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Novell Inc. on Monday announced at its BrainShare trade show in Barcelona, Spain, the immediate availability of Novell ZENworks 6.6 Linux Management, a Linux software management system.
With enhanced support for and integration with SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 9, Novells ZENworks Linux Management is designed to allow administrators to manage multiple Linux systems over a network.
“This release of ZENworks Linux Management is another milestone in the integration of our management services with the SUSE Linux platform,” said Novell Chief Technology Officer Alan Nugent in a statement.
This new Linux management program is not, however, open source, said Novell spokesperson Kevan Barney. “There is the open-source YaST administration tool that provides one-to-one setup, configuration and management of a single SLES server. ZENworks provides one-to-many management of the operating system and the applications that run on it,” he said.
The newest ZENworks provides control over the scheduling of Linux software updates, along with automated and intelligent Linux package dependency analysis and conflict resolution for smoother software installations, according to Novell.
It can be used with either a Web-based console or a command line interface. ZENworks Linux Management is also included as part of Novells ZENworks suite of system management tools.
Stacey Quandt, senior business analyst for the Robert Frances Group Inc., sees “Novells bundle of ZENworks with SuSE Linux is an attempt to further the adoption of its captive solution stack. However, there are multiple systems management technologies vying in the Linux market and overall ZENworks will be more appealing to customers migrating from NetWare to SLES.
The management program is also available in a package with SLES 9. While this latest member of the ZENworks family is tightly integrated with SLES, it also supports and manages Red Hat, according to Barney.
ZENworks Linux Management is available now as a standalone product for $130 per user or system. SLES 9 and ZENworks Linux Management are also available on a subscription basis starting at $416 per system, which is cheaper than purchasing the products separately.
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