ZENWORKS SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!
Frust...@helpme.please
with 6 different images and none of them will
take an image. I have Windows 2000 and have
tried imaging it out of the box and with SP2 with
no results. Also I have tried with ZENworks out
of the box and ZENworks with SP1. Before I
installed ZEN SP1, everytime I would image a PC
and reboot it, it would just sit with a blinking
cursor. (The HD wasn't being marked as bootable
b/c I could boot to a floppy just fine.) Now
that I am using SP1, the imaging process won't
even begin; it just sits there and says "no
description available." I have searched the
knowledge base extensively and have the Official
Novell ZENworks for Desktops 3 book and it offers
NO HELP WHATSOEVER. If any Novell support people
read this, please respond.
Jim Michael
"sucks" isn't the word I would use, even though it *does* have some obvious
rough edges, being a 1.0 product.
Are you running the 1.1 version of imaging? Have you installed the updated
imaging proxy nlm?
--
Jim Michael
Novell Support Connection Sysop
Frust...@helpme.please
base images. (See your post in this forum from
yesterday) My company spent alot of money on
ZENworks hoping that it would be a useful tool
and greatly increase our effectiveness as an IT
department. However, it has done nothing but
cause headaches. Windows 2000 is a popular OS
and NTFS is nothing new. My question is, how
long does it take to get your act together? I am
currently corresponding with other disgruntled
Novell customers by email and they all agree with
me: Novell makes an excellent product when it
works, but offer abyssmal support when it does
not. I cannot get a single image to take on any
PC in my company. An imaging application is
supposed to be a tool that facilitates rapid
deployment and repair of operating systems
throughout a company. ZENworks fails miserably.
I understand that this is just a 1.0 release, but
my advice to your comapny is this: If you can't
get it right, don't release it. Now I say all of
this partly to vent my frustration because I
wasted a week on this thing, but also to to get
the Novell team a little fired up. PROVE ME
WRONG! What I would love to see is a patch or a
manual that actually addresses the issues I see
everyday in the forum. That would renew my hope
in Novell.
Jeremy Winder
entire suit of tools. And the problems I have had were all fixed after a
phone call to Novell's support today. If you have invested a good deal of
money and time into the product, it may be worth the $150 (I'm assuming you
are a CNE or know someone who can call on your behalf) for the support call.
Just my two bits.
Jeremy Winder
<Frust...@HelpMe.Please> wrote in message
news:cv9Y6.889$La....@prv-forum3.provo.novell.com...
Happy Zen User
issues with Zen 3 we got it to work just fine with win2k sp2 and NTFS. Our
images are not base images that just have the OS installed. We have
everything installed that will be used at the workstation. Our image is
over 1.5 gig and we have no problems with drives over 8 gig. We to have
bought the zenworks for desktops 3 book and find it a very good tool. With
this book and the information provided on the forum and the knowledge base
we have gotten every component of zenworks 3 working. I think only a fool
would bash the support Novell gives on its products. I would like to see
you get the same kind of support from Microsoft.
<Frust...@HelpMe.Please> wrote in message
news:UH8Y6.857$La....@prv-forum3.provo.novell.com...
Youneed...@microsoft.com
ever heard of Sysprep?
Linux@1.2
write "img a" at the promt.
If this works, edit (with pico)
the "settings.txt" in /bin to run it 2 times.
Or try to get img ver n.1.q .
MANNES Christophe
I think you problem is to try to implement this to fast.
I only read on-line documentation and then plan my network and now it works
fine, only a few little minors problems, but this is a GREAT tool. I sure
Mickey-Soft can't do a app like this, that's to high for they.
Sure there are a few errors left on the first release, but do you know how
many errors Window's had and have on the new releases???
Paul Glenn
with Zenworks for about 6 months and it works just fine. In fact, I'm
planning on doing about 900 machines for this fall semester with Zen's
imaging. I've gotten the base image and add-on images working with
Dell's and even IBM's.
christoph...@assurant.com
> would bash the support Novell gives on its
products.
Ok, I take issue with this statement... we have
repeatedly received the wrong answers to our
design and support questions posed to our Novell
Reps and support contacts. These
errored recommendations were only discovered when
we discussed the issues with Martin Buckley and R
Krishnan at the SLC Brainshare convention.
Brainshare completely changed our
understanding of what ZFD3 is and how it
really works. Since then I have gathered a few
issues with the imaging product that make it
completely useless for us. This is the problem and
the solution offered by our Premium support...
PROBLEM REPORTED
*****************************************
I have several questions and issues regarding the
imaging functionality of zfd3 using w2k and NTFS
partitions:
1. "img dg" shows that the capacity of
dev/hda is 14324 (14GB) however, I cannot make a
partition larger than 5485. "img pc1 NTFS" yields
a partition of 5485 and attemps to specify a
larger partition yields a message that there is
not enough space to make a partition of that size.
3. Created a base image of w2k on NTFS by
downloading a ghost image to a pc and then using
zen imaging floppies to create a zen .zmg image on
the server. Downloading this base image works
fine.
A: If I download a base image to a
wortkstation, make changes, upload that image to
the server, run zisclear and then try to reimage
the workstation using the new image, the process
is halted at 50% completion. No error message,
completely locked requiring reboot.
B: In an attempt to fix this I executed
"img pd1" to delete the partition. When the
autoimg process runs on the workstation I get an
error that there is no valid partition to accept
the image. Shouldn't the imaging program be able
to create the partition as part of the imaging
process?
C: In an attempt to fix this I executed
"img pc1 NTFS" to create a partition for the
image. When the autoimg process runs on the
workstation I get an error at about 75% completion
that NTFS compression cluster size is mismatched.
D: In an attempt to fix this I deleted the
partition and recreated it by executing "img pc1
NTFS c1" to create a partition for the image. When
the autoimg process appears to complete on the
workstation I get an error "Proxy did not send
configuration information (IP address)" the image
appears to have been successfully put down on the
workstation but the image safe data does not get
updated with the last image restored information.
This causes the workstation to begin another image
download the next time it boots. The workstation
gets stuck in this loop.
4. A: If I use imgexp.exe to add a file to a
zfd3 image of a Windows 2000 machine, the date and
time properties of the file are not correctly
copied into the image. The the month, day and time
change to an unrelated date and time in the year
1992 or 1990. It looks like it might be a y2k
issue. Imgexp only displays 2 characters for the
year.
B: When the image is brought down to a
machine the date and time properties of the file
shown in Windows 2000 are the incorrect date and
time that were seen in imgexp.
C: When I reopen this image in imgexp.exe,
sometimes I cannot see files that would normally
be displayed after the file that IO added (which
has a bogus date). If I add a file called
test.txt, save and re-open the image, I can only
see files a thru test.txt. Files that would be
listed after this file are not displayed. If I am
able to download the image to a machine, the files
after test.txt are copied so they are still there,
they just don't display in imgexp.exe. This seems
to happen if I add two files that would be
displyed one after the other.
D: Sometimes downloading an image that has
been modified with imgexp.exe will fail when it
gets to the file that was added.
"SOLUTION" OFFERED
*********************
Chris,
Currently, there are not any solutions to those
questions/issues.
I am having other people look at this to see if
they have seen this or have suggestions for us.
I will have some more follow up tomorrow
(Tuesday).
***************************
Tuesday 6/12 came and went without a word from
them. Some of these issues were reported 2 months
ago.
Several times I have tried to get support field
patches from our premium support that were
discussed on this forum only to get an email back
stating that the patch doesn't exist or isn't out
yet. So I end up having someone from the forum
send the patch to me.
I am really happy that you've got everything
working in your environment the way that you need
it to work. Unfortunately, judging from what I
have seen on the forum and experienced first hand,
there are a decent number of people that are
having a lot of the same problems - and not too
many solutions.
Chris Reichle
Patrick Farrell
limited basis. Just curious as I'm new to it, how do you handle diffent
machine configs.
I.E. If you have several systems with intel 815 chipsets and serveral with
440bx chipsets, and some have tnt2 based cards, or geforce, or ati video?
Do you have images for every combination or does someone go around and fix
the drivers afterwards or is there some way to handle this on the
deployment?
Patrick
Happy Zen User
working correctly just as I am sure there are companies that can't get SMS
working. The issue in my opinion is people don't spend enough time with a
product before they give up and get pissed at it. So many people think that
installing a network application is just as simple as clicking a button to
install it. There is a reason why network administrators make more money
then the people who sit at the help desk and answer the phone to help a user
get their mouse working again. Have you ever sat down to think that maybe
some of your issues have nothing to do with zenworks at all? We had a
problem with imaging just stopping and it turned out that the network card
in our imaging server was faulty in some way. It had all the proper duplex
settings etc.. but once we swapped it out everything started to work with no
imaging stops. I think as a network technician you need to stop and think,
is this a server problem, hardware problem, switch/hub problem, or a
zenworks problem and not just blame novell and there zenworks product.
You also have to look at this is a 1.0 release of this software, so a lot of
the errors you are getting your service partners may not know how to fix
because this product is new to them as well. I have read issues in this
forum where people say that novell shouldn't have released this because of
all the errors, but if you think about it most products that are brand new
have bugs like this. A beta program only reaches so many people, so only a
select few of the bugs can get fixed. Now that this product has been out
and more people are using it more bugs can be found and fixed so that
version 2 can be 100% better then version 1. By buying this product you
should have realized that this being a version 1.0 product that there would
be issues with it. I am sure Ghost had lots of problems when it was only at
version 1.0, and look where is it today.
In regards to your comment about all the people in this forum that are
having these problems. I would have to say yes, there are a good deal of
people reporting problems but isn't that what the forum is for is to get
help with problems? I would expect to see lots problems posted on the
forum.. and to tell you the truth I think its good that many people report
the same problems instead of new ones, this could be a sign that new
problems are not getting discovered because there are no more. You also
need to realize that the people on this forum do not represent the number of
people using the product and having success with it. I am sure that there
are many organizations like ours that have the product working and are happy
with it but don't represent themselves on the forum.
I hope that you get your imaging working, because once it is working you
will realize how good of a product it really is. I really wish that I could
help you with your problems but like your premium support we have not seen
the issues that you have. Our drives are all over 15 gig and we have no
partitioning problems. The only advise I can give is check the nic in the
server, that stopped our imaging from stopping in the middle of a image.
Good Luck,
- Happy Zen User
<christoph...@assurant.com> wrote in message
news:%HqY6.62$Xg....@prv-forum3.provo.novell.com...
MANNES Christophe
I made it like this:
A base image with the OS with mainboard drivers and network drivers. Then
with add-on images push down the graphic drivers, sound drivers and so on...
Paul Glenn
everything, but ZFD3 is so much better than 2. I can't wait until the fall
semester starts so I can use it in my student labs. The only problems we're
having on it is getting the DMI info to import into the inventory database,
but that's a whole separate forum now isn't it :)
ar...@fujiamerica.com
work and TIME, we gave up and went out and bought
Ghost 7.0. We are very pleased with the Ghost
software. We are using ZEN for applications,
inventory and remote control with no problems.
I'm hoping that Novell will fix the imaging
software so we can use only one product.
Paul Glenn
You can create images for them and just associate them with the correct
machine. You can create an image and set rules for it. Say you want an
image pushed down to the machines that have gforce video cards but not for
the ati cards, you can do that.
Paul
"Patrick Farrell" <p...@packereng.com> wrote in message
news:3B32C15C...@packereng.com...
christoph...@assurant.com
don't spend enough time with a
> product before they give up and get pissed at
it. So many people think that
> installing a network application is just as
simple as clicking a button to
> install it. There is a reason why network
administrators make more money
> then the people who sit at the help desk and
answer the phone to help a user
> get their mouse working again. Have you ever
sat down to think that maybe
> some of your issues have nothing to do with
zenworks at all?
We have spent a lot of time/monely on it... sent
people to Brainshare to get zfd3 answers and meet
the developers. In fact, we have had a team of
people evaluating the 3 product for many months.
We have been using 2 at several locations and were
attempting to upgrade to 3 at those locations and
install fresh 3 at others. Most of the problems
that we have had are confirmed bugs in the product
(that worked in 2). In the test environment I can
apply the beta patches and fix some of those
issues to continue testing but I can't roll this
into production with anything beta. I would need
to get all sorts of releases regarding liability
etc. It would not be that bad if the new features
did not work that well but it appears that in
order to add those features, much of the core
product was rewritten and things that worked fine
in 2 are now broken in 3. We USE this product.
People that throw it in and only use some of it or
don't really look at what it is doing or how it is
working don't see problems. Ignorance is bliss
> You also have to look at this is a 1.0 release
of this software,
Last time I looked the rev was 3.0 not 1.0. Even
SP1 does not cut it. Normally, beta and field test
patches are not thrown into a production
environment but look at what is happening. Every
time a fix comes out people are scrambling to get
it so that they can fix their production
environment because the problems they are having
are somewhat severe or impact their business.
> version 2 can be 100% better then version 1. By
buying this product you
> should have realized that this being a version
1.0 product that there would
> be issues with it.
That sounds like an MS excuse
>and to tell you the truth I think its
>good that many people report
> the same problems instead of new ones, this
could be a sign that new
> problems are not getting discovered because
there are no more.
Or that their stuck and can't move forward
It looks like our primary business needs for
upgrading to 3 imaging, inventory and remote
control will not be included in the initial roll
out because they just have too many problems.
Right now were just trying to get through the
"up"grade without loosing the basic app and policy
distribution that stabilility that we count on
with zfd2.
BTW, keep in mind, I wasn't the one that started
the ZENWORKS SUCKS!!!!!!!!!! topic. I was just
adding/venting my issues.
Chris Reichle
christoph...@assurant.com
you have so many choices.
> You can create images for them and just
associate them with the correct
> machine. You can create an image and set rules
for it. Say you want an
> image pushed down to the machines that have
gforce video cards but not for
> the ati cards, you can do that.
Have you actually done it? What type of hardware
are you using. What version of imaging and
patches. I had the following hardware discovery
info on a compaq deskpro p800. Video, sound card,
nic, and ipare missing or misreported using the
1.1 imaging.
workstation information
Chipset - GenuineIntel Pentium III
(Coppermine) 798 MHz
Video - Intel Unknown device (rev 2)
Network - Intel Unknown device (rev 1)
soundcard - No sound card detected
scsi - IDE
hard drive size in mb - 7552
ram in MB - 123
mac address - 00:02:a5:57:50:bf
ip address - 0.0.0.0
Chris Reichle
christoph...@assurant.com
we work closely with Compaq to limit the
variability in our hardware. Typically an
image will be created for a model family that
requires specific video and nic but that image
will work on future releases of the model with
faster processors. When a new model comes out to
support a faster architecture we evaluate it and
if it is worth it, start buying them and
supporting a new image.
We have a base install that we sysprep and use
different sysprep.inf to install different
drivers. So basically the install source is the
same but we use different configuration script to
create a build of the OS for the model. That build
is then made into an image because it is faster to
push an image then to run an install. Thois was
our pocess with ghost but will apply to zfd3.
Zen imaging has the capability to determine the
hardware and follow an imaging rule to apply a
specific image to a specific machine type based
on hardware. So we identify a particular model by
the combination of processor and video, sound card
or nic and then make a rule to push that model's
image when it sees that hardware. If you do an img
i h I believe, you will see what the imaging
software will detect for the hardware.
Unfortunately, the only thing that it detects for
us is the processor and amount of memory which are
not enough to determine the model. The video and
nic and sound card report as follows:
workstation information
Chipset - GenuineIntel Pentium III
(Coppermine) 798 MHz
Video - Intel Unknown device (rev 2)
Network - Intel Unknown device (rev 1)
soundcard - No sound card detected
scsi - IDE
hard drive size in mb - 7552
ram in MB - 123
mac address - 00:02:a5:57:50:bf
ip address - 0.0.0.0
I have been told that this will be fixed in
firestarter. You may not have this problem. It may
just happen with compaq deskpro hardware or
occur under the rainy cloud that seems to follow
me. I have not tested the lated img update which
was released this week. Perhaps it is fixed now.
There is also a product called PXE guard by wnf
consulting that can execute scripts (ghost
imaging) based upon hardware configuration in the
pxe environment. It also has a utility for wol and
it integrates with zfd3. I'm waiting to see how
firestarter pxe functions since I would prefer to
use one product.
Chris Reichle
Happy Zen User
> of this software,
>
> Last time I looked the rev was 3.0 not 1.0. Even
> SP1 does not cut it. Normally, beta and field test
> patches are not thrown into a production
> environment but look at what is happening. Every
> time a fix comes out people are scrambling to get
> it so that they can fix their production
> environment because the problems they are having
> are somewhat severe or impact their business.
>
When I said version 1.0, I didn't mean zenworks.. I meant the imaging part
of zenworks, one would think you could figure that out.
Seifert Werner
Novell is at the moment working on a better Hardware Detection of the Linux Kernel (i am part of the Beta Testing Group outside of Novell for Firestarter). The Hardware Detection should work fine with ZEN 3.2.
Regards
Werner Seifert
MCNE, CNI
Informatikbuero OEG
>>> <christoph...@assurant.com> 06/22 7:03 >>>
René Kemp
<christop...@internet.lu> wrote:
>fine, only a few little minors problems, but this is a GREAT tool. I sure
>Mickey-Soft can't do a app like this, that's to high for they.
Welllll, I've seen RIS from microsoft and that was very cool! I liked
it much much more than ZEN's imaging.
The nice thing about it is that it's hardware independed, and you can
create a complete 'apllication/configuration' image that will work on
all computers even with different hardware.
René
--
Schiphol Group, Netherlands
Paul Glenn
We have both Dell's and IBM's. We get them on 3 year leases so we have
several different types of hardware. Currently we are using Linux imaging
1.1 and we have ZFDSP3 on the server.
And yes, I've done it and it seems to work fine for us right now.
<christoph...@assurant.com> wrote in message
news:8MKY6.882$Xg....@prv-forum3.provo.novell.com...
Martin Stepanek
stuff in the chat forum and get rating!!
Edmund Haworth
And it still dosn't work? v1 is meant to be stable, and functional by most
people's viewpoint, especially from the open source communities, then again,
we've applied about 5 differant beta patches to our netware servers just to
get it nearing a stable point.
but yeah, chat forum.
"Martin Stepanek" <mar...@town.collingwood.on.ca> wrote in message
news:3c0d581a...@support-forums.novell.com...
Nick Ciesinski
"Edmund Haworth" <ehaw...@wortech.ac.uk> wrote in message
news:7kpP7.259$O54...@prv-forum2.provo.novell.com...
Jim Michael
>
> Works fine for us... over 300 machines.
Ditto.
news.novell.com
On a very general note, I have notice the bug level in Novel's products
increasing over the last couple of years. On the other hand, they seem to
be releasing new products and versions very rapidly. I.E. their finally
playing the game by a set of rules that they might be able to win with ...
or at least survive.
OK ... I'm using Zen 3.2 on over 500 machines. Everything but imaging is
working great. I fought with Zen 3.0 imaging and finally gave up on it. It
just wouldn't work. Images we unusable, more often than they were. I spent
a few weeks applying every patch I could find, reading, and testing. Zen
3.2's imaging is a huge improvement, but is still giving me headaches. I
haven't pronounced that it sucks, but am close.
On the other hand, ZenWorks as a whole, is far from sucking ... it RULES!
"Nick Ciesinski" <ciesin...@mail.uww.edu> wrote in message
news:YpyP7.1$yA4...@prv-forum2.provo.novell.com...