Agent Architecture; Agent Communication; B.1.3 Agent Architecture; B.1.4 Agent Communication - Novell ZENWORKS 10 CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT SP3 - SYSTEM PLANNING-DEPLOYMENT-BEST PRACTICES GUIDE 10.3 30-03-2010 System Planning Manual

B.1.3 Agent Architecture

The ZENworks Adaptive Agent consists of the following components:
"Primary Agent" on page 105
"Core Plug-Ins" on page 105
"Feature-Specific Plug-Ins" on page 105
"Policy Enforcers" on page 105
Primary Agent
The primary agent is responsible for maintaining connectivity to the ZENworks Primary Servers
and listening for requests from the server. This component is implemented as a Windows service and
is started at system startup time.
Core Plug-Ins
A core set of plug-ins provides common services required by most features. These plug-ins include
the trigger and event scheduling system (TESS) components, caching components, components to
implement features such as system shutdown and reboot.
Feature-Specific Plug-Ins
Other features are also implemented by plug-ins to the ZENworks Adaptive Agent. These plug-ins
include the Bundle plug-in, Policy plug-in, Inventory plug-in, Remote Management plug-in, and
Patch Management plug-in. These plug-ins leverage the core plug-ins and the primary agent to
retrieve information from the Primary Server. For instance, the Bundle plug-in is responsible for
installing of Windows, File, and Directive bundles.
Policy Enforcers
The Policy plug-in is also divided into multiple components. These components are the Policy
Manager, which identifies the effective policies, and the Policy Enforcers, which are platform-
specific components that understand how to implement policies.
During Adaptive Agent installation, all the components are installed on the managed device and are
activated as needed.

B.1.4 Agent Communication

The communication between the ZENworks Adaptive Agent and the ZENworks Primary Server is
generally implemented as a standard Web session. Unlike previous versions of ZENworks, the
Adaptive Agent does not maintain a session with the Primary Server. Instead, it makes an HTTPS
request, receives information it needs, and then disconnects from the Server. The Adaptive Agent
also includes an HTTPS listener that is implemented on TCP port 2544. The purpose of this listener
is to allow a Primary Server to initiate partial or full refreshes remotely. The result of a refresh is the
immediate initiation of task on the device.
The following graphic depicts the ZENworks Adaptive Agent architecture and how the Server and
Agent pieces interact with each other:
The ZENworks Configuration Management Architecture 105