var fDesc=new Array(); fDesc[0] = "Novell Support Advisor is a free tool that allows customers to perform both pro-active and reactive system and application diagnostic tasks in a local, secure and automated fashion for SUSE Linux Enterprise, ZENworks Configuration Management, NetWare and GroupWise systems.

Novell Support Advisor is an easily installed cross-patform (Linux, Windows, MAC) client that can be downloaded directly from support.novell.com/advisor. The client is installed on a system that can communicate with both the servers in customer's local environment and the update server at Novell. The client prompts the customer to download newly released Novell Support Diagnostic Patterns (SDPs) authored by Novell technical experts from the Novell update server. Novell SDPs identify new problems and return possible solutions to the customer

The Novell Support Advisor diagnosis occurs securely and locally, and does not require sending log information to Novell for analysis. When the data is gathered for a health check, some load occurs over a Secure Shell connection to the queried device, but once the data is collected, the connection is terminated so network and device load is minimized. The gathered data is then consolidated into a dashboard view that shows critical patterns in red, and good patterns in green, identifying what segments in which systems need attention.

This tool also builds an Analysis Archive Database, or tar ball archive, that preserves a history of health checks that have been run and the problems that have been addressed, allowing customers to see trends and changes over time. A dashboard using the same color-coding scheme, a simple red = critical and green = good makes the information readily accessible.

Novell Support Advisor can be used reactively when a problem occurs, and also proactively to run "health checks" to prevent potential future issues.

Novell Support Advisor periodically checks back to Novell to see if there are any new support patterns available. When new patterns are released, the administrator will be notified and updates will automatically download, ready for any future analysis.

If a problem is discovered where further help is needed, a service request connection to the Novell Customer Center through the client interface can be opened via Novell Support."; function tShowHide(id, show) { var s = document.getElementById("desc"); if ((s.innerHTML.length<=212 || show==1) && show!=2) { s.innerHTML = fDesc[id]; if (document.getElementById('m1')) document.getElementById('m1').style.display='none'; if (document.getElementById('m2')) document.getElementById('m2').style.display='none'; if (document.getElementById('more_txt')) document.getElementById('more_txt').style.display='inline'; } else { s.innerHTML = ''; } }