ZENworks
Micro Focus ZENworks, a suite of software products developed and maintained by Micro Focus International for computer systems management, aims to manage the entire life cycle of servers, of desktop PCs, of laptops, and of handheld devices such as Android and iOS Mobile Phones and Tablets. Novell planned to include full disk encryption functionality within ZENworks.
ZENworks supports multiple server platforms and multiple directory services.
History
The name, "ZENworks", first appeared as "Z.E.N.works" in 1998 with ZENworks 1.0and with ZENworks Starter Pack - a limited version of ZENworks 1.0 that came bundled with NetWare 5.0. Novell added server-management functionality, and the product grew into a suite consisting of:
- "ZENworks for Desktops"
- "ZENworks for Servers"
- "ZENworks for Handhelds"
The initial ZENworks products had a tight integration with Novell Directory Service. With the release of ZENworks 10 the product architecture completely changed, the product became directory agnostic and ZENworks Suite products were integrated into a single management framework.
ZENworks Releases:
| Product | Version | Release Date | Notes |
| Z.E.N.works | 1.0 | 18 May 1998 | Initial release |
| Z.E.N.works | 1.1 | 16 Nov 1998 | |
| Z.E.N.works Starter Pack | 16 Nov 1998 | ||
| ZENworks | 2 | 28 Jun 1999 | |
| ZENworks for Servers | 1 | 7 Mar 2000 | |
| ZENworks for Desktops | 3 | 22 Aug 2000 | |
| ZENworks for Servers | 2 | 31 Jan 2001 | |
| ZENworks for Desktops | 3.2 | 13 Aug 2001 | |
| ZENworks for Servers | 3 | 3 Apr 2002 | |
| ZENworks for Desktops | 4 | 27 Aug 2002 | |
| ZENworks for Desktops | 4.0.1 | 14 Apr 2002 | |
| ZENworks Suite | 6 | 14 Apr 2003 | Version number jumped to version 6 as the ZENworks Suite merged ZFD 4, ZFS 3 and ZFH 5 |
| ZENworks Suite | 6.5 | 3 Jun 2004 | |
| ZENworks | 10 | 21 Sep 2007 | First release of new architecture, version 10 as ZENworks existed for 10 years |
| ZENworks | 10.1 | 28 Jan 2009 | |
| ZENworks | 10.2 | 2 Jan 2010 | |
| ZENworks | 10.3 | 6 Apr 2012 | |
| ZENworks | 11 | ||
| ZENworks | 11.1 | ||
| ZENworks | 11.2 | ||
| ZENworks | 11.3 | ||
| ZENworks | 2017 | Dec 2016 | Integration of Mobile Management |
| ZENworks | 2017 Update 1 | 11 jul 2017 | |
| ZENworks | 2017 Update 2 | 24 Jan 2018 | |
| ZENworks | 2017 Update 3 | 16 Aug 2018 | |
| ZENworks | 2017 Update 4 | Jan 2019 |
Elements of the ZENworks Suite
In the latest version of ZENworks Known as ZENworks 2017 the ZENworks Suite consists of seven individual products:Additionally, Novell offers an ITIL version of "Novell Service Desk". This version is ITIL certified by PinkVERIFY and supports ten ITIL v3 processes. E.g. Change, Incident, Problem and Service Level Management.
Customers can buy the whole suite or choose between individual elements.
Initial development
Kevin Hopton, a corporate systems engineer at Novell, first conceived of the software which later became NAL in 1993. He with the Product Manager, Ron Tanner, are responsible for much of the creation of the program. The original concept involved using the Novell Directory Services directory as a namespace and storage engine. NDS, in concert with a client console program, would perform just-in-time application-configuration. The directory namespace - global, unambiguous and outside the influence of end users - provided a highly reliable mechanism for ensuring that expert staff could define the methods invoked for launching an application.The prototype consisted of a demonstration app named "Magic Windows" due to the automatic correction of configuration errors after the double-click and before the launch. Kevin Hopton, the primary architect and developer of Magic Windows, received important assistance from JD Marymee in the writing of AppWare objects that enabled directory access. Hopton produced a second version, written in Delphi and with UI assistance from Eric Burkholder. That version added representation for users and several other object classes.
Once the demonstration application proved a hit with customers, Novell's software-engineering organization took over the code and rewrote it from scratch in C. Key engineers and architects for this official version included Damon Janis, Kelly Sonderegger, Matt Brooks and Calvin Gaisford. Ron Tanner was brought over to continue to oversee the project, and Sandy Marymee handled marketing. The network-administrator community responded favorably to NAL, and its use and adoption quickly grew.
From this point forward, ZENworks became one of the most profitable products for Novell. Ron Tanner continued to push the project to higher standards, eventually becoming Director of Engineering, overseeing the development of ZENworks until his departure in 2007.
The success of NAL led to a desire to expand its functionality. Notably, Kent Prows lobbied for adding software-distribution capabilities, Samm DiStasio came up with the name "ZENworks" with Allen Tietjen driving the bundle.
The "Novell Application Launcher" service and executable program-names with the.nal file extension persist within ZENworks.
Novell later wrote a version that diversified the managed object class to include users. That solution, "UserNet", appeared at the Novell Brainshare conference in 1994.
Kelly Sonderegger had done prior work relating to NDS as a shared Windows registry; that work significantly influenced the design of the official versions of NAL and ZENworks.
Implementation
- The ZENworks Agent installs, updates and removes software.
- ZENworks Configuration Management addresses patching, endpoint security, asset management and provisioning.