IBM Boosts IT Automation with Tivoli Provisioning Manager 5.1

Published: August 3, 2006

by Alex Woodie

IBM last week launched a new release of Tivoli Provisioning Manager, an asset management solution that makes IT administrators' jobs easier by automating the process of installing software on computers and network devices, and keeping them updated despite the complexity of a distributed environment. Version 5.1 brings various new features and enhancements.

IBM recognizes that IT organizations are spending more time and money managing existing applications and infrastructure, which often leads the organizations to forego projects or even overprovision their hardware and software. IBM's solution to this mess is Tivoli Provisioning Manager, which automates the manual discovery, deployment, configuration, and management of operating systems, patches, middleware, and applications on physical and virtual servers.

With Tivoli Provisioning Manager version 5.1, IBM has made several enhancements, including the addition of "fast start" installation, improved out-of-the-box discovery of infrastructure resources, and the capability to natively install Windows and Linux operating systems from bare metal by deploying "cloned" or scripted images of Windows or Linux servers or desktops.

This release also brings support for distributing software via a service oriented architecture (SOA), new compliance and remediation functions, patch management for multiple platforms, and improved reporting, IBM says.

Tivoli Provisioning Manager runs on Windows, AIX, Solaris, and Linux servers, including Novell SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 for Linux on iSeries, pSeries, and zSeries. The software package includes DB2 Universal Database Enterprise Server Edition 8.2, Tivoli Directory Server 6, Tivoli NetView 7.1.4, and components of WebSphere Application Server 6.0.2. The software became available for electronic download on Friday, and will be available through Passport Advantage next month.