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Case Study
Logistics Company makes all the right moves by deploying Centralis AXE
Covers Centralis AXE, NDS eDirectory, ZENworks for Desktops, NetWare, Citrix MetaFrame. NYK Logistics are a Warehouse, Logistics and Distribution Management company.
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Centralis AXE
Centralis offers Citrix® integration solutions based on NDS® eDirectory™, NetWare® and ZENworks™ which improve the flexibility and quality of network services offered by I.S. to business. In addition, the Centralis team provides consultancy, design services and support to some of the UK's largest Citrix and Novell® network customers. Centralis AXE has been designed to simplify and accelerate the use of Novell’s ZENworks for Desktops to manage PC and Citrix MetaFrame™/Terminal Server environments.
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Centralis AXE addresses a much needed requirement for our MetaFrame implementation which is not part of Novell ZENworks for Desktops and its snAppShot tools. |
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Simon Salloway, PC Support Manager, NYK Logistics |
The Customer
Leading UK manufacturers and retailers in a wide range of markets choose Centralis’ customer NYK Logistics because of their solid track record in providing responsive supply-chain operations. The customer operates from 15 UK locations, with 600+ employees, 900,000 square feet of warehousing, and more than 450 trucks and trailers.
Challenge
In mid-1999, NYK Logistics Ltd. embarked on a project to implement a Citrix MetaFrame solution throughout the business. "The first task was to identify a partner who had proven experience in delivering this technology," said Simon Salloway, PC Support Manager for NYK Logistics. "After an extensive review, NYK selected Centralis as the strategic partner. As a member of the Citrix Business Alliance at Premier level, and as a Citrix Consulting Service Provider and Novell Solutions Partner, Centralis had extensive experience in implementing business solutions, and with Novell’s NetWare platform, NDS eDirectory, and IBM AS/400—all of which are critical elements of the NYK infrastructure."
The system is based on NDS eDirectory and MetaFrame, managing users via the directory, and separating the user and application from the access device. For managing applications across the MetaFrame server farm, Centralis and NYK chose ZENworks for Desktops for snapshotting, distributing and supporting applications.
Following a 2-month pilot, NYK rolled out Citrix MetaFrame across the business, eliminating five regional LANs, centralizing network management and greatly lowering total cost of network ownership. Yet, there was one remaining opportunity to enhance the success of the deployment, and Centralis developers provided the Novell Partner solution for ZENworks for Desktops.
Novell and Partner Solution
In ZENworks for Desktops, many operations are standard and can be applied to a number of snAppShots. However, applying these standards to every snAppShot is a time-consuming task. Variables, file names, directory paths and settings in Windows applications such as MS Office 2000 and IE5.5, make turning snAppShots into application objects both complex and time consuming for administrators.
For example, ZENworks for Desktops snAppShot captures the entire application install. To be truly effective in thin-client environments, the snapshot has to have any unnecessary entries and settings removed, and the remaining entries split into separate objects for the files and registry settings for users and workstations. Most snAppShots require manual editing of settings such as user name and drive mappings before they can be made into application objects. In addition, snAppShots contain temporary files, system and user information not related to the application, which could cause problems if installed. These "redundant" entries are removed from the snAppShot and stored for reference.
"Centralis AXE does this and more, which saves NYK hours of work in creating new application objects," says Salloway. "Centralis AXE rules split ZENworks snAppShots into separate user, workstation objects, allowing administrators to install 95% of the application once, to be shared by the users. Centralis AXE allows most snAppShots to be turned into applications objects without further editing. Centralis AXE allows NYK administrators to create, edit and store rules to automate tedious manual changes, including those to separate an application snapshot into workstation, and user portions. By creating a workstation portion, it allows the pre-install of the application for multiple users, and by creating a user portion, it enables faster deployment and verification."
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Centralis identified a need and delivered a working solution, which I am sure many companies and administrators will find invaluable when implementing Novell-managed Citrix MetaFrame solutions. |
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Simon Salloway, PC Support Manager, NYK Logistics |
The Result
By extending the functionality of ZENworks, Centralis helps provide NYK Logistics with a secure, manageable network with reliable distributed applications and tight security managed by NDS eDirectory. "For NYK administrators, the product’s rules-based editing features mean faster, more accurate script creation that minimizes the snapshot size by reliably eliminating unnecessary registry entries and files," said Salloway. "For example, Centralis AXE contains rules to identify which files and settings are user specific and automatically set as Track Distribution per User. Centralis AXE can automatically insert variables and other settings into a variety of client environment settings, including drive letters and application directories. In addition, Centralis AXE scans files for version information, and can apply a 'set copy if newer version' flag to each file containing version information."
ZENworks for Desktops administrators have unique knowledge of the environments in which they work. Centralis AXE provides a means of storing, applying and sharing that knowledge. "Centralis AXE speeds up and simplifies the process," observes Salloway. "Centralis AXE addresses a much needed requirement for our MetaFrame implementation which is not part of Novell ZENworks for Desktops and its snAppShot tools. Centralis identified a need and delivered a working solution, which I am sure many companies and administrators will find invaluable when implementing Novell-managed Citrix MetaFrame solutions."
The last word goes to Tony Doran, IT Director at NYK Logistics, who added "Centralis has brought together these two technologies to create a first class solution. When we moved our users from Office 95 to Office 97 we had to visit every PC", says Doran. "Now we are moving to Office 2000 by deploying a ZENworks snapshot to the MetaFrame server farm – that’s the big difference. We really have improved our capacity to manage the network and improve the service we deliver to our users."
Centralis AXE Development Directions
"The driver for Centralis to create software product is always to simplify complex processes, and overcome the problems our consultants and customers encounter in the field. Centralis AXE is a great example of a simple, practical solution – but there’s plenty of other areas we plan to tackle." says Ewen Anderson, Business Development Manager for Centralis. "Centralis works closely with Novell and often provides feedback about technical issues and support recommendations for enhancing Novell Net services software. When APIs for ZENworks are offered by Novell, I’m sure Centralis AXE will be among the first Novell partner products to leverage them, and the next logical step for Centralis AXE would be to manipulate objects directly in the NDS, rather than importing and exporting .AXT files. In the meantime," concludes Anderson "we are enhancing and porting our NWAdmin TCS snap-in to be ConsoleOne ready in time for BrainShare 2001."
For more information
Centralis AXE is available for download from the
Centralis Download Centre.
Customer Contact Information :
Simon Salloway
PC Support Manager
NYK Logistics Ltd.
Nottinghamshire
United Kingdom
www.ucilogistics.com