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  How often are IS managers plagued with the challenge of maintaining a diverse set of user desktop computers across the network? If you're one of the lucky few, you have successfully standardized specifically configured hardware. The rest of you probably would appreciate a method for controlling a remote workstation. Or better yet, you'd like to have a broken application fix itself. What about distributing applications--not to mention printer drivers--to all of your workstations? Well, help is on the way from Novell with its Z.E.N.works (Zero Effort Networks) product. I tested a beta version of this software and found that it lives up to its name.

Designed to work over Microsoft Windows 3.1, Windows95/98 and NT, Z.E.N.works lets network administrators leverage NDS to manage diverse desktop workstations. (Support for DOS is not scheduled.) Each network workstation is created as a new NDS object. This process is easily automated, and you can customize it by selecting an object naming convention, the NDS container the objects should be placed in and which users are permitted to register their workstations in NDS. Once registration is complete, you can control workstations from the comfort of your office. The NetWare Administrator program performs via a Policy Package object, with each object pertaining to a user or workstation, as well as an OS.

Desktop Control Have you ever wished you could make a change to all of your NT Workstations without having to visit each one? With Z.E.N.works, you can make Novell Client setting changes and control workstations in one fell swoop. You can create a Workstation Po licy Package and edit the Novell client configuration parameters, including the preferred tree and default print-capture settings, as well as client parameters, like opportunistic locking.

Depending on how you set up the distribution schedule, machines can accept changes at user login/logout or other times. You are presented with the same dialog box that you would see during manual configuration. (Plan on using the right mouse button for setting the distribution settings for individual attributes.) In the lab, I opted to keep the banner page turned off for clients.

Besides updating the Novell client configuration, you can select which print drivers to install on your workstations. When adding a printer, you'll notice the standard Windows print driver selection box. The drivers are copied to a central location from which the workstation can retrieve and install them. Unfortunately, Z.E.N.works is not NetWare Distributed Print Services (NDPS)-aware; if NDPS is installed on your network, Z.E.N.works will not utilize the printer driver database associated with NDPS. The product creates its own copy of the printer drivers on the network. Although adding print drivers went quite smoothly in the lab, Novell should strive for a more unified image by sharing technology among its product groups.

Instead of using Microsoft's POLEDIT.EXE program to create .POL files and copy them to your network servers, Z.E.N.works lets you set and control system policies for individual workstations. This functionality extends both to workstation and user policies. Because I administer multiple lab sites, I relished treating each set of workstations differently in lieu of using a single .POL file to manage both groups.

With Z.E.N.works, you can "remotely control" a workstation. Using NDS for security authentication, Z.E.N.works lets you permit specific users to remotely control a particular workstation via NDS. With this capability, your helpdesk staff can easily view the screen of a remote workstation and diagnose problems. In the lab, this feature was a true time-saver: I resolved network difficulties without any harried phone calls outlining the details of the problem.