Support for ZENworks Patch Management running in a Virtual Environment.

  • 3533637
  • 29-May-2007
  • 30-Apr-2012

Environment

Novell ZENworks Patch Management - Powered by PatchLink
VMware Workstation
VMware Server
VMware ESX Server 3
VMware ACE
Microsoft Virtual PC 2007
Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2
SUSE Linux Enterprise 10: Xen Virtualization

Situation

Install never completes, or hangs.
Server will not replicate and obtain packages.
Problems with deployments to agents
Novell Diagnostic Utility shows everything in red.

During prospect evaluation, Novell ZENworks Patch Management product can be installed on virtual guest Images running on the following virtualization software:
  • VMware Workstation
  • VMware Server
  • VMware ESX Server 3
  • VMware ACE
  • Microsoft Virtual PC 2007
  • Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2

Resolution

Support Policy

Novell Support will provide reasonable best effort troubleshooting problem for Novell ZENworks Patch Management used in most current releases of virtualization software.

This support includes both lab and evaluation environments. Support personnel will provide a best effort to assist the customer in troubleshooting the problem and will work to identify necessary configuration changes, a viable workaround, and/or initiate a product change request.

If support personnel determines the problem is with underlying virtualization software, they will recommend you contact the virtualization software vendor for the recommended solution. If the virtualization software vendor determines the problem is with our software, Novell Support will reserve the right to require the problem be reproduce using a bare-metal system for further analysis.

Additional Information

The Virtual Guest images must meet minimum hardware requirements during evaluation period. After the evaluation period is over, if customers wish to install Novell ZENworks Patch Management on virtual software on a production network, the following constraints must be considered:

ZPM Update
  • Disk IO – Virtual software can degrade performance during large deployments with the ZPM Update Server. Since ZPM Update Server’s performance is dependant on disk performance, using virtual software can delay your deployment schedule and impact your maintenance windows. It is recommended that virtual Administrators capture performance results or benchmark performance before relying on virtual software in production environments.
  • System Requirements – Review Users Guide

ZPM Scan
  • Disk IO – Virtual software can degrade performance during large network discovery and scan jobs with the Scan Server. Since Scan Server’s performance is dependant on disk performance, using virtual software can delay your scan windows and could increase your scan time. It is recommended that virtual server administrators capture performance results or benchmark performance before relying on virtual software in production environments.
  • System Requirements – Review Users Guide  (Patch Management Administration Guide - v6.4 SP2)

Change Log

08-Feb-10  tgordon  removed all information about non-support of ZPM in virtual environments. Updated to make Lumensions support policy of ZPM on Virtual Environments.