What's New in LANDesk^® Management Suite 9.0 Service Pack 3

Overview

Strengthen the Core Server

• Database support
• Platform enhancements
• Mac OS X patching
• Console: Customizable tool columns
• Web Console: Feature-specific teams

Software Management

• Provisioning
• Security
• Reporting
• Remote Control
• Software License Monitoring
• Software Distribution

Cloud Delivery

• Out-of-Network management
• Cloud Services Appliance

Database Support

LANDesk® Management Suite 9.0 service pack 3 supports the Oracle 11g R2 and SQL 2008R2 databases on the core server.

Platform Enhancements

LANDesk Management Suite 9.0 service pack 3 provides Nix device agent support for the following client platforms:

• CentOS 5 32-bit & 64-bit
• HP-UX 11.11 PA RISC 64-bit
• HP-UX 11.23 / 11.31 Itanium 64-bit
• SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 64-bit
• Red Hat Linux 6 (Agent Deployment, Inventory, SSH Remote Control, Vulscan, Threat Analyzer)
• Solaris 10 (SPARC 64-bit & x86 64-bit – note: requires update 8 or higher)

Within LANDesk Management Suite 9.0 service pack 3, we have added several enhancements for Apple Macintosh clients, including:

• Client agent support for OS X Lion 10.7
• Operating system patching leveraging Apple's System updates
• Local hosting of Apple updates on an OS X server in order to optimize bandwidth usage
• Patches that require a reboot initiate a "user lockout" that prevents end users from making adjustments to the system during patch installation
• Optimized vulnerability scanner
• Policy-based patch deployment and remediation
• Ability to patch machines with the user logged off; patch and reboot prompts
• A new LANDesk menu tray item has been created to launch common tasks such as the Software Portal, Vulnerability Scanner and Inventory Scanner

Provisioning

Within the LANDesk Management Suite 9.0 service pack 3 release, LANDesk has made significant improvements in several key areas including the following:

Reliability

• Log files retained on the target device
• Improved status reporting, result codes and scheduling
• WinPE 3.1 drivers are supported

Scalability

• Provisioning templates can target multiple devices simultaneously
• Preferred server can be specified in driver injection
• HII drivers are detected at runtime by PCI vendor / hardware ID

Usability

• Optimized driver library management now allows users to point to the share and import the appropriate drivers
• WAIK installation is no longer necessary
• Scripted installation action is supported

Security

LANDesk® Security Suite 9.0 service pack 3 delivers improved security features that make it much easier for system administrators to plan, execute, and track security-related tasks. These capabilities include:

• Up-to-date patch status information in the console dashboard views
• Recent Activity shows virus detection and remediation, blacklisted application action, attacks prevented by the LANDesk firewall
• Activity filters narrow the focus
• Severity ratings based on vendor-specific published reports
• Reduced impact on end users
• Improved situational awareness
• Download patches from the original vendor (configurable fall back to core server)
• Apply patches when the end user logs off
• Automated patch cleanup
• Supercedence management (remove superceded rules, disable replaced rules, faster scans)
• Faster time-to-action to resolve security exposures and ensure compliance

Reporting

Suite 9.0 service pack 3 also includes several useful enhancements for the reports tool:

• Dynamic sorting and filtering
• Custom reports default to landscape mode
• New reports such as remote control summaries, spyware reports and itemized security reports
• Report parameters can be saved with the report
• Tighter integration into role based administration to limit accessible reports for specific users

Remote Control

Remote Control enhancements with the LANDesk Management Suite 9.0 service pack 3 release let you select one or more specific monitors, and auto-resize to the remote viewer's screen resolution.

Software License Monitoring

LANDesk Management Suite 9.0 service pack 3 release delivers several enhanced features for Software License Monitoring (SLM):

• Software manufacturer normalization (editable)
• SLM discovery automatically discovers the MSI database, shortcuts, and custom Adobe rules (in addition to files that have run, and files in the LDAPPL3 file list)
• SLM discovery uses the product guide which is constant
• SLM utilizes two definitions to determine whether the product has been installed and if the product has been launched
• When a product has been removed, SLM displays a login prompt that shows which products have been removed/changed that might require reconfiguration

Software Distribution

LANDesk Management Suite 9.0 service pack 3 also includes several functionality improvements for software distribution:

• The LaunchPad offers an updated user interface with a faster refresh rate
• The software package installation timeout feature allows you to specify the timeframe for a package installation to fail
• User Account Control support adds an option that requires the user to enter administrator credentials if they are not currently using an administrator credential

With LANDesk Management Suite 9.0 service pack 3, software distribution provides:

• Ability to disable task queuing per package
• Export the return codes
• Perform offline installations
• Software packages to run as 64-bit applications for 64-bit Windows client machines

Out-of-Network Management

• LANDesk offers a new automated method of switching to Gateway Mode for managed devices
• In the past the end user had to manually switch the agent, but now when the device can't directly ping or resolve to the core server, it automatically switches over to Gateway Mode for Remote Control

Cloud Services Appliance

LANDesk Management Suite 9.0 service pack 3 also includes support for the new LANDesk Cloud Services Appliance (CSA) with a new hardware platform that supports third-party certificates.