Introduction to Novell
ZENworks® 6.5 Server Management
Policy and Distribution Services

Linda Frampton

Novell, Inc.

Jason Blackett

Novell, Inc.

Objectives

Identify the benefits of Tiered Electronic Distribution (TED) and the new features of ZENworks 6.5 Server Management

Identify key planning and design requirements

Identify the components that make up TED

Understand how to distribute the most common types of content

What is
ZENworks 6.5 Server Management?

A collection of components that together give you complete management of your heterogeneous, enterprise server environment

Divided into two major functional components:

Policy & Distribution Services

Tiered Electronic Distribution

Policies and Software Packages

Server Inventory

Remote Management

Management & Monitoring Services

Benefits of Tiered Electronic Distribution

Efficient tiered approach to distributing content

Simplifies patching and installing software

Allows you to distribute content to external entities

Provides signing and encryption of distributions

Internet friendly

Allows distribution of content to multiple server platforms

NetWare®, Windows Server, Linux and Solaris

TED/TV Analogy

Distributor

Parent Subscriber

Subscribers

Planning your TED environment

Determine scheduling

Determine security needs

Determine database needs

Determine WAN infrastructure to be used for TED hierarchy

Identify the servers that need to be subscribers

Identify the servers that need to be distributors

Determine the content to be distributed

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The “ZEN Master” Model

Single distributor or distribution type specific distributors send content from a central location

Distributors send content to subscribers which may then forward content to other subscribers

All of the ZENworks Server Management objects are placed in a single container and then partitioned off

A replica of the partition is placed on the distributor

A “golden” container is created that mimics subscriber locations for Desktop Application Distributions

Implementing Pre-Requisites

Update NetWare servers to the correct version of Java

Verify other hardware and software requirements are met

Configure DNS

All distributors and subscribers must be able to perform forward and reverse look-ups for any server they will communicate with

This is the #1 problem when you try to implement ZSM in a lab environment

Read the README to find out about the latest issues

Installing
ZENworks 6.5 Server Management

NetWare & Windows

Uses InstallAnywhere installation to perform the install

GUI based installation

Start and stop the agents

Linux & Solaris

Requires text based installation using a script

Edit the TED configuration file as needed

Confirm network information

Create DB on NetWare or Windows

Start and stop the agents

Configure TED and ZENworks Database Policies

Server Components

ZENworks Policy/Package Agent

Responsible for processing distributed server policies

Responsible for processing server software packages

Loaded by ZFS.NCF which starts the other services

Server Components

ZENworks Web Server

XML-RPC Server

Passes status messages and event information between distributor, subscribers, and management consoles

Required for TED & Server Policies

Status information

Browsing distributor file system from mgmt console

Manual refresh of the distributor

Required for ZENworks Desktop Management and ZENworks Server Management Inventory

Used for roll-up and enables roll-up through firewalls

XML-RPC Server Architecture

ZENworks

Web Server

(XML-RPC)

Registered Methods

TED

Ted.Refresh

ZSM

ZFS.PolicyList

Inventory

Inv.CreateSTR

User running ConsoleOne® refreshes distributor

<MethodName>

Ted.Refresh

</MethodName>

Request sent on TCP 8089

Who knows about this method?

Time to refresh

Success

<MethodResult>

Success

</MethodResult>

Reply is sent to workstation

Server Components

Tiered Electronic Distribution Agent

Requires JVM 1.4.1_02 or higher

Installed as part of policy and distribution services

Started by TED.NCF

Performs all tasks related to sending and receiving content

Distributor agent builds distribution

Subscriber agent extracts non-policy/package distributions

Required for policy distributions as well as other types of distributions

Runs on NetWare 5.1 & 6, NT 4.0 SP6a, Windows 2000, Red Hat, SUSE LINUX and Solaris

Server Components

ZENworks Server Management Database

Supports Sybase ASA or Oracle

Logs successes and failures for Server Policies and TED

ZENworks for Desktops 4 and ZENworks for Servers 3 can co-exist on the same database server

4.01 and 3.02 work best together

Inventory & management and monitoring databases can be hosted on the same server

Identified by database object

Found using server or service location package

Purge often as database can grow quickly

eDirectory™ Components of TED

Distributor

Controls when new distributions are found

Controls bandwidth throttling

Identifies logging behavior for distributor agent

Identifies the routing hierarchy

eDirectory Components of TED (cont)

Subscribers

Controls when distributions are extracted

Identifies the default object creation location

Species variables to be used during distribution

Identifies the channels subscribed to

Identifies logging behavior

May reference a server not in the tree (external subscriber)

External Subscribers

Represents a subscriber in another tree or no tree

Stores a pointer to the subscribers IP address or name

Receives configuration from the distributor in the real tree or from the PROPERTIES file

eDirectory Components of TED (cont)

TED Channel

Determines send schedule

Subscribed to by subscribers

Grouping of distributions to be sent

TED Distribution

Identifies which distributor is building the distribution

Identifies the channels the distribution is in

Determines the build schedule

Determines the information to be distributed

eDirectory Components of TED

Search Policy

Used to prevent the distributor and inventory servers from walking the tree to read configuration

TED Policy

Used to set subscriber and distributor properties on a multi-subscriber basis

Used as default subscriber and distributor settings unless overridden

Allows changes to log information

Allows changes to variables

Database Policy

Used by the distributor and subscribers to find the ZENworks Server Management database

TED/TV Time line

Distributor Refresh Occurs

(HBO meeting to determine the schedules and channel line-up)

Configured on Distributor Object

Once started doesn't stop until complete

Distribution Build Occurs

(HBO shoots the television show)

Configured on Distribution Object

Once started doesn't stop until complete

Send Occurs

(HBO broadcasts the television show)

Configured on the Channel Object

Hard start and hard stop

Extract Occurs

(HBO subscribers consume the television show)

Configured on the Subscriber Object

Once started doesn't stop until complete

Novell eDirectory

Configuration information

Distributor reads eDirectory

When build schedule starts the distributor builds the distribution

When send schedule starts the distribution is sent to subscribers

Port 1229

Subscriber may act as a “parent” subscriber

Subscriber receives (accepts) the distribution

Subscribers returns distribution status information to distributor

Subscribers extract (install) distribution, thereby scheduling policies for enforcement or copying files

Tracking the Process

ZENworks 6.5 Server Management provides snap-ins for Novell iManager 2.0 and higher

These snap-ins are installed separately from the Policy and Distribution Services install

Provides the ability to monitor distributions from the distributor through a specified channel

Also provides an XML-RPC (Remote Web Console) interface to the TED service

Distribution Types

Desktop Application Distributions

File Distributions

HTTP/FTP Distributions

MSI and RPM Distributions

Policy Package Distributions

Software Package Distributions

Generic Distribution Process

To distribute content with TED you...

Install Policy and Distribution Services

Configure the distributor and subscriber objects

Configure database reporting if desired

Create a channel

Subscribe members to the channel

Create a distribution

Assign the distribution to the channel

Verify the certificates have been resolved

Refresh the distributor

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Summary

TED is the foundation on which the policy and distribution services components of ZENworks Server Management are built

TED provides a highly configurable and secure system to distribute content to servers in your environment

DNS is critical to a successful ZENworks Server Management implementation

Scheduling is key

Don't forget to use good naming for your ZENworks Server Management objects

Novell Corporate Presentation Template 2005

2003-12-08T12:43:39