Novell Application Launcher: Application Associations and Timed Refresh
Articles and Tips: qna
01 Sep 2000
Q.
Dear Ab-end: I have read TID #10052053 ("Checklist for the Workstation Lights-Out Distribution") and TID #10018967 ("What Conditions Must Exist to Get the ZENworks Pre-Install Feature to Work") in regards to the Novell Application Launcher (NAL) feature of ZENworks for Desktops. According to these documents, the Workstation object must have an authenticated connection to the server. Also, after setting up the Pre-Install configuration, workstations must refresh NAL at least once before logging out.
I have two questions. First, if you're doing a lights-out distribution, the user will most likely be logged out, and the connection will be regarded as non-authenticated. How then can the workstation have an authenticated connection to a NetWare server? Second, why does the workstation need to refresh NAL at least once?
-- Refreshing in Bradford
A.
Dear Refreshing: To answer your questions, we need to go over some background information on how the whole NAL thing works. It is helpful to understand that there are two separate NAL processes, one for the workstation and one for the user. When a workstation is booted up, the Workstation Helper comes up first and reads the list of applications associated with that workstation. When the user logs in (a few minutes later), the NAL Explorer reads the user-associated applications and displays them.
The only time these two processes run together is when a manual refresh is performed (when the user presses the <F5> key). During a manual refresh, both operations commence at the same time. As soon as the user refresh is complete, NAL asks the workstation for its list of applications and displays them. If the NDS workstation scan has not completed at this point, NAL will use what was previously held in memory. Therefore, in some instances it may be necessary to perform two manual refreshes to get a complete updated list of all the applications that are associated with the user and the workstation. The NAL refresh rate is set under the Launcher Configuration tab at the user, workstation, or container level.
In order for a lights-out distribution to work, the following actions must be performed on the Application object:
Associate the object with the desired User, Group, OU, Workstation, or Workstation Group.
Increment or change the version stamp.
Under Pre-Install, set a schedule for the future time when the application should be distributed.
Under Associations, do not select Force Run. Otherwise, the schedule you just set in Pre-Install will be disregarded.
If you want the distribution to occur without the user having to be logged in, the Application object must be associated with the workstation (this includes Workstation Groups and OUs), not the user.
If you want the Pre-Install schedule to be read after the user logs out, the Workstation Refresh must be enabled.
To illustrate, suppose a user logs out from a computer on which Workstation Refresh is not enabled. The network administrator then decides to schedule a Pre-Install for that evening. The distribution will not happen because the workstation hasn't read the schedule information from NDS. If the administrator schedules the Pre-Install for next week, the distribution is likely to occur even without Workstation Refresh enabled because at some time during that time period, the workstation is likely to be restarted, which automatically triggers a refresh. (In the event that an application is associated with the user, this same scenario applies in regards to configuring User Refresh to "automate" the reading of NDS for Pre-Install schedules.)
It is helpful to keep in mind the difference between the Scheduler and the Pre-Install processes. The Scheduler is used to control when an application is available to the user. For example, you would use the Scheduler to ensure that a Payroll application is only available from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Pre-Install is used to determine when to distribute files, registration settings, and other settings from the AOT. This allows the "availability" schedule to be separate from a distribution schedule. (Answer provided by Dan Rusek of Novell)
* Originally published in Novell AppNotes
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