ZENworks® Server Management
Best Practice

Ron van Herk

Worldwide Support Engineer

rvanherk@novell.com

Martin Irwin

Worldwide Support Engineer

mirwin@novell.com

What will we be doing?

Feedback from others?

Indicate what we recommend

Give a detailed explanation of a specific action

Agenda

Schedules

Packages

File Distributions

Application Distributions

Server Software Packages

Policies

Reporting

Schedules

Schedules

Distributor Refresh Schedule

Distribution Build Schedule

Channel Send Schedule

Subscriber Extract Schedule

Policy Schedule

There are five schedules to keep track of:

1

2

3

4

5

Distributor Refresh Schedule

Distributor will stop all current activities- its like a “restart server”

Distributor will re-read eDirectory™

Distributor/Subscriber configuration

Distribution Configuration

Channel Configuration

Service Location Package

Policies

Distributor will build or send distributions according to the defined schedule

Run Immediate

Run within an open schedule time

Distributor Refresh Schedule

Best Practice:

Refresh the Distributor once a day or consider only ever doing it manually

Do a Manual Refresh for urgent configuration changes

ConsoleOne®

iManager

The Distributor will read the configuration information for all Subscribers it's meant to send Distributions to but it will not send any configuration changes to the Subscriber until the channel opens

Note:

Distributor Refresh Schedule (cont)

Always refresh when you add a new Distribution

If you are making a lot of new additions then schedule it

You don't need to refresh the Distributor if you changed any of the files in a distribution

If the refresh repeat schedule time is less than the time it takes to build a distribution, you will never build anything

Distribution Build Schedule

Checks to see if there is a new revision to be built

File-Distribution

Distributor checks to see if there are any file dates changed

If one (or more) file is changed, a new revision is built

Application Distributions

Depending on the new “application version” checkbox, the Distributor will check the eDirectory object revision or the Application version attribute

If the something has changed, a new revision will be built

Distribution Build Schedule (cont)

Don't set the Distribution Build Schedule to run more frequently than the distributions are sent out

Will send a new revision immediate (overrides the channel schedule) if you check the “send immediately after build” option

Use the “extract immediate” option wisely

Channel Send Schedule

Distribution Directories

Workorder Queue

Workorder Server

Subscribers

This is the action that takes place when the channel schedule is reached

Channel Send Schedule

Workorders will be created for every revision of every distribution in the channel

Using “run Immediate” on the channel and build schedule can cause errors in your ted.log file

If a part of the distribution has already been sent previously, only the remaining part of the distribution will be sent

Policies and their Schedules

Set in the Distributed Server package on each policy you setup

This is not how often the Distributor sends the policy!!

This is how often the policy is run on that server

If the policy doesn't apply, check the schedule!!! The “Policy” distribution may have successfully been sent and extracted to that subscriber but if the policy schedule is set to never it won't run

Policies and their Schedules

How often do you want to check for restricted files?

How often do you want that servers inventory taken and sent?

How often do you want the traptarg file checked?

Options are:

Daily, weekly,monthly yearly

On an event

Some standard policies only give you the option to run on a trigger that is not time dependent (SMTP ZENworks Database)

Subscriber Extract Schedule

Acts on all Distributions available to extract on that Subscriber

The “extract immediate” schedule option on the Distribution overrides this schedule

Some distributions can cause high utilization for a short time so use this option wisely

Schedule Time

What time is used?

Local Time on the Distributor?

Local Time on the Subscriber?

GMT Time?

What about Daylight Savings Time?

What about Daylight Savings Time?

Not all regions use Daylight Savings Time

The South side of the globe is having Daylight Savings Time from October- March

Schedule Time

Policy Schedules will use the Local Time on the Subscriber

The Extract Schedule uses the GMT Time on the Subscriber

Distributor Refresh, Distribution Build Schedule and Channel Send Schedule will use the GMT Time from the Distributor

Configure Your Distributions

General Properties

Use Digest

Encrypt

Maximum Revisions

Channels

File Distributions

Verify Distribution

Synchronize Directories

Target Path

Application Distributions

A Golden application object needs these things to run with ZENworks Server Management

Source path variable

Works with Standard set of file rights (R and F)

Files on the Distributor

Components of a software package

Main component

Has variables and requirements that apply to the whole package

If you don't want the package to send at all set requirements on the Distribution not here

Sub Components

Logic flow top to bottom, left to right

Each component has a requirement

Use post install if your only going to run a process

Local File copy copies file from one volume to another

File copy copies files from the package up to the server

Now some Novell standard SPKS.....

NetWare spk

Uses the “ZFS” option in products.dat to run in silent mode

The SPK also needs a down policy to work with its alert servers option

The “sister”server will send a SNMP warning packet if the server never comes back

Included in the support pack download off of the web

Needs you to compile it into a CPK

Ensure you have the files in the specified location or change the location in the SPK

eDirectory SPK-NetWare

Works with:

ZENworks 6.5 Server Management

ZENworks for Servers 3.02 (IR2)

eDirectory 8.7.3.4 (IR4) and onwards

Its being written into the code from the ground up

It is a fully supported solution by eDirectory CPR and ZENworks testing

For both the Security and 'normal' eDirectory patches

It saves you time!

Patching your eDirectory on Windows is out soon (or now)

eDirectory SPK-NetWare (cont)

How it works

We had to get it run in 'unattended mode'

We only needed to modify two IPS scripts that the eDirectory patch uses to install

We Create a “ZFS” entry in the PRODUCTS.DAT and hand over control to the eDirectory IPS script

Modeled after the NetWare support pack SPKs

We copy the entire eDirectory patch down to the server and expand it to the SYS volume

eDirectory SPK-NetWare (cont)

The two files we modified in the IPS scripts were:

The STARTUP.ILS checks the the existence of the temporary “ZFS” key in PRODUCTS.DAT and if exists, sets a “ZFS” variable to TRUE which indicates that message prompts and inputs should be skipped

The 87PATCH.ILS is the core script which contains the main copy file commands. Message prompts are skipped over if the script is running in unattended mode

STARTUP.ILS

87PATCH.ILS

eDirectory SPK for Windows

Its NEW to the 8.7.3.6 build.

Will upgrade all eDirectory version from 8.7.3.x versions.

Adds itself to the add remove programs section.

The eDirectory patch now comes with a wise install executable- contains the MSI.

Our SPK Uses two variables

DEST_Path ( normaly c:\)

edirpatchver (you modify)

What we do.

use the unattended install mode with these switches.

/qr quite mode

ALLUSERS="1" install using system scope

eDirectory patch Windows (cont)

What you need to do.

download the eDirectory 8.7.3.6 patch

install it into your ZENworks Server Mangement Console one namespace.

Ensure the patch “eDir873x_Win32.exe” is in your edirpatch directory on C drive.

Modify the variable EDIRPATCHVER is now “6” or the version going forward you are using.

Compile and test.

Remember use the “package Process” command to test it manually

eDir SPK Windows

so...

what happens.

This is the command in the last tab of the last component.

%DEST_PATH%eDirPatch\eDir873%EDIRPATCHVER%_Win32.exe /l* %DEST_PATH%eDirPatch\eDir873%EDIRPATCHVER%_Win32.log /qr ALLUSERS="1"

Converts to this if you use c:\ and 6 as the variables.

c:\eDirpatch\eDir8736_Win32.exe /l* C:\eDirPatch\eDir8736_Win32.log /qr ALLUSERS="1"

Demo of NetWare or Windows.

eDirectory patching is now automated

Download the patch and expand it to your C Drive

Run ConsoleOne with the ZSM snapins (6.5 or 3.02)

Import the SPKs provided in the eDirectory patch

Ensure the patch is expanded to the root of c

Compile it into a CPK file format

Insert into a Software package distribution

Send it out

1

2

3

4

5

6

Policy Distributions

Policy usage

Schedules

How are policies applied

Stored on the Subscriber filesystem

Reporting

Subscriber Distribution View

Reporting through the Database

Reports from ConsoleOne

Reporting through statusfiles

Reports from iManager

Remote Web Console

Tiered Distribution View

Subscriber Distribution View

New with SP1 !!!

Complete overview of all distributions

ZENworks Server Management Best Practice

2003-12-08T12:43:39