ZENworks Server Management – part 2

by ezs | Mar 16, 2006 | Uncategorized, ZENworks

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I wrote last week about ZENworks Server Management in the real world.

In that post I described how a deployment of ZENworks can deliver some rapid benefits – namely patching and updates for NetWare and its associated services.

Next I want to cover the second major benefit of ZENworks Server Management – Tiered Electronic Distribution. Using TED will save you time, money – and shoe leather!

Written at: Salt Lake City, UT

Tiered Electronic Distribution has been part of ZENworks since ZENworks for Servers was first released; it allows ‘content’ to be moved across your infrastructure (WAN and LAN) efficiently, between servers and sites, supporting multiple platforms.

The ‘content’ can be of multiple types – I quickly covered NetWare updates, but any type of file content can be moved using TED. We have customers moving all imaginable data using this technology.

One of the most cool uses of TED is integration with ZENworks Desktop Management – moving desktop applications from a development/test/staging area – to production – and then out across a campus, departmental or branch infrastructure.

We have many customers using this type of infrastructure today – and seeing huge benefits.

How do you know this will work in your environment – just ask a few simple questions:

• am I manually (or semi-manually) moving ZENworks applications across my network?
• are my administrators creating and re-creating application objects for each site and department?
• does a change to a global application require days, weeks or months of rollout; touching each site and server?

If these questions trigger uncomfortable answers then maybe you should look at using Tiered Electronic Distribution in conjunction with your NAL applications.

Typically once the ZENworks Server Management infrastructure is deployed you will see payback in weeks; some customers have paid for their deployment projects with their first deployment.

I’ll leave this post for now – I will point people to Erin Quill’s session at BrainShare. TUT 350 covers using ZENworks in this manner – as well as other high availability ideas. There is also an Advanced Technical Training Session at BrainShare – ATT 345 – as well as a Technical Tutorial – TUT 347 – covering advanced application management.

Written at: Salt Lake City, UT

ZENworks Server Management – update

by ezs | Mar 15, 2006 | Uncategorized, ZENworks

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I wrote last week about ZENworks Server Management in the real world.

In that post I described how a deployment of ZENworks can deliver some rapid benefits – namely patching and updates for NetWare and its associated services.

I wanted to add some new information about a BrainShare session – TUT 351 – being run by Martin Irwin.
The session is titled “Upgrading NetWare to NetWare OES” – but part of the session will be how to upgrade and deploy eDirectory 8.8 using the ZENworks Server Management infrastructure.

From Martin:

We worked closing with the development team for eDirectory 8.8 to actually design into the IPS scripts a placeholder and APIs that allow for a ZSM software package (CPK) to edit and run NWCONFIG.NLM to upgrade your eDirectory 8.73 servers to eDirectory 8.8

So what can you do now?

In 30 minutes you can run a CPK that upgrades your NetWare 6.0 servers to Open Enterprise Server running on NetWare then in another 5 minutes you can run another CPK that upgrades the same server to eDirectory 8.8

The demo will also be available in the BrainShare Technology Lab – and also showcased at Meet the Experts.

Written at: Provo, UT

ZENworks at BrainShare 2006 – Birds of a Feather breakouts

by ezs | Mar 13, 2006 | Uncategorized, ZENworks

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I wrote last week about BrainShare 2006 – just one week to go!

A new session introduced a few years ago is the ‘Birds of a Feather forum‘. This differs from the usual technical track in that rather than a Novell or partner subject matter expert giving a one or two hour presentation and demonstration – you run the session and decide the content.

A Novell moderator acts as a host, keeps the peace – and generally facilitates the discussion. Also in the session are several Novell and partner subject matter experts. The rest is entirely unscripted, unrehearsed – and very useful.

There are five BrainShare Birds of a Feather sessions for 2006 that directly cater to ZENworks:

My advice? Get them on your BrainShare Scheduler – it’s now live – and get there early. These sessions are usually standing room only.

Written at: Provo, UT