Novell ZENWORKS LINUX MANAGEMENT 7.3 IR2, Administration Manual

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A Quick Tutorial on Basic ZENworks Linux Management Features 25
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The advantage to making an assignment to a group is that all devices contained in that group receive
the assignment, yet you only need to make the assignment one time. In addition, a device can belong
to any number of unique groups, and the assignments and associations from multiple groups are
additive. For example, if you assign a device to group A and B, it inherits the software packages
assigned to both groups.
To create a group:
1 In the ZENworks Control Center, click the Devices tab.
2 If you want to create a group for servers, click the Servers folder.
or
If you want to create a group for workstations, click the
Workstations folder.
3 Click New > Server Group (or New > Workstation Group for workstations) to launch the Create
New Group Wizard.
4
Follow the prompts to create the group and add devices to it. For information about what you
need to supply at each step of the wizard, click the icon.
1.1.3 Folders vs. Groups
As a general rule, you should manage system configuration settings through folders, and manage
assignments (software packages, policies, etc.) through groups. This allows you to efficiently
manage devices with similar configuration settings by placing them in the same folder and defining
the configuration settings on the folder. However, all devices in the folder might not have the same
software package or policy requirements. Therefore, you can organize the devices into groups and
assign the appropriate bundles and policies to each group.
The most successful management strategy uses both folders and groups to create a hierarchy and
organization that is easy to manage. A good folder organization enables you to import devices into a
folder so they automatically inherit the correct system configuration settings. A good group
organization makes it easy to assign bundles and policies to devices.
1.2 Creating Registration Keys and Rules
You can manually add devices to folders and groups, but this can be a burdensome task if you have a
large number of devices or if you are consistently registering new devices. The best way to manage
a large number of devices is to have them automatically added to the correct folders and groups
when they register. To accomplish this, you can use registration keys, registration rules, or both.
Both registration keys and registration rules let you assign a name, folder, and group memberships to
a device. However, there are differences between keys and rules that you should be aware of before
choosing whether you want to use one or both methods for registration.
Š Registration Keys: A registration key is an alphanumeric string that you manually define or
randomly generate. During installation of the ZENworks Agent on a device, the registration
key must be input manually or through a response file (see “
Automating Installation of the
ZENworks Agent ” in the Novell ZENworks 7.3 Linux Management Installation Guide ). When
the device connects to a ZENworks Server for the first time, the device is given a name
according to the defined naming scheme and then added to the folder and groups defined within
the key.