coolguys's blog

Last month I wrote about the beta program for ZENworks Configuration Management.

I wrote a few weeks ago about the closed beta program for ZENworks Configuration Management; and several people asked me about a public, or open, beta for this exciting new product.

Unfortunately we will not be running an open beta for this particular release.

We are working closely with our global beta customers and partners, and that is producing some very detailed, deep and valuable feedback from a variety of customer environments.

I understand many of you wanted to ‘kick the tyres’, test, plan or just get an early look at this product. I’ll commit that we will be sharing more and more information, documents, whitepapers and videos of this product online in the coming weeks.

Sorry for the disappointment. As a team we will make sure we share details of the next set of ZENworks beta programs later this year.

Well - the response was pretty incredible. Both in the comments on Cool Blogs, via your sales teams, directly to my email - the loud and vocal comment was "We want a public beta".

We listened. We acted.

We have now added a public beta round to the release of ZENworks Configuration Management. Look for more details in the coming weeks; but we expect to have something for you in June to download, test, become familiar with - and also to give us feedback.

I look forward to your comments.

Written at: Draper, UT

The newest release of ZENworks Linux Management was released a short time ago. Ron van Herk made a short post on this release.

Here is the documentation; here is the product home page; here is the download link.

There are several things that existing customers should note:

- you can upgrade in-place from ZENworks 7 Linux Management Interim Release 1- you can upgrade in-place from ZENworks 7 Linux Management Dell Edition- the Dell server management functions are rolled into the core product.

Also there are many new features; and a renewed focus on stability:

- yes - it runs on SLES 10- yes - we now manage SLES 10 and SLED 10- we've added support for management of SLES 10 on all supported hardware flavours - x86 through zSeries.- we also manage Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Written at: Provo, UT

One of my RSS feeds is the online diary from the handlers at the Internet Storm Center.

It gives me an early update on new trends and activities that are on the net - and things to watch for in protecting my own hardware and online infrastructure.

I've noticed in the last week or so another couple of very high profile Windows vulnerabilities - the ANI cursor problem and the newest - an attack on Windows DNS services.

These issues often end up with emergency updates being made available; outside of the usual 'patch Tuesday'. The severity is such that updates need to be made now.

The impact is clear - multiple strategies are needed for modern IT infrastructure:

- antivirus- intrusion detection- patching- firewall

Most important - above all of these technologies - is a good, tested process for triaging and delivering patches. Without a good process it's like having a fire extinguisher but not knowing how to use it.

ZENworks Patch Management will help as part of this broad approach; it allows rapid test and delivery up updates to affected systems. It also provides some great methodology on the 'how' to patch systems as well.

Written at: Beijing, China

John Sovitsky - a CNE of sixteen years standing - wrote these limericks in praise of BrainShare.

There's a conference in Utah this weekWhere Novell gives its partners a peekAt the Salt palace there,The event called BrainShareHas participants packed geek-to-geek.

Here at BrainShare long hours are spentIn our chairs as we strive to augmentOur tech 'chops' in each sessionBut instead learn this lesson:It's an awesome ass-building event!

BrainShare's name makes it perfectly clearIt's the reason so many are here.So we network each day,In a server-based wayBut at night, in the pubs, beer-to beer.

While at BrainShares gone by, we saw red,Now we're all green with envy instead;But if your SUSE lizardCan make me a wizard,Go on, Novell. Please, Geek my SLED!

John Sovitsky

Great work John!

ZENworks was well represented in the BrainShare keynotes. The new ZENworks Orchestrator was showcased on Monday, Wednesday and Friday - that's a lot of demos!

The new version of ZENworks Configuration Management was also shown on Wednesday. The demo was driven by myself and Laurence Pitt.

We showed ZENworks Configuration Management discovering and managing Vista; we also showed the third party and ZENworks portfolio integration.

There is a link to the keynote itself online - http://www.novell.com/brainshare/general_sessions07.html - our demonstration was on Wednesday and starts about 35 minutes in.

I am working on making videos of the demo itself; hopefully I'll post them up here in a couple of days.

It has been many years since I travelled to BrainShare in the few days before the event.

Like Ron van Herk I used to spend a week in Utah prior to the event; now I live in Utah.

This year I have been travelling and visiting customers and working at the CeBIT exhibition in Hannover, Germany.

I am travelling through Frankfurt airport - and the plane has many people travelling to BrainShare. Novell bags and people are everywhere.

On the same flight are several Novell colleagues from Germany, also Novell customers and partners.

It is very strange travelling to BrainShare; there is a certain excitement building.

Written at: Frankfurt airport, Germany