Anyone work with Novell ZENWorks?

[Linflas]

I am fairly new to ZENworks and ran into a bizarre problem today while doing a simple agent update on a workstation. The install stopped processing and after giving it a very long time I killed it and rebooted. This is where the fun started. The machine boots up but I have no mouse or keyboard control. The keyboard and mouse work fine at the DOS/BIOS level but once XP loads they no longer work. I even tried disabling ZEN services from the recovery console but still no change. I then tried a "repair this installation" from the XP CD but still no keyboard/mouse. I took the drive out and slaved it in another machine to get the data off of it but I am still curious what might have caused this and would like to try and repair it before wiping the disk and re-imaging the box.

 

[Varun]

After install Client 4.9 and after reboot the keyboard and mouse don't work on the login screen. Found that they work in the bios but they stop working when the ctrl-alt-del comes up.




cause


We tested changing the ginadll to point to msgina.dll but that also failed. We found that if he moved the keyboard and mouse to one of the other USB ports that then they worked until the next reboot when they would fail again and would have to be moved again ( even back to original ports worked , just not the ports they are connected to during bootup)




fix


We removed the nmas and nici components in add/remove programs and then it worked fine after that.

Defect has been entered against nmas/nici on client 4.9


I got this from the Novell Knowledge base, also make sure you are running the latest client. I recall having this issue a while back but I am not sure what we did to correct it.

 

[Linflas]

Cool thanks. Guess I have to dig up a USB mouse and keyboard from somewhere so I can get back into the OS to try that.

 

[groovin]

question: whats ZENworks? Ive read some snippets about it on Novells site, but its all CEO aimed talk with lots of buzzwords that mean nothing to me on a technical level. from what i understand, its some sort of central management for updates, rollouts, etc...

 

[Linflas]

Originally posted by: groovin
question: whats ZENworks? Ive read some snippets about it on Novells site, but its all CEO aimed talk with lots of buzzwords that mean nothing to me on a technical level. from what i understand, its some sort of central management for updates, rollouts, etc...

Thats pretty much what it does, you can set up applications as NDS objects and determine who sees them by group membership. You can push out group policy through it, install applications automatically or make them available for a user to install them when needed etc.

 

[Varun]

Originally posted by: Linflas

Originally posted by: groovin
question: whats ZENworks? Ive read some snippets about it on Novells site, but its all CEO aimed talk with lots of buzzwords that mean nothing to me on a technical level. from what i understand, its some sort of central management for updates, rollouts, etc...

Thats pretty much what it does, you can set up applications as NDS objects and determine who sees them by group membership. You can push out group policy through it, install applications automatically or make them available for a user to install them when needed etc.

In short, ZENWorks is amazing.

 

[groovin]

i thought RHN was kinda nice except for the subscription thing. i wonder if Zenworks works better... i guess thats a hard to answer question. how much does zenworks run for?

 

[GeekDrew]

Originally posted by: groovin
i thought RHN was kinda nice except for the subscription thing. i wonder if Zenworks works better... i guess thats a hard to answer question. how much does zenworks run for?

Unless you're already running Novell's eDirectory, the cost to implement ZenWorks would probably be more than you would ever want to dream of.

In short, call Novell.

 

[drag]

There is some evalutation software aviable at Novell's website for stuff like Zenworks/groupware/Suse Linux and other stuff like that.

Just look around the product discriptions and you'll probably see the 'evaluation' or whatnot links were it will send you to places were you can download them or at least sign up to get them. I don't know how much they have avaible for Linux vs Windows or whatever.. I haven't had much of a chance to try it out myself.

Also as far as Redhat Subscription goes, it's a good deal if you have to use it. For the cost of a Windows OS (which includes 1 free tech support issue (or maybe just phone call)) you get regular support contract for a year.

With SuSe/Novell groupware stuff, if your using their commercial propriatory stuff (like GroupWise) they do per seat licensing like Windows, however they try to keep it slightly less expensive, I think, and have good deals for small-medium businesses sometimes.

 

[groovin]

yeah, ill probaly give the eval a go sometime. i tried out RHEL/RHN recently just for the heck of it and thought that RHEL + support isnt a bad deal at all. people complain that it's just as expensive as M$ thus killing the cost saving argument, but i disagree... as you said, if you use the subscription then it can be totally worthwhile. ive heard positives and negatives of RH's service and support, but heck, its better than not being able to afford support in the first place.