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Hidden Gems – Part 1: Best Practices for Asset Management with Novell ZENworks
By Ken Baker, Novell Connection Magazine - May 2010

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The key to successful asset management lies largely in the processes you undertake. At Novell BrainShare 2010, the session entitled “Best Practices for IT Asset Management” discussed how Novell ZENworks Configuration Management and Novell ZENworks Asset Management can support, streamline and automate asset management best practices to reduce costs and simplify your management efforts..

Novell ZENworks Configuration Management and Novell ZENworks Asset Management can support, streamline and automate asset management best practices to reduce costs and simplify your management efforts.

Pre-Deployment Management

If you’re at all familiar with the ZENworks product line, you know that both ZENworks Configuration Management and ZENworks Asset Management can help you manage hardware throughout its different lifecycle stages. However, what you might not know is how the products can help you in the acquisition stage—before you’ve even had a chance to deploy the ZENworks agent on your devices.

Presenter Christina Chamberlain, a Novell Technology Specialist, referred to this capability as a hidden gem that lets you add a list of devices into the ZENworks database by importing .CSV files. To take advantage of this import function, you need to know the serial number and hostnames of your devices. These values are used to reconcile the device to the record when the ZENworks agent is deployed. Depending on your procurement system, the serial number information might be available to you at time of purchase. If not, it might be available at time of receipt as part of a bill of lading or through the bar codes on the device packaging, which can allow the information to be scanned into a flat file before it’s ever removed from the pallet on the receiving room floor.

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