Labs

This latest version of Novell's management software breaks away from the reliance on NetWare, as it can now operate in a Windows-only server environment and workstations no longer require the Novell client to be installed. However, to enjoy the benefits of policy-based workstation management, you have to endure a messy installation routine.

Before installing ZENworks for Desktops (ZfD) on your chosen Windows 2000 PDC server, you need to load the Novell Client followed by eDirectory. Annoyingly, neither is supplied in the package and has to be downloaded. No in-depth documentation is provided in the package either, so you have to trawl Novell's website to find out how to install and deploy ZfD. Even though the Novell client is no longer required, you still need to install a management agent on each system - and note that Windows 95 and ME clients aren't supported.

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next task is to set up the automatic workstation import (AWI) policy, which gathers information about systems as users log on and populates the NDS tree with these details. You decide which containers in the tree you want to store this information in and create a server package with the AWI policy enabled. It's here that ZfD 4 scores highly over other products, as you use policies to determine what actions to carry out on clients or what services are to be made available. By assigning policies to containers via eDirectory, you're able to easily apply different settings to specific groups of clients and change them on the fly.

Inventory policies can be used to run regular scans of all workstations in the associated container, although the levels of information gathered by ZfD are unimpressive. Workstations may be accessed simply by selecting them from the NDS tree and choosing an action from the drop-down menu, and different remote-control settings can be applied to determine what levels of access support staff are allowed.

General support tools are reasonable, although not as numerous as those offered by products such as NetSupport Manager. Basic file-transfer tools are provided, plus you can wake up Wake-on-LAN-compliant systems and remotely execute applications, but that's about it. Overall, ZfD offers a comprehensive range of workstation support tools, but if you're new to eDirectory expect a steep learning curve.