Novell ZENworks 7.2 Linux Management

July 17, 2007

1.0 Readme Updates

This document was updated in the following sections on the dates indicated.

1.1 July 17, 2007

The section entitled Novell Open Enterprise Server 1.0 is not supported was removed from the Section 3.1, Installation section because it is now supported. For more details, see the Novell ZENworks 7.2 Linux Management Installation Guide . The guide also provides information about patching an OES Linux server having ZENworks 7.2 Linux Management installed.

1.2 June 11, 2007

  • The section entitled Novell Open Enterprise Server 1.0 is not supported was added to the Section 3.1, Installation section.

  • The section entitled Patching an OES Linux server having ZENworks 7.2 Linux Management installed was removed.

1.3 May 18, 2007

The section entitled Patching an OES Linux server having ZENworks 7.2 Linux Management installed was added to the Other Known Issues section.

2.0 Overview

The issues included in this document were identified in Novell® ZENworks® 7.2 Linux Management.

For installation instructions, see the Novell ZENworks 7.2 Linux Management Installation Guide .

For administration concepts and tasks, see the Novell ZENworks 7.2 Linux Management Administration Guide .

3.0 Known Issues

This section contains information about the issues that might occur when you install and use ZENworks 7.2 Linux Management.

3.1 Installation

This section contains information about the issues that might occur when you install ZENworks Linux Management.

3.1.1 The install fails on a RHEL4 AS 64-bit server if two NICs are present

The installation fails and the zlm-config file indicates that the server requires a static IP or permanent DHCP address for the ZENworks Server.

Workaround: Launch system-config-network, delete the inactive NIC (eth1), then restart zlm-config. ZENworks Linux Management should install successfully.

3.1.2 Installing the ZENworks Server software on a device configured with DHCP results in an eDirectory error

If you are installing to a device that is configured with DHCP, you might encounter the following eDirectory error in zlm-config:

eDir failed to start properly. Please ensure that this machine is configured with a static IP or permanently-leased DHCP Address.

Workaround: See Installing a ZENworks Server on a Device Configured with DHCP in the Novell ZENworks 7.2 Linux Management Installation Guide .

3.2 Upgrade

This section contains information about the issues that might occur when you upgrade ZENworks 7.2 Linux Management from a previous release.

3.2.1 An upgrade fails on a SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 device

For SLES 10 devices, install ZENworks 7.2 Linux Management using zlm-install.

3.3 ZENworks Database

This section contains information about the issues that might occur when you use the ZENworks database.

3.3.1 Running an Oracle database with ZLM displays a “Failed to restart PostgreSQL” message

If you configure ZENworks Linux Management to use an Oracle* database, and then issue the zlm-config --restart command, the following message displays on the screen and is also logged in the zlm-config.log file:

"Failed to restart PostgreSQL"

Workaround: Ignore the message.

3.3.2 Unable to use dbrestore to restore the ZENworks database installed on a RHEL device

Using the zlm_dbrestore.sh script to restore the ZENworks database installed on a RHEL device might fail.

Workaround: To resolve this issue, see the Novell ZENworks 7.2 Linux Management Troubleshooting Guide .

3.4 Package Management

This section contains information about the issues that might occur when you use the Package Management features of ZENworks Linux Management.

3.4.1 Wildcard characters do not work when executing a bundle-list command from zlman

The use of wildcard characters using the bundle-list (bl) command to list bundles is not currently supported.

3.4.2 A bundle is installed even when the post-distribution script fails

Currently, a bundle is successfully installed even though a post-distribution script fails.

3.4.3 After a specific version of the bundle is installed on a device, changes to the deployment or installation schedule of the bundle are ignored for subsequent versions

When a new bundle is associated to a device on a particular schedule, the bundle is deployed or installed based on the schedule configured. However, when the bundle is modified and a newer version is deployed, any changes to the schedule do not take effect. The newer version of the bundle is installed on the next refresh.

Workaround: None.

3.4.4 zen-installer, zen-updater, and zen-remover require gtk2 version 2.4 or later

The ZENworks Linux Management Software Installer (zen-installer), Software Updater (zen-updater), and Software Remover (zen-remover) do not start on devices that do not have gtk2-2.4 or later installed. By default, Red Hat* Enterprise Linux 3 (RHEL3) AS 32-bit and SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server 9 have the gtk2-2.2 package. This means that zen-installer, zen-updater, and zen-remover do not start on these platforms.

Workaround: Upgrade the gtk2-2.2 package to the gtk2-2.4 package, along with its dependencies.

3.4.5 Some pattern, patch, and product rug commands are not supported

A few pattern, patch, and product rug commands are not supported on SLES 9, RHEL, and Novell Linux Desktop.

3.4.6 Package Update shows an incorrect status when a bundle is assigned to a server or workstation group

Workaround: None.

3.4.7 An incorrect message is displayed on the secondary server on bundle creation as well as content replication

The following message is displayed on the secondary server on successful creation of the bundle as well as content replication: “ Cannot deploy this version because one or more packages have been deleted”.

Workaround: Ignore the message.

3.4.8 Unable to remove a bundle installed on a managed device if zmd goes to sleep or is restarted

Workaround: Do one of the following on the managed device:

  • Manually remove each package from the bundle using the rug rm package_name command.

  • Stop zmd, delete /var/opt/novell/zenworks/lib/zmd/system-catalog, and restart zmd.

3.5 Policy Management

This section contains information about the issues that might occur when you use the Policy Management features of ZENworks Linux Management.

3.5.1 SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop policy issues

If you configure the SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop policy for a SLED 10 managed device, you might encounter the following issues:

  • The Disable Launcher Creation option does not work.

  • If you try to remove an option that is selected in the Show drop-down list of the main menu file area, the main menu fails to appear. Also, if you try to unassign the policy from the managed device, the main menu still fails to appear.

    Workaround: If the main menu fails to appear on unassigning the policy:

    1. Ensure that the policy is removed from the device by refreshing the managed device, and relogging into the device.

    2. On the managed device, right-click the panel, click Add to Panel, select Main Menu from the Add to Panel list, then click Add.

3.5.2 The previous background settings of the SLED 10 managed device are not restored after the SLED policy is unenforced

On a SLED 10 managed device, if you unenforce the SLED policy in which the background image filename is configured, the previous background settings of the device are not restored.

Workaround: Log in to the managed device again.

3.6 Imaging

This section contains information about the issues that might occur when you use the Imaging features of ZENworks Linux Management.

3.6.1 After installing ZENworks Linux Management on a server, some image safe data is missing or incorrect

If you take an image of a server just after installing ZENworks Linux Management (that is, before zislnx-start has a chance to run again at boot), the image is restored with an incorrect network configuration and hostname.

Workaround: After completing the server installation, execute /etc/init.d/novell-zislnx start.

This issue does not affect installation of the ZENworks Agent on a managed device.

3.6.2 The imaging server does not support double-byte characters in the name of the image file

The Imaging engine does not support double-byte characters in image filenames. The ZENworks Control Center allows you to enter a double-byte character, but the Imaging Server does not recognize it. Therefore, do not use double-byte characters in the names of image files.

3.6.3 zislnx fails to shut down on RHEL 3 devices

On Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 (RHEL 3) devices, using the /etc/init.d/novell-zislnx stop command fails to shut the service down. At some later time, the device then fails to respond to a soft reboot, and must be cold-booted.

The error message displayed when running /etc/init.d/novell-zislnx stop is incorrect, because RHEL 3 does not follow LSB standards.

Workaround: Do not use the /etc/init.d/novell-zislnx stop command. Normally, you would not run this command, because when /etc/init.d/novell-zislnx is run from either a bash prompt or at boot-up, it runs once then stops itself.

3.6.4 “Error: Could not create linux symbolic link" when restoring extracted add-on image

The use of a symbolic link is not supported in add-on images if the link’s location does not exist on the device where the add-on image is extracted.

3.6.5 Not able to get into the utility partition after applying a configuration bundle on a Dell PE700 device

The Dell* utility partition relies on its version of the MBR (master boot record) to function correctly. Grub also uses the MBR for its boot loader. If you install the Dell utility partition, then install the Linux* operating system, the Dell version of the MBR is overwritten by the grub version. Instructions to remedy this problem are found in Creating Dell Configuration Bundles in the Novell ZENworks 7.2 Linux Management Administration Guide .

However, the instructions do not work for Dell PE700 devices. For Dell PE700 devices, there is not workaround.

3.7 Inventory

This section contains information about the issues that might occur when you use the Inventory features of ZENworks Linux Management.

3.7.1 Hardware Inventory fails to report some information

  • A hardware inventory currently does not report some items, such as power supply for any type of device. For Red Hat machines, items such as floppy and monitor are not recognized.

  • On SLES 9, Novell Linux Desktop, and Open Enterprise Server managed devices, the hardware probe using the hwinfo utility might unload the lp module and consequently remove the printer device.

    Workaround: Download and install the updates for the hwinfo utility. For detailed information on how to obtain the updates, see the Novell Support Web site.

3.7.2 CPU-based registration rules might fail for a few Intel Pentium processors

If you create a CPU-based registration rule to filter Intel* Pentium* processors for registering the managed device to the server, the Inventory Scanner utility (hwinfo) captures the CPU model name as "Pentium(R) 4 processor 2800 MHz" instead of "Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz" for some machines; the prefix Intel is omitted. Consequently, the registration of the device to the server might fail.

Workaround: None.

3.8 Remote Management

This section contains information about the issues that might occur when you use the Remote Management features of ZENworks 7.2 Linux Management.

3.8.1 A grey screen is displayed when you start the Remote Login operation

When you start the Remote Login operation on a managed device, the launched session shows only a grey screen with an X cursor because XDMCP is not enabled on the managed device.

Workaround: On the managed device, do the following:

  1. Manually enable XDMCP by executing the novell-rm-fixrl.sh script as mentioned below:

    • On SLES 10 and SLED 10: Execute /usr/bin/novell-rm-fixrl.sh -dm gdm -cf /etc/opt/gnome/gdm/gdm.conf enable.

    • On SLES 9 and Novell Linux Desktop: Execute /opt/novell/zenworks/bin/novell-rm-fixrl.sh -dm gdm -cf /etc/opt/gnome/gdm/gdm.conf enable.

    • On RHEL: Execute /opt/novell/zenworks/bin/novell-rm-fixrl.sh - dm gdm -cf /etc/X11/gdm/gdm.conf enable.

  2. Start the Remote Login operation.

3.8.2 The Remote Management -VNC applet sometimes hangs when starting a remote management session

When starting a remote management session, the Remote Management -VNC applet randomly hangs.

Workaround: Stop and restart all running browser sessions, then retry the remote management session.

4.0 Documentation Conventions

In this documentation, a greater-than symbol (>) is used to separate actions within a step and items in a cross-reference path.

A trademark symbol (®, TM, etc.) denotes a Novell trademark; an asterisk (*) denotes a third-party trademark.

5.0 Legal Notices

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Further, Novell, Inc. makes no representations or warranties with respect to any software, and specifically disclaims any express or implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose. Further, Novell, Inc. reserves the right to make changes to any and all parts of Novell software, at any time, without any obligation to notify any person or entity of such changes.

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