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Overview
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Novell Support Advisor is a free tool that allows customers to perform both pro-active and reactive
system and application diagnostic tasks in a local, secure and automated fashion for SUSE Linux
Enterprise, ZENworks Configuration Management and GroupWise systems.
Novell Support Advisor is an easily installed client that can be downloaded directly from
support.novell.com/advisor. The client is installed on a system that can communicate with both the
servers in customer's local environment and the update server at Novell. The client prompts the
customer to download newly released Novell Support Diagnostic Patterns (SDPs) authored by
Novell technical experts from the Novell update server. Novell SDPs identify new problems and
return possible solutions to the customer.
The Novell Support Advisor diagnosis occurs securely and locally, and does not require sending log
information to Novell for analysis. When the data is gathered for a health check, some load occurs
over a Secure Shell connection to the queried device, but once the data is collected, the connection is
terminated so network and device load is minimized. The gathered data is then consolidated into a
dashboard view that shows critical patterns in red, and good patterns in green, identifying what
segments in which systems need attention.
This tool also builds an Analysis Archive Database, or tar ball archive, that preserves a history of
health checks that have been run and the problems that have been addressed, allowing customers to
see trends and changes over time. A dashboard using the same color-coding scheme, a simple red =
critical and green = good makes the information readily accessible.
Novell Support Advisor can be used reactively when a problem occurs, and also proactively to run
"health checks" to prevent potential future issues.
If a problem is discovered where further help is needed, a service request connection to the Novell
Customer Center through the client interface can be opened via Novell Support.
1.1 System Requirements
1.1.1 Novell Support Advisor can be installed and run from:
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 or later
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 or later
OpenSUSE 10.3 or later
Microsoft Windows XP SP2 or later
Microsoft Windows Vista
Microsoft Windows Server 2003
1.1.2 Client System Requirements
Intel Pentium III GHz or faster processor
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Overview
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