Introducing ZENworks 24.2

by dvandenbos OpenText Employee

in Portfolio

When it comes to endpoint management, OpenText ZENworks can do just about anything an organization needs. From managing Windows, Mac, Linux, and mobile devices to securing devices against vulnerabilities, ZENworks provides organizations a way to manage their endpoints effectively and securely, whether they be corporate-owned or personal devices.

We are pleased to announce the release of ZENworks 24.2 (June 2024), which introduces the following:

Zero-touch enrollment of Samsung Android devices to help ease deployment and management
Enforcement of registration rules when enrolling a macOS device via MDM and support for the removal options if a macOS MDM device is lost
Centralized collection of logs from devices via a QuickTask in ZENworks Control Center
Seamless login of ZENworks Agent using Windows Hello for Business options such as PINs
Management of macOS Sonoma (14.x) devices, RHEL 9.3 devices, and OES 24.1 and 24.2 devices for added platform support
Various customer-requested enhancements, including specifying a destination folder when copying a bundle in ZENworks Control Center and using the name and version in the filename when exporting a bundle from ZENworks Control Center

Below are brief introductions to some of these exciting new features. For more information, see What’s New in ZENworks 24.2.

Zero-Touch Enrollment for Samsung Knox Android Devices

Enrolling Samsung Knox Android devices into ZENworks has never been easier with the introduction of zero-touch enrollment in ZENworks 24.2

With zero-touch enrollment, an organization can ship unenrolled devices directly to it users who can then simply turn on the device and follow the normal setup workflow.

The device is automatically enrolled to ZENworks as a fully managed device (Android Enterprise Work Managed) based on the enrollment profile provided by the organization in the Knox Admin Portal.

Once enrolled, the device shows as Corporate owned and can be provisioned policies required to secure the device and applications the user needs to do their job.

For more information, see Enrolling Android Devices to Samsung Knox Portal.

macOS MDM Registration Rules and Lost Device Settings

ZENworks 24.2 introduces important new functionality that enhances your ability to manage your MDM-enrolled macOS devices.

Registration Rules: During enrollment, macOS MDM devices will honor the device registration rules you’ve created, allowing enrolling devices to be:

Placed in specific folders
Added as members of specific groups
Reconcile against existing ZENworks device objects in re-enrollment scenarios

For more information, see Creating Registration Rules.

Lost Device Settings: If a macOS MDM devices doesn’t contact a ZENworks server within a specified number of days (i.e. the device is “lost”), it will honor the removal settings and either be flagged as lost or deleted from the ZENworks management zone.

Collection of Device Logs

For the times when you need to investigate an issue on a server of workstation, ZENworks 24.2 lets you collect the logs via a Quick Task in ZENworks Control Center.

Depending on your needs, you can collect all logs from the device or a specific set of logs. The collected logs can be password protected for security during transmission and storage.

Once you collect the logs, you can download them directly from the Quick Task or the device page. And you can determine how long collected logs are retained on the server.

For more information, see Retrieving Logs.

Customer-Requested Enhancements

ZENworks 24.4 delivers a variety of enhancements requested by customers. Now you can:

Use Windows Hello for Business login methods such as a PIN to log into Windows and simultaneously log into the ZENworks Agent.
Specify a bundle name and destination folder when copying a bundle. For more information, see Renaming, Copying, or Moving Bundles.
Specify a filename when exporting a bundle from ZENworks Control Center; previously, all exported bundles were given a “Bundle_Export” name. For more information, see Exporting and Importing Bundles.
Use the device’s Summary page to see the last time the device’s ZENworks Agent made contact.
Pass kernel parameters into a WinPE imaging distro for UEFI devices. For more information, see Modifying Kernel Boot Parameters for ZENworks Imaging.
Clear the ZENworks Image Safe Data (ZISD) during ZENworks Agent installation to ensure that a device with previous agent installations can register with a new identity. For more information, see Package Options for Windows, Linux, and Macintosh.

How to Get the ZENworks 24.2 Release

The ZENworks 24.2 release is available for download from your Software License and Downloads (SLD) account or via System Update in ZENworks Control Center. Please note that ZENworks releases first appear in SLD and then are available via System Update approximately one month later. For update instructions, see the ZENworks 24.2 documentation.

Also note that updating to ZENworks 24.2 requires you to be on ZENworks 23.4; updating from earlier versions is not supported. In addition, ZENworks 23.4 is the last version that supports Windows Server as a Primary Server platform. Before updating to ZENworks 24.2, you must migrate your Windows Primary Servers to Linux or to the ZENworks Appliance. A tool is provided for migrating to the Appliance; you can download it from your Software License and Downloads (SLD) account. For information about using the migration tool, see Windows Server to Appliance Migration Tool.

Want to try it for yourself? Access your free trial today!

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