[Wolves] Software management on networks

[Stuart Langridge]

> I'm not claiming to know all issues that ZENworks addresses, however
> from a software distribution aspect, you just need a number of Debian
> repositories; customised /etc/apt/sources.list on individual PCs (this
> assumes PCs can be grouped together in classes) and the ability to login
> remotely via ssh in an automated manner.

Point 3 is the hard one there. That's like saying, here is my
foolproof plan to win the 100m at the Olympics.

1. Do a bit of training, lift some weights, go jogging.
2. Take a few steroids
3. Run the 100m faster than anyone else in the world.
4. Collect your gold medal.

Step 3 is clearly the hard one. How do you allow "the ability to login
remotely via ssh in an automated manner" without giving all the
machines the same root password or recording all the root passwords in
the Master Machine r00table List? Moreover, how do you know a machine
is turned on? Or do you just ping-flood every IP on the network every
five minutes?

Aq.