Greenwich Mean Time's Check2000 Client Server

Novell Cool Solutions: Feature
By David Baldwin

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Posted: 4 May 1999

Installing Check2000 for Z.E.N.works

There are two methods for installing Greenwich Mean Time's Check2000 for Z.E.N.works:

Use the Products Setup Wizard
Browse to the appropriate location on the CD and run the Check2000 Client Server setup directly.

This article briefly covers both of these methods.

The Check2000 for Z.E.N.works installation process requires that parts of the Z.E.N.works product be present on the server. Therefore, in order to avoid any difficulties in installing Check2000, you should not attempt to install it until after the Z.E.N.works install has been successfully completed.

Using the Product Setup Wizard

Novell provides the Product Setup Wizard to combine both product selection and installation into a single process. The wizard, Winsetup.exe, is located at the root of the Z.E.N.works distribution CD. It starts automatically (if AutoPlay is enabled) when the CD is inserted into the CD-ROM drive of many computers. If your computer does not support the AutoPlay feature, run Winsetup.exe from the root of the CD.

To locate the Check2000 software using the Product Setup Wizard,

1. Select the "English" language option from the first screen.

2. Select the "Z.E.N.works" option.

3. Select the "Third party Products" option.

4. Select the "Install Check2000" option.

Browsing the CD for Check2000 installation

With the Z.E.N.works CD in your CD-ROM drive, run setup.exe from the following path:

"\Products\3rdparty\Gmt\English\Setup.exe"

IMPORTANT: There are many setup.exe programs on this CD. When using this method to install Check2000, and to ensure that Check2000 is properly installed with all of its components as well as Application Objects, it is important to run the appropriate Setup.exe in the location noted above. The other Setup programs are discussed elsewhere.

Running Setup for Check2000 Client Server for Z.E.N.works

Once setup is running, you must select the server on which to install the software. The software will be installed on the server's Sys: volume in the public\C2k directory.

The setup will also ask you to provide a directory path to be used as the base directory by the scanning agents to store scan results. This directory must be located on a volume that has long filename support and must be in an area that is safe for [Public] to have "Write," "Erase," and "Create" as well as "Scan" and "Read" rights.

These rights are used by the scanning agents to store intermediate result files. The files are not valuable in their intermediate form and can easily be replaced by simply deploying the scanning agent again.

A Quick Overview of the Check2000 Components

The Check2000 Client Server product for Z.E.N.works is composed of several components: The Workstation Scanning Agents, the Data Analysis Tools (Data Collator, etc.), and the Configuration (Scriptor) Tool.

The Workstation Scanners

The Workstation Scanning agent is supplied for Z.E.N.works in two versions. There is a 16-bit version for scanning Windows 3.x workstations and there is a 32-bit version for scanning Windows 95/98 & NT workstations.

In addition, GMT's Check2000 has a DOS version of the scanner. This scanner can be utilized and the data analyzed along with the result from the Windows versions of the workstation scanners. To do this, please consult the appropriate section of the Check2000 documentation.

The Data Analysis Tools

The analysis tool for the information collected by the workstation scanners is called the Data Collator. During installation, this component is copied to the "C2k\Install\C2kdc" subdirectory of Check2000 for Z.E.N.works. However, it must still be installed to a local workstation by running Setup.exe from this directory. Alternatively, The Data Collator may be installed directly from the Product Setup Wizard. (See Installing Check2000 for Z.E.N.works earlier in this article.)

In addition, GMT's Check2000 Client Server product has two other analysis tools, the Data Scanner and the Server Scanner. Though not an integral part of the Z.E.N.works desktop management version of Check2000, they are available for installation and use.

The Data Scanner and the Server Scanner can be installed from the network to a local workstation (after Check2000 has been installed) by running the setup program found at:

(Data Scanner) <servername>\sys:\Public\C2k\Install\C2kds\Setup.exe

(Server Scanner) <servername>\sys:\Public\C2k\Install\C2kss32\Setup.exe

Or, they can be found on the CD at:

(Data Scanner) \Products\3rdparty\Gmt\C2k\Install\C2kds\Setup.exe

(Server Scanner) \Products\3rdparty\Gmt\C2k\Install\C2kss32\Setup.exe

Please consult the appropriate sections of the Check2000 Client Server documentation.

The Configuration Tool

The Configuration Tool (Scriptor.exe) is used to manipulate the behavior of the scanning agents when they are deployed to a workstation. For example, you can alter settings such as:

Allow/Prevent the user from canceling the scan.
Determine what parts of the scanning process the user can watch
Determine whether the user must initiate the scan or if it is "forced" run.
Determine whether or not the user can see the result of the scan.
Set the location where the Workstation must deposit their scan-result files for analysis by the Data Collator.

To learn more about the capabilities of the configuration tool, scriptor.exe, please consult the documentation for Check2000 Client Server.

Deploying the Windows Workstation Scanners

There are two different version of the Windows workstation scanners: a 16-bit version for use on Windows 3.x workstations and a 32-bit version for use on Windows 95/98 and NT. In addition, there is a DOS version of the scanner supplied with Check2000 and has been installed for your use, if you choose, along with the Check2000 for Z.E.N.works Windows scanners. For information on the DOS version, please consult the appropriate section of the Check2000 documentation.

Each workstation to be scanned must have already been registered and imported into NDS. Check2000 Client Server for Z.E.N.works uses the same workstation registration signature as Z.E.N.works and will not run if the workstation has not been successfully imported into NDS.

Check2000 uses the Z.E.N.works workstation registration information to uniquely store and identify scan result by workstation name. When using Data Collator to analyze the scan result, you will be able to determine for each piece of information which workstation it pertains to.

The Scanning Agents can be run directly from the network directory in which they have been installed during setup. There are many ways to deploy the Scanning Agents. The most useful are:

Using the Application Objects installed during setup.
Adding the Agents as policies to Z.E.N.works Policy Packages and scheduling them to run.
Using Login Scripts to launch the agents.

Using Z.E.N.works Application Objects for Deployment

Installation of Check2000 for Z.E.N.works adds five application objects to your NDS directory in the same context as the server to which you installed the Check2000 software. Two of them are used to deploy the Scanning agents, Check2000-16 and Check2000-32. The other three are used to facilitate installation of the Analysis Tools.

These are ready to be deployed using all the capabilities and flexibility afforded with Z.E.N.works Application Launcher (formerly NAL). If you are unfamiliar with the extensive capabilities of the Z.E.N.works Application Launcher, please see Novell's documentation and help files with this version of Z.E.N.works.

Creating Policies for NDS Workstations or Users

Novell Z.E.N.works policy packages can be used to deploy the Check2000 scanning agents across your entire network of Windows Workstations. Using the "Add Action" button on any Z.E.N.works policy package the scanning agents can be deployed according to the schedule you specify.

For example, if you would like, to use scheduled actions to scan your workstations unattended at night, you could create schedule actions for each Workstation Policy package desired, set them to impersonate the system and schedule them to run, say at midnight. The next morning, you could run the Data Collator to begin the analysis of the data. Your users would never know what happened.

NOTE: In order for Check2000 to successfully run with system impersonation, Check2000 must be configured to run without the possibility of any user interaction. This is done using the configuration tool on each scanner. In order for Check2000 to successfully run using this method, you must ensure that the "View Results" and "Show Warning Messages" options are off (not checked) as well as set up the Autostart parameter (recommended=0) so that the scanners will start automatically. You might also want to disable the user's ability to cancel some of these screens.

This is a very powerful method of deploying the scanning agents. Novell recommends that you become familiar with using schedule actions on policy packages and that you also familiarize yourself with the setting, and their effects during deployment, of Check2000 before any large scale deployment is attempted.

CAUTION: You should exercise care when deploying Check2000 to run Automatically. During the BIOS scan, the date setting on the machine being scanned is actually changed several times (temporarily). Any applications running may detect this date change. This could cause adverse effects. Please consult the Check2000 documentation regarding this issue.

Using Login Scripts for Deployment

Check2000 Client Server for Z.E.N.works maintains the ability to deploy the workstation scanning agents using login scripts. This is a very simple, yet effective, method of deployment. Check2000 has the ability to specify when the agents should actually run to prevent them from scanning each time a user logs in on a machine. Please consult the "Run Cycle" tab in the configuration tool or consult the Check2000 documentation.

Analyzing the Scanner Results

Check2000 places the intermediate results of a workstation scan on the network path provided when you installed Check2000 Client Server for Z.E.N.works. The configuration tool, Scriptor.exe, can be used to alter this location if needed after installation.

Using Z.E.N.works' workstation registration information, Check2000 is able to store the results of a scan in a way that "mirrors" much of a workstations Distinguished Name (DN) in NDS. Each workstation when scanned will create four intermediate result files to be used later during Data Analysis. During this scan Check2000 will also create one to five subdirectories to allow each set of result files to be unique identified.

A subdirectory will be created for each of up to the first four most significant Organizational Units (OU), if present in the DN of the workstation, and a directory for the Workstation's Common Name (CN).

For example: Having specified during install or with the configuration tool a root directory of "myserver\Y2k_data:\Office Locations\", a workstation with the DN of "O=MyCompany.OU=Portland.OU=Finance.CN=Jennie's Computer" would create within the "root" directory a "Portland" directory which contains a "Finance" directory which contains the "Jennie_s_Computer" directory which contains the four intermediate result files. For example: <myserver>\Y2k_Data:\Office Locations\Portland\Finance\Jennie_s_Computer\<files>

Licenses for Check2000 Client Server

Check2000 scanning agents can be deployed for Client Server use throughout your entire network. However, use of the results and analysis of the information gathered is regulated by a license on the Data Collator. Your copy of Z.E.N.works contains a license certificate for five free workstations. This means that you are licensed to analyze the data for five of the workstations, no matter how many were scanned during deployment of the scanning agents, without obtaining an additional license certificate with the appropriate number of workstation licenses for all workstation to be analyzed.

License Certificate(s) can be obtained from your local Novell reseller. Please contact them for purchase information.

Additional Information and Help

For additional information on setup or deployment of Check2000 with Z.E.N.works consult one of the following:

On the Z.E.N.works CD

\Products\3rdparty\Gmt\C2k\Install\Readme.txt

\Products\3rdparty\Gmt\C2k\Install\Manual.pdf

\Products\3rdparty\Gmt\C2k\Install\C2khelp.hlp

On the Server Installed with Check2000 from the Z.E.N.works CD

\\<servername>\sys:public\c2k\Install\Readme.txt

\\<servername>\sys:public\c2k\Install\Manual.pdf

\\<servername>\sys:public\c2k\Install\C2khelp.hlp

The Z.E.N.works distribution CD contains many other documents for your use. To locate them, search the CD for files with the PDF extension or the HLP extension.

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