Package And Content Management Overview - Novell ZENWORKS LINUX MANAGEMENT 7.2 IR2 - ADMINISTRATION GUIDE 09-25-2008 Administration Manual

Package and Content
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Management Overview
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Novell ZENworks Linux Management lets you install packages or files using either a bundle or a
catalog. Content included in a bundle that is directly assigned is considered mandatory; the software
or files are installed on all assigned devices. A catalog is a collection of RPM bundles or Dell
Update Package bundles; content included in a catalog is usually considered optional.
ZENworks Linux Management also provides content replication to replicate content (packages, Dell
Update Packages, bundles, and catalogs) from one server to other servers in your system.
The content replication feature in ZENworks Linux Management lets you replicate content from the
primary ZENworks server to secondary servers in a single ZENworks Management Zone.
The mirroring feature (zlmmirror, a command line utility) lets you replicate content between
Management Zones or from remote servers. You use mirroring to obtain Dell Update Packages
(DUPs) from the Dell FTP site or from a CD obtained from Dell, RCE services, and YOU patches.
You can use the ZENworks Control Center or the zlman command line utility to create and modify
packages, bundles, and catalogs. The procedures in this section explain how to perform these tasks
using the ZENworks Control Center. If you prefer the zlman command line utility, see
(page 547).
The following sections contain additional information:
Section 18.1, "Understanding RPM and File Bundles," on page 205
Section 18.2, "Understanding Catalogs," on page 205
Section 18.3, "Understanding Dell Update Package Bundles," on page 206
Section 18.4, "Understanding the zlman Utility," on page 206
Section 18.5, "Replicating Content in the ZENworks Management Zone," on page 206
Section 18.6, "Mirroring Software," on page 206
To distribute and install RPMs to managed devices, you need to ensure that all packages the RPMs
depend on, and all packages dependent on the RPM are also imported to the ZLM server. For
example, to distribute updates to the SLES 10 devices mirrored from updates.novell.com, you need
to ensure that all the packages from the SLES 10 media are imported to the ZLM server. You need
not assign the bundles or catalogs containing the dependent RPMs to the managed devices.
You can upload packages in bulk into the ZENworks server using a script. A sample script is as
follows. You can customize it according to your requirements.
#!/bin/bash
#
# Run this program from a directory filled with RPMS to load them into a bundle in
ZLM.
#

Package and Content Management Overview

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