Previous versions of ZENworks required at least one Novell NetWare server. With ZENworks 3, this requirement is lifted. The only thing ZENworks 3 needs is Novell's directory backbone, NDS eDirectory, which can run on Linux, Microsoft Windows NT, NetWare or Sun Microsystems Solaris.

In adding support for Windows 2000, Novell brought along all the features from ZENworks for Windows NT--including self-healing applications, policy management and remote control. In addition to managing policies, as ZENworks 2 did for Windows NT and Windows 9x, ZENworks 3 can take advantage of .MSI applications. For an application to be Windows 2000-certified, it needs to include an .MSI file describing how it should be installed. ZENworks uses these .MSI files to create an NAL (NetWare Application Launcher) object instead going through the snapshot process.

Image

New in ZENworks 3 is a workstation-imaging capability similar to that offered by Symantec Corp.'s Norton Ghost and PowerQuest Corp.'s Drive Image Pro (for recent reviews of these products, see "Symantec Ghost 6.5 Overcomes Weaknesses of Predecessor"; and "PowerQuest's Drive Image Pro Catches Up With Multicasting, Central Management").

This capability lets administrators quickly roll out new workstations or upgrade OSes on existing workstations. The twist here is that the imaging utility is integrated into the directory. The image engine uses a slimmed-down version of Linux.

One downside: If your network cards aren't supported, be prepared to spend some time getting the needed driver, or do not use imaging for those machines. Novell's help files list a Web site as a source of Linux drivers, but I was not able to access the site during my tests. I didn't have any problem with the imaging software when using Dell Computer Corp. OptiPlex GX1 machines, but I was not able to get the network cards detected on our new rack-mount CPUs, which use Intel Corp. D815EEA motherboards. Before I finished my tests, Novell provided me with the driver I needed to get things working.

For those of you looking for PXE (Preboot Execution Environment) support, ZENworks for Desktops doesn't have it. Novell says it may add PXE support in a future revision.

For the imaging to work, ZENworks creates a small (15 MB) Linux partition on each machine. Each time the system boots, the Linux partition boots and checks the imaging server to determine whether an image needs to be brought down or a new image should be made. Also, the partition stores some data unique to the machine, such as the NetBIOS machine name, IP number and any NDS workstation registration. This information is used to restore these items after a new image has been brought down.

After the machines are installed and the boot partition made, a machine can be set to "reimage" itself using Novell's ConsoleOne by clicking the option to have the machine bring down a new image on its next reboot. The image need not be the same as the one currently on the machine. This capability is similar to that in the Enterprise edition of Symantec Ghost. Novell's product has the advantage because it makes use of the existing directory--and that's one less separate store that needs to be maintained.

ZENworks also allows add-on images to be applied at the same time as the base image. For example, if I created a base image that included only NT, I could create an add-on image to install Office 2000 to the machine. Add-on images can be created by using existing NAL application objects or the Image Explorer. I had no problem creating an image that included the base NT install and a few small application add-on images.

Disconnected ... or Are They?

To help road warriors with their laptops, images of NAL applications can be stored on a local machine, so they are available when the user is not connected to the network. Administrators can choose to force applications to cache to the local machine, or they can let users select which applications they wish to take along. Of course, this won't work well with applications meant to be run from the network instead of the local drive. Administrators should not enable this for applications that are not meant for offline use.

I used this feature to cache Qualcomm's Eudora 5.0. I made sure the application was cached, put NAL in offline mode and, for good measure, disconnected the network cable from the machine. Viola! I had a Eudora install on the machine without a network connection. The amount of space needed on the local machine to cache an application depends on the number of files installed by the application. The files are cached to a hidden C:\NALCACHE directory.

Uninstalling Files

Our end users often ask how to uninstall a NAL application. With previous versions of NAL, it was impossible to uninstall an application. Instead, a user had to remove the related file/registry settings in NDS by hand. For large applications, this wasn't recommended--it could be a long and tedious process if the application installed a large number of files and registry settings. Happily, with the current version of NAL, it is possible to mark applications for removal. Administrators decide which files, registry settings and shortcuts can be removed.

One cool feature of the uninstall utility is that it can be set to uninstall an application when the association of that application is lost or if the application has not been used for a period of time. This would make upgrading applications easier. For example, I could remove the association for Eudora 4.2 and associate Eudora 5.0 with the user base. When done, Eudora 4.2 would be removed from the workstation.

Object Importing

Importing workstation objects into NDS has gotten easier with ZENworks 3. With previous versions, an admin could set up the network policies so that as users log in to NDS, their workstations are registered with NDS. However, admins must still manually convert these workstation registrations to workstation objects in the tree.

With version 3, Novell has provided the ability to automate this process; the import process is controlled by a server policy package. An administrator sets where in NDS the objects should be created and how they should be named. Once set, workstations register themselves with the NDS tree. The one catch here is that the system uses a specific DNS entry, zenwsimport, to locate the import server. If you forget to add this entry to the machine's host file or to have it added to your company's DNS, this feature will not work, because ZENworks 3 machines look for this DNS entry. After setting up a DNS alias in our lab, I had no problem importing workstations into our tree.

ConsoleOne Reliance

Hate ConsoleOne? Well, you're out of luck. With this version of ZENworks, all administration is done with ConsoleOne instead of NetWare Administrator. If you haven't made the break from NWAdmin, the time has come. Or, at the very least, you will be using both if there are still some legacy snap-in modules not available for ConsoleOne. I still find ConsoleOne a bit on the slow side when dealing with small NDS trees, but its performance is improving.

With ZENworks 3, Novell has added more options in selecting the inventory database. Administrators can choose a limited edition of the NetWare or the NT version of Sybase Adaptive Server Anywhere, both of which are included, or they can use Oracle Corp.'s Oracle 8.0.4 for NetWare, Oracle8i for NetWare or Oracle8i for NT. For the Oracle choices, Novell does not include the database server but does provide the Oracle database files for each of the platforms. I would have preferred Novell to include SQL scripts to create the database tables and associated objects to make it easier to use an existing Oracle server or Oracle on a non-Intel platform, such as Sun hardware. Novell has acknowledged this issue and said that if an enterprise is hosting the ZENworks database on a platform such as Solaris, Novell consulting could be brought in to perform the install. Not the ideal option, but at least it exists.

New with the inventory database is the ability to have better distribution throughout the enterprise. ZENworks provides for copies of inventory data on local servers and can push that information up to a master server. This provides better performance over WAN links. Although many sites will not need this capability, larger corporate customers will appreciate it.

Online-Only Documentation

In my tests, I found that this version takes a bit more planning--and the documentation is required reading--to get fully up and running. For example, just installing ZENworks is not enough. There are a number of settings that need to be configured in NDS before the product will work. The database location policy is one such example: The Java process that handles the workstation import/removal process will not start up correctly until this policy is configured. For sites that want to take advantage of the distributed inventory servers, it will take a bit of planning to get those servers mapped out.

But wait, there's a surprise: The documentation (other than a quick-start guide) is not included on the ZENworks CDs. Novell decided to try something new, and the documentation is available online only. This allows for viewing of the most current information, but it isn't very convenient, especially on slow connections. At least Novell makes a PDF version available for download.

Contributing editor James E. Drews is a network administrator for the Computer Aided Engineering Center of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Send your comments on this story to him at jdrews@nwc.com.