For information on sending Distributions, see the following:
Following are the processes for creating and sending a Distribution, generally done in this order:
Configure and schedule the Distributors. You must use the installation program on the ZENworks 7 Server Management with Support Pack 1 Program CD to create a Distributor.
For information on Distributors, see Section 3.3, Distributors and Distributor Object’s Refresh Schedule.
Configure and schedule the Subscribers. You must use the installation program on the ZENworks 7 Server Management with Support Pack 1 Program CD to create a Subscriber.
One of the primary configurations that you must do for Subscribers is to associate them with the Channels that hold the Distributions they need. For more information, see Section 3.6.5, Associating Subscribers with Channels.
For information on Subscribers, see Section 3.6, Subscribers and Subscriber Object’s Extract Schedule.
Configure the necessary policies. Policy Packages that contain the desired policies must be created in ConsoleOne or iManager before they are distributed.
For information on policies, see Section 4.3, Configuring Server Policies.
Create, configure, and schedule the Distributions. You can use either ConsoleOne or iManager to create Distribution objects.
This could be the most time-consuming portion of the whole process, depending on the complexity of the Distribution to be configured. After you set up your Distributors and Subscribers and create the Distribution objects, you only need to utilize the Distributors’ routing hierarchies for distributing the files and policies to your Subscriber servers.
The Distribution object’s schedule is the best place to prevent an individual Distribution from being sent.
For information on Distributions, see Section 3.4, Distributions and Distribution Object’s Build Schedule.
Create, configure, and schedule the Channels. You can use either ConsoleOne or iManager to create Channel objects.
Usually, you create a new Channel for each Distribution. It is generally easier to manage your distribution system by matching Channels with what they distribute. However, you can include multiple Distributions in a Channel, such as when they are related and all Subscribers subscribing to the Channel need all of those Distributions. For example, a Channel could hold several Distributions that each contain a different virus pattern update.
The Channel object is normally the best object to use for controlling whether Distributions should be sent. Setting its schedule to Never effectively stops the distribution process for all of the Distributions listed in it.
For information on Channels, see Section 3.5, Channels and Channel Object’s Send Schedule.
The Distributions are built, sent, and extracted according to the schedules that you set for each of the Tiered Electronic Distribution objects involved.
For information on the distribution processes, see Section 3.2.2, The Basic Distribution Process.
You might have accomplished some of the above processes during installation of Server Management and during your initial system configuration (see Section 1.0, Post-Installation Setup).
If you want to send a single Distribution outside of the normal Refresh, Build, and Send schedules, and the Channel’s Send schedule is not ready to fire, you can manually force this distribution process using only the ZENworks Server Management role in iManager.
To force a single Distribution to be sent, do one of the following:
If the Send Distribution Immediately After Building option is selected in the Distribution’s properties, go to iManager, click Distribution, then click Build Distribution.
Even if there are other Distributions in the Channel where this Distribution is listed, only this Distribution is sent.
If the Send Distribution Immediately After Building option is not selected in the Distribution’s properties, go to iManager, click Distribution, click Build Distribution, click Channel, then click Distribute Channel.
All other Distributions in the Channel are also be sent if needed by the Subscribers.
As soon as a Subscriber receives an entire Distribution, it extracts it according to the Subscriber’s Extract schedule.
Subscribers can receive and extract Distributions, and they can also pass on Distributions to other Subscribers. Subscribers that pass on Distributions are known as parent Subscribers.
Parent Subscribers do not need to be subscribed to the Distributions they are passing on. They simply receive a Distribution for passing it on to a subordinate Subscriber that has done two things:
Subscribed to the Channel listing the Distribution
Identified the parent Subscriber in the subordinate Subscriber’s object properties
To set up parent Subscribers for passing on Distributions:
Determine a Subscriber object (hereafter referred to as “child Subscriber”) that cannot receive a certain Distribution because this child Subscriber is not contained in the Distributor’s routing hierarchy (the Distributor owning this Distribution).
In that Subscriber object’s properties, click > , in the field browse for and select a Subscriber object that is contained in the Distributor’s routing hierarchy, then click .
This establishes the Subscriber selected as a parent Subscriber. This distinction is not kept in the parent Subscriber’s object properties, but only in the child Subscriber’s.
Create a object where only the child Subscriber is associated.
Create a Distribution, then associate it with the child Subscriber’s Channel.
Send this Distribution.
Because this Distribution is associated only with the Channel where the child Subscriber is subscribed, the parent Subscriber does not extract it, but only passes it on to the child Subscriber.
Because the parent Subscriber is in the routing hierarchy of the Distributor, it has access to the Distribution for passing it on. However, the child Subscriber does not have any access to the Distributor, so it needs the parent Subscriber to provide access to the Distribution.
Although you can establish a parent Subscriber for a child Subscriber, the child Subscriber can still be subscribed to a Channel where the parent Subscriber is subscribed. Both Subscribers can receive and extract that Channel’s Distributions without the parent Subscriber passing it on to the child Subscriber, because the child can have access to that particular Distributor’s routing hierarchy. The key is whether the Distributor owning the desired Distribution can send it to the child Subscriber without using a parent Subscriber.
Using External Subscribers, you can send Distributions from one tree to another. To accomplish this, do the following:
Make sure Tiered Electronic Distribution is installed to both trees.
In the remaining steps, TREE1 represents the tree where the Distribution is created and TREE2 represents the other tree where you want the Distribution sent.
The server in TREE2 that is to receive the Distribution from TREE1 must have the Subscriber software installed on it (meaning it is a Subscriber in TREE2).
For information on installing Tiered Electronic Distribution, see Installation on NetWare and Windows Servers
in the Novell ZENworks 7 Server Management Installation Guide.
In TREE1, create an External Subscriber object.
Make sure that the IP address or DNS name you provide for this object matches the Subscriber server in TREE2 where you want the Distribution to be sent.
For steps in creating External Subscribers, see Section 3.8.3, Creating and Configuring External Subscribers.
In TREE1, create the Channel for the Distribution.
For steps in creating Channels, see Section 3.5.2, Creating and Configuring Channels.
Associate the External Subscriber object you created in Step 2 with the Channel you created in step Step 3.
Other Subscribers from TREE1 can already be associated with this Channel.
For steps in associating Subscribers with Channels, see Section 3.6.5, Associating Subscribers with Channels.
In TREE1, create the Distribution.
For steps in creating Distributions, see Section 3.4, Distributions.
Associate this Distribution with the Channel you created in Step 3.
Verify that the External Subscriber server in TREE2 received the Distribution.
To send Distributions across a firewall, you must enable both the primary and secondary IP addresses of the servers running the Site List server or Distributor server software. If you only allow the secondary IP address to pass through the firewall, the Distribution cannot be sent because Tiered Electronic Distribution uses the primary IP addresses of its recipient servers.
If you are running ZENworks in a cluster, you also need to allow access to all primary IP addresses of all nodes involved.