69.1 Remote Management Deployment Strategies

The Remote Management Agent must be installed on a managed workstation so the remote operator can remotely manage that workstation.

Remote Management Agent is a ZENworks Desktop Management component installed on a managed workstation. The agent enables the remote operator to remotely manage the workstation. The Remote Management Agent starts automatically when the managed workstation boots up. It verifies whether the Remote Operator is authorized to perform operations on the workstation before the Remote Management session proceeds.

Following are the modes of Remote Management authentication:

69.1.1 Password-Based Remote Management

In this type of Remote Management deployment, you can initiate a Remote Management session with the managed workstation whether or not the managed workstation is imported as an eDirectory™ Workstation object.

Password-Based Remote Management is a secured means of Remote Management authentication. As a result, the remote operator can automatically initiate Remote Management operations, without re-entering password or authentication information each time.

WARNING:There is a known security vulnerability in using Password-Based authentication. We recommend you to use Directory-Based authentication. For more information on the vulnerability in using Password-Based authentication, see TID 7006557 in the Novell Support Knowledgebase.

To deploy Password-Based Remote Management:

  1. Install the Remote Management server-side components of ZENworks 7 Desktop Management. For more information, see the Novell ZENworks 7 Desktop Management Installation Guide.

  2. During the Agent installation, choose to install the Remote Management Agent component only on the workstations that you want to remotely manage.

    IMPORTANT:To remotely manage registered workstations, you must choose to install Workstation Manager along with the Remote Management Agent.

  3. Set the Remote Management Agent password at the managed workstation.

    For more information, see Section 69.4, Setting Up the Remote Management Agent Password.

    Usually, the Remote Management Agent password is set by the user at the managed workstation.

  4. To remotely manage registered workstations, configure the Remote Management policy.

    For more information, see Section 69.2, Configuring the Remote Management Policy for the Registered Workstations.

69.1.2 Directory-Based Remote Management

In this type of Remote Management deployment, for the Remote Management Agent to accept a Remote Management request, the managed workstation must be registered in eDirectory and imported as an eDirectory Workstation object.

The Remote Management Agent uses eDirectory based authentication to verify whether the remote operator requesting to remotely manage the workstation is authorized to do so. The effective policy settings based on which the remote operator performs Remote Management sessions on the managed workstation are computed from the Remote Control policy for the eDirectory Workstation object and the User object of the user logged in to the managed workstation.

To deploy Directory-Based Remote Management:

  1. Register the workstation in eDirectory and import it as an eDirectory Workstation object.

    For more information, see the Novell ZENworks 7 Desktop Management Installation Guide.

  2. Install the ZENworks Desktop Managementserver-side components.

    For more information, see the Novell ZENworks 7 Desktop Management Installation Guide.

  3. During the Agent installation, choose to install Remote Management Agent and Workstation Manager.

  4. Configure the Remote Management policy.

    For more information, see Section 69.2, Configuring the Remote Management Policy for the Registered Workstations