Brad thanks for providing the summary of SMS from those other people.
These 2 features and MS's Active directory seem to be some of the most
common reasons I hear why many administrators will not move to from MS
to a Linux or other system.
I have had a chance to do a quick look at Mike's suggestion of Novell's
Zenworks; it is to soon to really comment on Zenworks but a quick
overview looks like it will do the job
Brad Alpert wrote:
On Tue, 2006-07-11 at 21:36 -0400, Sam Varshavchik wrote:
Norm writes:
Is there an application for Linux comparable in its function to the
Microsoft Operations Manager and Systems Management Server combination
from Micro$. I am away that a combination of cron files and scripts
could do at least much of the same work but to set up such a system in
this case will take more time and effort than on going on site
maintenance on each PC.
Maybe if you would actually provide a capsule summary of what that product
actually does, you might get some useful pointers.
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As an old hand of SMS up through 2.0, I can offer some highlights. The
comprehensive list of SMS' capabilities is long and this is but a quick
summary of what springs most readily to mind.
1.) Remote control of Windows clients and server desktops
2.) SNMP monitoring of administrator-defined traps conditions, with
alerting to pager, SQL database, user-written script actions, et al.
3.) The ability to generate, via Microsoft Installer (actually written
by Wise), complete application packages with fully customized settings
appropriate to your enterprise' needs, ready to be pushed out to
desktops and servers on an individual or group basis, either immediately
or on a schedule. The groups may be as amalgamated together by domain,
IP ranges, or any number of other criteria
4.) The ability to query machines for installed software, hardware, BIOS
versions, software versions, etc. (thousands of things) with results
written to a SQL database which may then be subjected to reportage with
the included high-end reporting tool
5.) The ability to remotely shadow user sessions and thus, troubleshoot
application/user problems on the fly without having to journey to the
desktop
6.) The ability to aggregate SMS sites across geographical distance,
specifying the nature of connectedness appropriate to the bandwidth
available between the master and remote sites, and manage those remote
sites from a central location using either local or distributed SQL
databases, as appropriate. Such sites can span tens of thousands of
machines, on various continents, number in the hundreds, and employ a
variety of physical connection types up the chain back to the master
site and behave appropriately, given available bandwidth.
SMS does far more than the things I have briefly listed above.
Beginning in September, 1999, I was able, single-handedly but using SMS
2.0, to bring the more than 500 desktops in our enterprise up to
certified Y2k compliance with zero support from the desktop group. This
is no mean feat: I calculated that the man-hours that would have been
required to accomplish this same task numbered in the several thousands.
SMS is the one Microsoft product with which I truly enjoyed working.
Hope this helps answer your question.
Brad Alpert
MCSE (x 2), Master ASE, CCA
Total Linux Convert
Consulting Engineer - Open Source/Solaris
Results Technology
Lenexa, KS
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Norm Ryder
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