The ZENworks Linux Management capabilities are divided as follows:
ZENworks Linux Management lets you install, remove, and roll back software on your Linux devices. This is done through the use of bundles, which are collections of one or more software (RPM) packages. ZENworks automatically resolves dependencies for any software packages it is installing.
When you assign a bundle to a device, it is automatically installed on the device. If you want to give the device’s user the choice of whether or not to install a software package, you can use catalogs. A catalog is simply a group of bundles that appears in the ZENworks Linux Management Software Updater client on the device; the user must initiate installation of any of the bundles in the catalog.
ZENworks Linux Management provides a number of policies to help you manage the Novell Linux Desktop, Evolution™ e-mail client, Epiphany Web browser, and several other software applications.
Policies enable you to provide consistent operating system and application configuration settings for your devices. You can lock the configuration settings so that users cannot change them.
ZENworks Linux Management includes a service called Preboot Services that enables you to perform tasks on devices before their operating systems boot up. Using Preboot Services, you can automatically or manually do the following to a Linux device when it boots up:
Run scripted installations on the device, such as AutoYaST and kickstart.
Run ZENworks imaging scripts on the device.
Make an image of the device’s hard drives and other storage devices.
Restore an image to the device.
Apply an existing image to multiple devices.
Update the device’s BIOS.
To accomplish these tasks automatically, you simply need to have PXE (Preboot Execution Environment) enabled on your devices, and have prebootable tasks configured and assigned to the devices (configuration is done in the ZENworks Control Center, discussed later). Then, the devices can automatically implement these tasks when they boot. Or, to manually implement the tasks, you can configure devices to require user intervention during bootup.
ZENworks Linux Management provides the ability to use ZENworks Control Center (ZCC) to remotely manage devices by using a graphical Web interface.
ZENworks Linux Management can gather extensive software and hardware inventory for all managed devices, and it also enables you to create and export custom reports.
By combining ZENworks Linux Management capabilities with the Dell OpenManage toolkit capabilities, you can manage your Dell PowerEdge servers from out of the box through the entire server life cycle. ZENworks Linux Management provides the following features to help you deploy and manage Dell PowerEdge servers in your ZENworks system:
Dell Configuration bundles: Let you configure the BIOS, BMC, RAID, and DRAC settings on Dell PowerEdge servers and create a Dell utility partition. You can also select to run another Preboot Services bundle after these configurations are complete. Dell Configuration bundles let you configure a bare-metal PowerEdge server and quickly and easily put the server into production.
Dell Update Package bundles: Let you update and configure hardware and system settings (including BIOS, DRAC, RAID, BMC, and FRMW configurations) on Dell PowerEdge servers. After you obtain Dell Update Packages from Dell by using the mirroring capabilities of ZENworks Linux Management, you can easily assign the Dell Update Package bundles that are automatically created to PowerEdge servers in your ZENworks system. It is easy for you to determine if an updated Dell Update Package is available for PowerEdge servers in your system and deliver the update.
Advanced Dell inventory information: Lets you display inventory information specific to Dell PowerEdge servers. This advanced inventory information helps you determine when PowerEdge configuration settings need to be updated.
Advanced Dell reports: Let you run reports specific to Dell PowerEdge servers to find devices that do not have valid Dell Update Packages installed or to show devices with Dell applications installed (per device or per device model).