Aging/Unsupported In-Band and Out-of-Band Infrastructure

Background/Problem

A large distributed business enterprise with multiple data centers located around the globe, housing thousands of physical and virtual devices, routinely requires sysadmins to access the devices within these data centers. Sysadmins need to make any number of changes once given access to enterprise server farms: run scripts, reboot devices, provision users and servers, upgrade software, audit systems and so on.

This enterprise also has multiple admins at various data centers with overlapping responsibilities. These admins need a session sharing solution for collaboration — along with logging capability for auditing. Sounds simple, right?

Unfortunately, it’s not always that simple. Each manufacturer of Servers, Switches, Routers, Storage, Power, and whatever, have their own unique command structure that pertains to their specific pieces of equipment, primarily because they want the user to standardize on, and only use, their equipment. With just a couple of server and power vendors and only one vendor of other device types, you could have eight or more management tools to use. Makes perfect sense right?

That’s not reality. There are many reason why enterprises have a mix of manufacturers’ equipment in their data centers. We’ll examine that at another time. For now let’s just focus on the fact that any given enterprise has a mix of Server, Switch and Router vendors, multiple Storage vendors, and uses VMware for their server virtualization environment. So what do they do about access and control?

This enterprise has a well-known and aging, In-Band and Out-of-Band solution deployed for access and control of their Serial Console Servers, KVM Switches, IPMI, DRAC, etc… with an outdated software component striving to pull all the pieces together. As for the Virtual world or the Cloud, every brand and enterprise has separate access and control solutions deployed specifically for virtual environments.

While these solutions work most of time, and will most likely continue to work for a while longer, they’re not likely the most efficient or cost effective way to go about access and control in today’s world. This is mainly because they really don’t work together to provide a single access and control solution across your enterprise. Other solutions on the market don’t provide a common user experience, don’t simplify complexity very well, and haven’t been upgraded to meet modern IT needs and requirements.

This is also true of other In-Band and Out-of Band solutions in existence today. They are growing old, have not really been upgraded (no new features or functions), are losing or will lose active support sooner rather than later, they don’t keep up with latest JAVA security requirements, and they still don’t provide access to other manufacturers’ devices, nor to your virtualized infrastructure in a single pane of glass solution. It would be far easier to use one tool instead of eight tools, to manage all of this enterprise’s IT devices.

The Solution – Nodegrid Manager Consolidated IT Device Management

The world’s first software defined infrastructure that provides secure, vendor-neutral access and control of physical and virtual environments.

Nodegrid Manager delivers a common user interface and a standardized command stack across all supported physical and virtual devices. One solution for IT infrastructure access and control.

Gone are the days when we need to know each manufacturer’s server and command structure to communicate with every device and virtual machine. NodeGrid Manager’s Normalization Engine handles all communication and translation of commands, allowing for seamless access to all supported physical and virtual environments and devices.

Key Benefits

Secure In-Band and Out-of-Band Network

• Provides management of Virtual Appliances, VMs, Service Processors, Serial Consoles and KVM/IP
• Day-Zero Provisioning

Vendor Independence

• Service Processors: HP iLO, Dell DRAC, Cisco CIMC/UCS, IBM IMM, Oracle ILOM, IPMI (NetApp, EMC)
• Serial Appliances: Opengear, Emerson/Avocent/Cyclades, Digi, Raritan, Lantronix
  KVM/IP: Avocent/Cyclades
• Power: Emerson/Avocent, Raritan,
• ServerTech, APC/Schneider
• VMware VM: vSPC, MKS
• Kernel-based Virtual Machine: virtual serial port

Easy Configuration and Installation

• Policy based discovery and management minimizes configuration overhead

Compliance with Data Center Access and Security Policies

• Customizable, multiple access levels and user group based roles

Automatic Event Tracking

• Notification of fault conditions and alerts

Regulatory Compliance and Easy Troubleshooting

• Online and off-line data logging with time stamps, auditing, local/remote record archiving.