Canonical Updates Landscape Ubuntu System Management Tool

Last week Canonical said that it has made a significant update to Landscape, its enterprise-grade systems management tool for large deployments of Ubuntu desktops, servers and cloud instances.

Landscape is part of the Ubuntu Advantage service package and deployed as either a hosted service or a dedicated server installation. Some of the new features added to Canonical's tool include role-based access control, compliance reporting, scriptable API and more. Curious IT administrators can check out a hands-on demo of the new features here.

"Ubuntu deployments have been growing in number and size over the last few years," said Zaid Al Hamami, Director of Product Management at Canonical. "In fact, it is now common to see deployments in the thousands or tens of thousands of machines. At this scale come manageability challenges. Landscape - part of Ubuntu Advantage - is the fastest, most cost-effective, and most reliable way to address these challenges. System administrators are more productive within days, and compliance can be assured."

According to Canonical, role-based access control (RBAC) provides privilege separation to allow each IT administrator to do only their job, reducing human error while improving security and compliance. Compliance reporting, another one of Landscape's new features, provides the tools to help businesses quickly and easily run the right reports and find the right information for compliance purposes.

Landscape also now provides API access to all its functionality. That means web administrators can create highly specific workflows, tailored  to their site’s needs, without having to define and later maintain basic building blocks, such as repository management. Canonical has even integrated Ubuntu's Metal-as-a-Service (MAAS) technology, making network-based hardware provisioning possible via industry-standard protocols.

Canonical said that a new Management Service applet has been added to Ubuntu 12.04 Precise, introducing a graphical interface fronting registration to Landscape. Even more, Landscape servers now can support up to 40,000 client devices. Also, machines with policies instructing them to automatically update can be assigned to apply either all updates or only those relevant for security.

"When used to manage a deployment of 1,000 Ubuntu desktops, Landscape can help cut IT costs by up to two thirds, generating a 1,121-percent ROI in five years," the company said. "The ROI is realized because Landscape enables a single administrator to manage thousands of machines as easily as one. By automating all common operations tasks, it eliminates complexity, reduces human error and assists with compliance."

Landscape is available to purchase now as part of the Ubuntu Advantage service package. For more information about Ubuntu Advantage and Landscape, go to www.ubuntu.com/landscape. You can also try the free hands-on demonstration at landscape.canonical.com.

Kevin Parrish is a contributing editor and writer for Tom's Hardware,Tom's Games and Tom's Guide. He's also a graphic artist, CAD operator and network administrator.

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