields as desired. Name Enter the name of the platform as it is to be displayed in ZENworks Control Center. Vendor Enter the vendor of the distribution. Product Name Enter the product name of the distribution. Version Enter the version number of the product. Package Manager Enter the package manager for the platform. Architecture Enter the architecture for the product. Device Type Select whether the device with this product is a workstation or server. OS Detection String Modify the XML strings in the box to point to the file on the device that would contain the release information and the string that the system must match to determine the platform of a device. Enable This Platform Select the check box to enable this platform to be presented in menus and in other areas in the ZENworks Control Center. Figure 14.2. Add Platform dialog box.
7.	Press OK. This adds this platform to the set understood by ZENworks.

Now this platform appears in your platform selection as part of adding RPMs to a bundle.