Rollout: Kace KBox 1000/2000 Series Appliances

What's worse than the expense of managing desktops and servers? How about the expense of not managing them? The four-year TCO of an unmanaged desktop is about $4,455, compared to $2,850 for a managed one, according to a 2005 Gartner report.

Kace, a new player to the IT management market, wants to help small and midsize enterprises get on the right side of that TCO equation: Its appliance-based product line aims to make deployment and operation simple and inexpensive. Throw in a Web-based interface and an easy-to-use "label" approach to tracking machines and assigning functions, and Kace's KBox line starts to look good.

However, unlike more mature products from companies such as Altiris (Symantec) and LANdesk, Kace's appliances aren't fully baked for server management or software provisioning and deployment. Although the marketing literature talks up server management, the products are really oriented toward the desktop.

What's In The BoxKace offers two appliance lines. The KBox 1000 series performs desktop and server management and is the more mature offering. The KBox 2000 series provisions and deploys OS images. The KBox 1000 comes in two models, the KBox 1100 and the KBOX 1200 (see table). The KBox 1100 supports approximately 100 to 2,500 users; the KBox 1200, 1,000 to 8,500. The KBox 1200 has more memory, faster processors, a RAID 5 disk array and 4 GB of memory. The 1200 also has more built-in features, including vulnerability audit and asset tracking.

The KBox 1000 devices offer a large array of default functionality. First and foremost is hardware and software inventory. A software agent (which can be deployed remotely) performs a full software and hardware inventory of desktops and servers. The data from this inventory can be used to determine missing patches and highlight software-distribution needs. Kace can inventory all the major Windows OSs (except Vista). It also supports the Macintosh on OS X 10.2+ on both PPC and x86 platforms; Solaris 9 and 10; and Red Hat AS and ES versions 3, 4, and 5 on x86 platforms.

After inventory, prepared scripts can be run to patch the machine to current levels and to roll out new applications, service packs and software updates. Inventory data also can be shared with the optional asset-management software for the KBox 1000 series.

The KBox 2000 appliances provision and deploy OS images. The series also comes in two models: the KBox 2100 for 10 to 20 concurrent deployments and the KBox 2200 series for 40 to 60 concurrent deployments. The 2200 can hold more OS images for deployment.

Scripts, Patches & Distribution, Oh My!

The 1000 series offers a wizard that automatically generates a script file to deploy software packages. The wizard generates simple scripts for basic installation. Administrators can edit those scripts manually for complex deployments with multiple conditions or stages.

Before software can be deployed, administrators must create "labels," which is Kace's term for groups of machines. Updates to accounting software might be labeled "finance group," for instance, while a critical OS patch would be labeled "install on all."

Software packages are installed on client machines as "administrator" and can be installed in silent mode (if the OEM installer allows it). Packages can be scheduled to deploy on a fixed, scheduled or run-now basis. We had no trouble creating scripts to install software and deploy it onto a few of our test machines. The was setup was surprisingly easy, and the Web interface supports Firefox and Internet Explorer.

The 1000 also can automate patch management for Microsoft Windows. Kace gets a regular update from Microsoft on the latest patches for Windows and distributes them automatically. We patched one of our Windows systems with good results. Only the latest patches from Microsoft gave us trouble, as one or two of them would not run unattended or silently.Non-Microsoft patches must be gathered manually, which is one reason we found the KBox products less suited to server management. However, once you've gathered the necessary patches, the 1000 lets you create scripts to install them automatically.

Add-ons to the 1000 series include a full asset-management package that tracks hardware and software configurations and licenses, a helpdesk package, and a vulnerability scan and audit component.

The vulnerability scan is based on OVAL (Open Vulnerability and Assessment Language), a security standard used by the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team and the Department of Homeland Security. OVAL results on our test machines pointed out some egregious vulnerabilities, particularly on the machines we had not added to the patch group.

The Bottom Line

When it comes to desktop management, Kace's KBox products combine simplified deployment with a core set of management features that many small and medium enterprises will find appealing.However, Kace's products are largely designed for the desktop environment, and though they can be used in the data center, there are better alternatives for server deployment. Until Kace addresses this shortfall, companies looking to combine server and desktop management and provisioning in a single package should look elsewhere.

The KBox 1100 lists for $9,500 for 100 nodes. The KBOX 2100 is $12,500 for 100 nodes.

Steven J. Schuchart Jr. is Network Computing's Managing Technology Editor. He was formerly an analyst for competitive intelligence firm Current Analysis. Write to him at [email protected].