Introduction to LANDesk® Management Suite 9

LANDesk® Management Suite consists of tools you can use to help manage your Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and UNIX devices. Use these tools to distribute software packages, monitor software usage, deploy OS images and migrate profiles, remote control devices, detect and remediate security risks, and complete many other management tasks.

In this chapter, you'll learn more about Management Suite 9, including:

• What you can do with Management Suite 9
• Where to go for more information

What you can do with Management Suite 9

With Management Suite 9, you can:

• Use the LANDesk® Management Suite console to configure and manage your network. See Using the console.
• Manage inventories, track inventory changes, create forms to gather custom data from devices, and view detailed reports. See Managing inventory and Reports.
• Create and manage queries on inventory data and LDAP directories. See Database queries.
• Diagnose and troubleshoot problems on remote devices from the console. You can remote control, reboot, execute files, and transfer files to devices. See Remote control.
• Quickly distribute software to all of your network users. See Software distribution.
• Use a Web-based console to access key Management Suite features from anywhere you have a browser. See About the Web console.
• Monitor software licenses and compliance, and track software usage trends. See Software license monitoring.
• Deploy OS images and migrate user profiles. See OS deployment and Profile migration.
• Create application policies based on core database queries. Devices targeted by policies automatically receive application sets. See Policy-based management.
• Use the Patch and Compliance tool to download the latest security content (definitions and patches) and create security scans, compliance scans, and remediation tasks. You can configure security scanner behavior and end-user interactive options with customized settings, and even create your own custom security definitions to scan devices for specific potentially threatening conditions. See Patch and Compliance.
• Protect your managed devices from other harmful security risks with a wide-ranging set of security tools, including LANDesk Antivirus, the Host Intrusion Prevention System (HIPS), Firewall, Device Control, Security Activity, 802.1X NAC support, and more. See Introduction to LANDesk Security Suite 9.

Where to go for more information

The LANDesk User Community at http://community.landesk.com has user forums and best known methods for using many Management Suite features. Also, the community Web site is your main resource for Management Suite installation and deployment information, such as:

• System requirements for running Management Suite
• Installing Management Suite
• Activating the core server
• Upgrading from previous versions of Management Suite
• Installing LANDesk add-on products

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