Altiris has updated its software to let customers patch Linux systems as well as manage virtual and physical resources side by side.

Altiris' Server Management Suite, which lets users patch Windows systems, now includes patching support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The company plans to expand its Linux system support to other distributions in future releases.

The systems-management vendor also increased its management capabilities for VMware, with ESX Server deployment and inventory support. The company previously provided tools to deploy virtual servers, but now is augmenting that with inventory and management capabilities in a single support.

"We have the ability to do complete inventory and management in a virtual server environment, and secondly we do provisioning," says Steve Morton, Altiris vice president of product management and marketing. "Our story around virtual server support is that it is going to be a mixed environment -- with virtual and traditional machines -- and customers need a single way to manage that environment."

Altiris Server Management Suite uses a combination of server-based software and agents on managed machines. The suite monitors system availability and performance, maintains operations and remediates security vulnerabilities, the company says. Other new features include performance and fault monitoring for Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft SQL Server, and expanded server application inventory for Microsoft Exchange Server and SQL Server configurations and Windows services (DNS, DHCP, WINS, RRAS).

Altiris competes with LANDesk, BigFix and client and server management suites from Microsoft, CA and Symantec.

Altiris Server Management Suite software is available, and pricing starts at about US$250 per node with volume discounts available.

Also this week Altiris announced it has expanded its partnership with Dell to provide management capabilities. The partnership involves the two vendors co-developing and delivering OpenManage hardware- and software-management tools based on Altiris' platform, dubbed the Altiris Management Suite for Dell Servers.

This suite features updates around combined operating system and hardware patch management integrated with Dell's hardware update tools and enhanced hardware health monitoring for Dell servers running both Windows and Linux. This release also features remote hardware configuration and operating-system and application deployment integrated with the Dell Server Assistant CD and online hardware update catalog, Altiris says. Last, the updated suite includes support for the latest generation of Dell servers.

Altiris Management Suite for Dell Servers is also available from either Altiris or Dell, and pricing is upon request.