Novell ZENworks 7.3 Linux Management

March 24, 2009 

1.0 Overview

The issues included in this document were identified in Novell® ZENworks® 7.3 Linux Management.

For installation instructions, see the Novell ZENworks 7.3 Linux Management Installation Guide.

For administration concepts and tasks, see the Novell ZENworks 7.3 Linux Management Administration Guide.

This product contains undocumented utilities that Novell Support might use to diagnose or correct problems.

2.0 Issues Resolved by Version 7.3

Some of the issues identified in the initial version of ZENworks Linux Management 7.2 IR2 have been resolved with this release. For a list of the resolved issues, see TID 3469853 in the Novell Support Knowledgebase.

3.0 Known Issues

This section contains information about the issues that might occur when you install and use ZENworks 7.3 Linux Management:

3.1 Installation

This section contains information about the issues that might occur when you install ZENworks 7.3 Linux Management.

3.1.1 A Dell Updated Package (DUP) bundle is not supported on SUSE Linux Enterprise 11

ZENworks 7.3 Linux Management does not provide Dell Update Package (DUP) bundle support for SUSE® Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED) 11 or SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 (SLES 11) as a managed device running on a Dell* PowerEdge* Server.

3.1.2 An incorrect message is displayed on a SLES 11 device while configuring the ZENworks Server

The following incorrect error message is displayed on a SLES 11 device while configuring the ZENworks Server:

Failed to activate service https://srm-test-srv.labs.blr.novell.com: [] 

Workaround: Ignore the message. However, you can confirm the ZENworks Service status of the device by using the rug sl command.

3.1.3 The installation of the ZENworks Agent fails when it is registered to a ZENworks Linux Management server that has bundles assigned to the agent

The ZENworks Agent ceases to work after the bundles are installed.

Workaround: Register the ZENworks Agent to the ZENworks Linux Management server after the ZENworks Agent installation is complete.

3.2 Upgrade

This section contains information about the issues that might occur when you upgrade to ZENworks 7.3 Linux Management from a previous release:

3.2.1 Upgrading from SLES 10 to SLES 11 or SLED 10 to SLED 11 by using ZENworks 7.3 Linux Management is not supported

An online upgrade from SLES 10 to SLES 11 or from SLED 10 to SLED 11 is currently not supported by SUSE Linux Enterprise. Therefore, upgrading SLES 10 or SLED 10 by using ZENworks Linux Management to SLES 11 or SLED 11 is also not supported. To upgrade SLES 10 or SLED 10 that has ZENworks Linux Management installed to SLES 11 or SLED 11, see the TID 7002790 at Novell Support.

3.2.2 Upgrading to ZENworks 7.3 Linux Management fails if the system language is French or German

Workaround: Before upgrading to ZENworks 7.3 Linux Management, change the system language to either English, Spanish, or Portugal. For more information on how to upgrade to ZENworks 7.3 Linux Management, see Upgrading to ZENworks 7.3 Linux Management in the Novell ZENworks 7.3 Linux Management Installation Guide.

3.2.3 The Event based schedule for bundles becomes uneditable after upgrading from an earlier version of ZENworks Linux Management to ZENworks 7.3 Linux Management

The Event based schedule is not supported in ZENworks 7.3 Linux Management.

Workaround: After upgrading to ZENworks 7.3 Linux Management, manually change the schedule to Date Specific or Relative to Refresh. For more information on how to edit the schedule, see Editing Bundles in the Novell ZENworks 7.3 Linux Management Administration Guide.

3.3 Package Management

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

3.3.1 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.

3.3.2 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.

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

This might occur because the bundle is assigned to a device group and not directly to the device.

Workaround: None.

3.3.4 An incorrect message is displayed on the Secondary Server on bundle creation as well as content replication

The following incorrect 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.

3.3.5 Unable to mirror multiple packages from the YUM and RCE repositories with the same name and version but with different architectures to the same bundle

While mirroring multiple packages from the YUM repository, or the OES 1 monolithic package bundle from the RCE repository, with the same name and version but with different architectures, only one of the packages is mirrored to a package bundle, depending on the order in which the packages are hosted in the repository.

Workaround: None

3.4 Policy Management

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

3.4.1 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 logging in to the device again.

    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.

3.4.2 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.

3.4.3 The system area of the SLED 10 SP1 managed device disappears when you try to remove the system menus by using the SLED policy

If you enforce the SLED policy that is configured to remove the system menus from the system area, the system area on the SLED 10 SP1 managed device disappears.

Workaround: Remove the settings from the SLED policy and reassign the policy to the SLED 10 SP1 managed device.

3.4.4 The Event based schedule is displayed in the Schedule Type drop-down list for Remote Execute Policy and Text File Policy

When you assign a Remote Execute Policy or a Text File Policy from the Action menu in the ZENworks Control Center, the Event based schedule is displayed in the Schedule Type drop-down list, even though this schedule is not supported for these policies in ZENworks 7.3 Linux Management.

Workaround: None

3.5 Imaging

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

3.5.1 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.

3.5.2 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.

3.5.3 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.

3.5.4 “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.

3.5.5 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 7.3 Linux Management Administration Guide.

However, the instructions do not work for Dell PE700 devices. For Dell PE700 devices, there is no workaround.

3.5.6 ZENworks Linux Management Imaging fails on a VMware server

If you try boot a VMware* server from the CD or DVD, or a ZENworks partition, the preboot services fail with the following message:

Can't find ZEN install channel, invoking manual install

Workaround: Use a USB device to boot a VMware server.

3.6 Inventory

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

3.6.1 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.

  • The hardware Inventory Scanner fails to capture the network adapter information for managed devices on S390X hardware.

    Workaround: None

3.6.2 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.

3.7 Remote Management

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

3.7.1 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 from a console session as mentioned below:

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

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

3.7.2 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.

3.8 Registration

This section contains information about the issues that might occur when you use the Registration features in ZENworks Linux Management:

3.8.1 Rebuild action on a managed device fails

The rebuild action on a managed device fails if a registration rule is applied to it on the ZENworks Server during the registration process.

Workaround: None

3.9 Software Updater, Installer, and Remover

This section contains information about the issues that might occur when you use zen-installer, zen-remover, or zen-updater in ZENworks 7.3 Linux Management.

3.9.1 zen-installer, zen-remover and zen-updater fail with a mono-lib exception on a RHEL5 64-bit managed device

If you start zen-installer, zen-remover, and zen-updater from the command line on a RHEL5 64-bit managed device, it throws a traceback error with a mono-lib exception.

Workaround: On a RHEL5 64-bit managed device, do the following:

  1. Edit /etc/selinux/config to set the value of SELINUX to disabled.

  2. Reboot the device.

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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