Tags
Landscape lets you group multiple computers by applying tags to them. You can group computers using any set of characteristics; architecture and location might be two logical tagging schemes. Tag names may use any combination of letters, numbers, and dashes. Each computer can be associated with multiple tags. There is no menu choice for tags; rather, you can select multiple computers under the Computers menu and apply or remove one or more tags to all the ones you select on the Info screen. If you want to specify more than one tag at a time for your selected computers, separate the tags by spaces.
Packages
In Linux, a package is a group of related files for an application that make it easy to install, upgrade, and remove the application. You can manage packages from the Packages menu under Computers.
Repositories
Linux distributions like Ubuntu use repositories to hold packages you can install on managed computers. While Ubuntu has several repositories that anyone can access, you can also maintain your own repositories on your network. This can be useful when you want to maintain packages with different versions from those in the community repositories, or if you’ve packages in- house software for installation.
Upgrade profiles
An upgrade profile defines a schedule for the times when upgrades are to be automatically installed on the machines associated with a specific access group. You can associate zero or more computers with each upgrade profile via tags to install packages on those computers. You can also associate an upgrade profile with an access group, which limits its use to only computers within the specified access group. You can manage upgrade profiles from the Upgrade Profiles link in the Profiles choice under your account.
Package profiles
A package profile, or meta-package, comprises a set of one or more packages, including their dependencies and conflicts (generally called constraints), that you can manage as a group. Package profiles specify sets of packages that associated systems should always get, or never get. You can associate zero or more computers with each package profile via tags to install packages on those computers. You can also associate a package profile with an access group, which limits its use to only computers within the specified access group. You can manage package profiles from the Package Profiles link in the Profiles menu under your account.
Removal profiles
A removal profile defines a maximum number of days that a computer can go without exchanging data with the Landscape server before it is automatically removed. If more days pass than the profile’s “Days without exchange”, that computer will automatically be removed and the license seat it held will be released. This helps Landscape keep license seats open and ensure Landscape is not tracking stale or retired computer data for long periods of time. You can associate zero or more computers with each removal profile via tags to ensure those computers are governed by this removal profile. You can also associate a removal profile with an access group, which limits its use to only computers within the specified access group. You can manage removal profiles from the Removal Profiles link in the Profiles choice under your account.
Scripts
Landscape lets you run scripts on the computers you manage in your account. The scripts may be in any language, as long as an interpreter for that language is present on the computers on which they are to run. You can maintain a library of scripts for common tasks. You can manage scripts from the Stored Scripts menu under your account, and run them against computers from the Scripts menu under Computers.
Administrators
Administrators are people who are authorized to manage computers using Landscape. You can manage administrators from the Administrators menu under your account.
Access Groups
Landscape lets administrators limit administrative rights on computers by assigning them to logical groupings called access groups. Each computer can be in only one access group. Typical access groups might be constructed around organizational units or departments, locations, or hardware architecture. You can manage access groups from the Access Groups menu under your account; read about how to create access groups, add computers to access groups, and associate roles with access groups. It is good policy to come up with and document a naming convention for access groups before you deploy Landscape, so that all administrators understand what constitutes an acceptable logical grouping for your organization.
Roles
For each access group, you can assign management privileges to administrators via the use of roles. Administrators may be associated with multiple roles, and roles may be associated with many access groups. You can manage roles from the Roles menu under your account.
Alerts
Landscape uses alerts to notify administrators of conditions that require attention. You can manage alerts from the Alerts menu under your account.