IBM Tivoli Storage Resource Manager: A Practical Introduction

458 IBM Tivoli Storage Resource Manager: A Practical Introduction

10.1 Introduction to IBM Tivoli Configuration Manager

IBM Tivoli Configuration Manager, Version 4.2, is a solution for controlling software

distribution and asset management inventory in a multiplatform environment. It focuses on

deploying and managing software in complex, distributed enterprise environments. IBM Tivoli

Configuration Manager is a key solution to rapidly and efficiently deploying complex

mission-critical or desktop productivity applications to multiple locations from a central point

and to gather and maintain the inventory information about hardware and software assets,

easily, quickly, and accurately.

Tivoli Configuration Manager consists of the following main components:

򐂰 Inventory

򐂰 Software Distribution

Software Distribution enables you to install, configure, and update software remotely within

your network.

Inventory enables you to gather and maintain up-to-date inventory asset management

information in a distributed environment. This helps system administrators and accounting

personnel to manage complex, distributed enterprises.

Tivoli Configuration Manager also provides the following services:

򐂰 Activity Planner

򐂰 Change Manager

򐂰 Resource Manager

򐂰 Web Interface

򐂰 Enterprise Directory Query Facility

Activity Planner enables you to define a group of activities that originate from different

applications in an activity plan, submit or schedule the plan for running, and monitor the plan

while it runs.

Change Manager functions with Activity Planner to support software distribution, inventory,

and change management in large networks. It uses reference models to simplify the

management of the network environment.

You can use Resource Manager, together with Software Distribution and Inventory, to perform

the management operations for pervasive devices.

You can use the Web Interface to install and manage various Tivoli Configuration Manager

Web objects. The Web Interface has a server component that pushes software packages,

inventory profiles, and reference models from the Tivoli region to the Web Gateway where

they are stored until they are pulled by the Web Interface endpoint.

With enterprise directory integration, you can exploit organizational information that is stored

in enterprise directories in order to determine a set of targets for a software distribution or an

inventory scan. The Enterprise Directory Query Facility enables you to select a specific

directory object, or container of directory objects, as subscribers for a reference model or an

activity plan.