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Data Center Scalability Tips & Best Practices

by | Aug 22, 2024 | Application Hosting, Consolidation, Data Center Management, Data Center Resilience, Increase Productivity, Modernize Legacy Environments, Monitoring & Reporting, Network Automation, Out of Band Management, Power Management, Remote Network Management, Scripting, Serial Consoles, Streamline Deployments, Vendor Neutral Platform, Virtualization, Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP), Zero Trust Security

Data center scalability is the ability to increase or decrease workloads cost-effectively and without disrupting business operations. Scalable data centers make organizations agile, enabling them to support business growth, meet changing customer needs, and weather downturns without compromising quality. This blog describes various methods for achieving data center scalability before providing tips and best practices to make scalability easier and more cost-effective to implement.

How to achieve data center scalability

There are four primary ways to scale data center infrastructure, each of which has advantages and disadvantages.

 

4 Data center scaling methods

Method Description Pros and Cons
1. Adding more servers Also known as scaling out or horizontal scaling, this involves adding more physical or virtual machines to the data center architecture. ✔ Can support and distribute more workloads

✔ Eliminates hardware constraints

✖ Deployment and replication take time

✖ Requires more rack space

✖ Higher upfront and operational costs
2. Virtualization Dividing physical hardware into multiple virtual machines (VMs) or virtual network functions (VNFs) to support more workloads per device. ✔ Supports faster provisioning

✔ Uses resources more efficiently

✔ Reduces scaling costs

✖ Transition can be expensive and disruptive

✖ Not supported by all hardware and software
3. Upgrading existing hardware Also known as scaling up or vertical scaling, this involves adding more processors, memory, or storage to upgrade the capabilities of existing systems. ✔ Implementation is usually quick and non-disruptive

✔ More cost-effective than horizontal scaling

✔ Requires less power and rack space

✖ Scalability limited by server hardware constraints

✖ Increases reliance on legacy systems
4. Using cloud services Moving some or all workloads to the cloud, where resources can be added or removed on-demand to meet scaling requirements. ✔ Allows on-demand or automatic scaling

✔ Better support for new and emerging technologies

✔ Reduces data center costs

✖ Migration is often extremely disruptive

✖ Auto-scaling can lead to ballooning monthly bills

✖ May not support legacy software

It’s important for companies to analyze their requirements and carefully consider the advantages and disadvantages of each method before choosing a path forward. 

Best practices for data center scalability

The following tips can help organizations ensure their data center infrastructure is flexible enough to support scaling by any of the above methods.

Run workloads on vendor-neutral platforms

Vendor lock-in, or a lack of interoperability with third-party solutions, can severely limit data center scalability. Using vendor-neutral platforms ensures that teams can add, expand, or integrate data center resources and capabilities regardless of provider. These platforms make it easier to adopt new technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) while ensuring compatibility with legacy systems.

Use infrastructure automation and AIOps

Infrastructure automation technologies help teams provision and deploy data center resources quickly so companies can scale up or out with greater efficiency. They also ensure administrators can effectively manage and secure data center infrastructure as it grows in size and complexity. 

For example, zero-touch provisioning (ZTP) automatically configures new devices as soon as they connect to the network, allowing remote teams to deploy new data center resources without on-site visits. Automated configuration management solutions like Ansible and Chef ensure that virtualized system configurations stay consistent and up-to-date while preventing unauthorized changes. AIOps (artificial intelligence for IT operations) uses machine learning algorithms to detect threats and other problems, remediate simple issues, and provide root-cause analysis (RCA) and other post-incident forensics with greater accuracy than traditional automation. 

Isolate the control plane with Gen 3 serial consoles

Serial consoles are devices that allow administrators to remotely manage data center infrastructure without needing to log in to each piece of equipment individually. They use out-of-band (OOB) management to separate the data plane (where production workflows occur) from the control plane (where management workflows occur). OOB serial console technology – especially the third-generation (or Gen 3) – aids data center scalability in several ways:

  1. Gen 3 serial consoles are vendor-neutral and provide a single software platform for administrators to manage all data center devices, significantly reducing management complexity as infrastructure scales out.
  2. Gen 3 OOB can extend automation capabilities like ZTP to mixed-vendor and legacy devices that wouldn’t otherwise support them.
  3. OOB management moves resource-intensive infrastructure automation workflows off the data plane, improving the performance of production applications and workflows.
  4. Serial consoles move the management interfaces for data center infrastructure to an isolated control plane, which prevents malware and cybercriminals from accessing them if the production network is breached. Isolated management infrastructure (IMI) is a security best practice for data center architectures of any size.

How Nodegrid simplifies data center scalability

Nodegrid is a Gen 3 out-of-band management solution that streamlines vertical and horizontal data center scalability. 

The Nodegrid Serial Console Plus (NSCP) offers 96 managed ports in a 1RU rack-mounted form factor, reducing the number of OOB devices needed to control large-scale data center infrastructure. Its open, x86 Linux-based OS can run VMs, VNFs, and Docker containers so teams can run virtualized workloads without deploying additional hardware. Nodegrid can also run automation, AIOps, and security on the same platform to further reduce hardware overhead.

Nodegrid OOB is also available in a modular form factor. The Net Services Router (NSR) allows teams to add or swap modules for additional compute, storage, memory, or serial ports as the data center scales up or down.

Want to see Nodegrid in action?

Watch a demo of the Nodegrid Gen 3 out-of-band management solution to see how it can improve scalability for your data center architecture.

Watch a demo

Understanding Serial Console Interfaces

by | Aug 22, 2024 | Data Center Management, Data Center Resilience, Out of Band Management, Power Management, Remote Network Management, Serial Consoles, Streamline Deployments, Vendor Neutral Platform, Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP), Zero Trust Security

A serial console (also known as a console server or terminal server) is a device that allows admins to manage critical network infrastructure like servers, routers, switches, and power distribution units (PDUs) without needing to log in to each piece of equipment individually. It also provides out-of-band (OOB) management, which creates an isolated network dedicated to infrastructure orchestration and troubleshooting. Serial console interfaces help improve management efficiency, accelerate recovery from outages and cyberattacks, and isolate the control plane from malicious actors. 

This blog defines serial console interfaces and describes their technological evolution before discussing the benefits of using a modern serial console solution. 

What is a serial console interface?

The term serial console interface could mean different things depending on the context and who’s saying it.

1. Some people use this term to refer to the serial console’s management GUI (graphical user interface), which administrators use to view and control data center devices.

Clusters 2000×1250 (1)

2. Others use this term to refer to the individual connections between a serial console and each managed data center device. In addition to traditional RS-232 serial interfaces, a serial console may support RJ45, KVM (keyboard, video, mouse), IPMI (intelligent platform management interface), and USB (universal serial bus) interfaces.

NSRSTACK2-1 1920×1052

3. Another potential (but less common) use of the term is for the text-based console interface (also known as a CLI, or command-line interface) used to configure and manage data center devices without a GUI. The console interface could be accessed in several ways, such as through a serial console’s GUI, or via a Telnet or SSH (secure shell) client like PuTTY.

Console 2

4. Finally, it’s quite common to use the term serial console interface to describe the entire serial console solution, from the hardware itself to its managed ports, GUI, and CLI. The serial console acts as an interface between the production network (a.k.a., the data plane) and the management network (a.k.a., the control plane). 

For the purposes of this discussion, we will use this fourth definition of serial console interfaces.

The evolution of serial console interfaces

First-generation

The first generation of serial consoles provides the basics: unified management of multiple data center devices, and an OOB network connection (such as a dial-up modem or cellular SIM card) so management workflows don’t rely on the main production network. A Gen 1 serial console interface allows administrators to access the CLI for each connected device even if the production network goes down from an ISP outage, equipment failure, or cyberattack. However, these serial consoles lack many of the advanced features required for modern network infrastructures, such as hardware encryption, third-party integrations, and automation capabilities. They typically only support standard RS-232 serial interfaces using a specific pinout.

ZPE Systems Review Serial Console (1)

Second-generation

The second generation added built-in security features, advanced authentication methods, and the ability to manage multi-vendor devices. Some vendors also added support for Python scripts and other automation, as well as zero-touch provisioning (ZTP) for supported end devices. However, Gen 2 serial console interfaces have closed architectures that prevent full automation of multi-vendor infrastructure. Their management GUIs are also typically only available as an on-premises virtual machine (VM), so remote administrators must be on the enterprise network or connected via VPN to access them.

Third-generation

Third-generation serial consoles are completely vendor-neutral, so they can control – and extend automation to – every physical and virtual asset in your environment. They use high-speed OOB network interfaces such as 5G cellular, and offer cloud-based management software so teams can manage and troubleshoot remote infrastructure from anywhere in the world. Gen 3 serial console interfaces are built on an open, x86 Linux-based architecture that supports third-party integrations and can run other vendors’ software. They accommodate legacy pinouts to control a variety of devices, such as PDUs, IPMI devices, and environmental monitoring sensors, and also feature modules that allow you to customize or modify interface types.

NSR Diagram

Gen 3 serial consoles have enterprise-grade security features like an encrypted disk and TPM 2.0 security. They also support integrations with Zero Trust providers for multi-factor authentication (MFA) and single sign-on (SSO). The third generation enables end-to-end network infrastructure automation using third-party tools like Ansible, Chef, and Puppet, as well as customer-built tools in VMs, Docker, or Kubernetes. Gen 3 serial console interfaces are essentially infrastructure multi-tools capable of running and deploying any solution, at any time, from anywhere.

The benefits of a Gen 3 serial console interface

The latest generation of serial consoles provides three major advantages:

  • Improved management efficiency. A vendor-neutral serial console allows administrators to manage infrastructure workflows and automation for large, complex network architectures from a single pane of glass. Teams can also extend automation to every infrastructure device, even legacy solutions that wouldn’t support it otherwise.
  • Reduced network downtime. With fast, reliable Gen 3 OOB, infrastructure teams have a lifeline to troubleshoot and recover remote infrastructure when the WAN (wide area network) or LAN (local area network) goes down. They can remotely power-cycle frozen devices, view environmental monitoring logs, and automatically provision replacement equipment without the time or expense of on-site visits. 
  • Isolated management infrastructure (IMI). Gen 3 OOB creates an isolated control plane for network infrastructure, which helps protect management interfaces from malicious actors who have breached the production network. It also helps establish an isolated recovery environment (IRE) where teams can rebuild and restore systems without risking re-infection or re-compromise. 

IMI with NSCP

Want to learn more about serial consoles?

Gen 3 serial console interfaces like the Nodegrid Serial Console (NSC) from ZPE Systems use vendor-neutral architectures and end-to-end automation capabilities to help companies improve operational efficiency and network resilience. To learn more about how a Gen 3 solution can help with your biggest infrastructure pain points, watch a Nodegrid demo.

Watch a demo

Network Resilience: What is a Resilience System?

by | Feb 2, 2024 | Application Hosting, Data Center Resilience, Improve Network Security, Increase Productivity, Micro-segmentation, Minimize Impact of Disruptions, Monitoring & Reporting, Network Automation, Out of Band Management, Power Management, Remote Network Management, Serial Consoles, Virtualization, Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP), Zero Trust Security

A digital web of interconnected network resilience concepts being selected by a business person in a suit.

Network resilience means being able to withstand or recover from adversity, service degradation, and complete outages with minimal business disruption. The longer business-critical services are down, or systems are breached, the greater the risk of significant financial, reputational, and legal consequences. A resilience system is a set of technologies that enable an organization to continue operating while teams work to repair failures and recover from cyberattacks. But what exactly is a resilience system, and what does it look like? This guide to network resilience defines resilience systems, provides example use cases, compares them to related technologies like backups and redundant systems, and describes the key components required to build them.

Table of contents
    1. What is a resilience system?
    2. Resilience system use cases
    3. Do backups and redundancy equate to network resilience?
    4. What does a resilience system look like?
    5. Additional network resilience resources

What is a resilience system?

A resilience system provides all the infrastructure, tools, and services necessary to continue operating, if in a degraded state, during major incidents. It also includes everything needed to recover data, rebuild systems, perform security testing, and continue delivering core business functionality. A resilience system is typically isolated from the production network, preventing cybercriminals from finding and compromising it and ensuring teams have continuous access even if the primary network goes down.

Resilience system use cases

Some examples of the challenges that resilience systems help overcome include:

1. Ransomware recovery

In a ransomware attack, cybercriminals infect systems with malware that spreads throughout the network and encrypts any data it encounters. Modern ransomware now uses packaged attacks that move at machine speed, instantly incapacitating entire networks. Organizations completely lose access to critical systems and data until they pay a ransom, often in untraceable cryptocurrency. Ransomware is an exceptionally tenacious form of malware and tends to reinfect backup data and rebuilt systems, significantly hampering recovery efforts and increasing the duration and cost of the attack. The best practice for resilience systems is to isolate them on an out-of-band (OOB) network, inaccessible to hackers who have breached the production in-band network. Doing so creates a safe, isolated recovery environment (IRE) where teams can restore critical data and systems without the risk of reinfection. The resilience system includes all the tools and hardware needed to restore critical business services and infrastructure. An IRE significantly accelerates ransomware recovery and minimizes downtime, so businesses can avoid paying ransoms and reduce the overall cost of attacks.

2. Network outages

Enterprise network architectures and supply chains are highly complex, with lots of moving parts that rely on external vendors to maintain availability. Just one of those vendors dropping the ball could take the entire organization offline, severely impacting network resilience. For example, in 2023, an expired cryptographic certificate caused Cisco’s Viptela SD-WAN appliances to fail on reboot, completely taking down affected networks until the issue was resolved. With a resilience system, Viptela customers could have potentially avoided this downtime by failing over to alternative network resources. For example, a resilience system with integrated cellular failover allows branches to continue connecting to and delivering critical business services while also providing a lifeline for remote teams to access and recover failed systems. A resilience system also provides observability and automatic notifications so teams are instantly alerted to issues like certificate expirations and can respond quickly to recover critical services.

3. Shift to remote work

Incidents like ransomware attacks and equipment failures happen frequently enough that companies can create detailed plans and proactively implement solutions to minimize their impact, but not all adverse events are so predictable. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, the massive shift to remote work strained the network resources of most organizations. Instead of maintaining a limited number of branch offices, teams suddenly had to treat every employee as a new branch, leading to performance degradation and outages as they scrambled to reinforce the business’s remote capabilities. A resilience system gives teams the tools and resources they need to provision additional infrastructure, manage networking logic, deploy new security solutions, and more, even while the primary network is offline or under a heavy load. A resilience system is the key to quickly adjusting network performance and security to adapt to sudden changes like a transition to fully remote operations.

Do backups and redundancy equate to network resilience?

The short answer is no; backups and redundancy do not equate to network resilience, though they do contribute to making systems more resilient.

  • Backups are copies of data, configurations, and application code used to do a hot or cold restore when a production system fails. The underlying infrastructure must remain operational for teams to access and use backups, and unless additional resilience measures are taken, it’s easy for backups to become infected or compromised, severely hampering recovery efforts.
  • Redundancy involves duplicating critical systems, services, and applications as a failsafe in case the primaries go down. Organizations can “fail over” to the redundancies to continue critical business operations during outages. However, redundant systems are just as susceptible to failures and infections without additional resilience measures like out-of-band management and isolated management infrastructure.

Backups and redundancy are part of network resilience but alone are not enough to ensure business continuity. Resilience systems focus on maintaining the architecture of the production network while adding the ability to recover or adapt to adversity. The next section discusses all the tools and technologies that make up network resilience systems.

What does a resilience system look like?

There are four key components that go into a resilience system.

Key Components of a Resilience System

Alternative Networking

Full-stack routing and switching, Wi-Fi, VoIP, virtualization, software-defined network overlays for SDN & SD-WAN

Alternative Compute

Full-stack compute, containers, virtual machines, and any other resources needed to run applications and deliver services

Storage & Storage Recovery

Enough storage to recover systems and applications as well as support content delivery

Automation

Tools like zero-touch provisioning (ZTP) to facilitate speedy recovery while minimizing human error

Alternative networking and compute resources ensure the organization can failover in the event of a network failure or continue delivering services when production servers are unavailable. Teams also need enough storage to restore backup data, build new systems, and support the content delivery network (CDN). Automation solutions like zero-touch provisioning (ZTP), configuration management, and security validation tools accelerate the recovery process while mitigating the risk of human error. Combined, these components enable teams to reduce the frequency, severity, and duration of outages, improving overall network resilience.

Network resilience with ZPE Systems

A resilient network will continue delivering critical business services in the face of any challenge, whether from cybercriminals, supply chain issues, global events, or even plain human error. A resilience system is isolated from the production network to ensure security and availability, and it consists of all the tools and technologies needed to troubleshoot, recover, and deliver your most crucial data, applications, and infrastructure. The Nodegrid platform from ZPE Systems is the perfect foundation for a resilience system. Nodegrid is a vendor-neutral, out-of-band management solution capable of running your choice of third-party software. Nodegrid allows you to build a highly customizable IRE containing all the tools needed to safely recover from ransomware. You can even use Nodegrid to deliver services while the primary network or systems are down, making it your all-in-one network resilience multi-tool.

Want to ensure network resilience by accelerating ransomware recovery?

Minimize the business impact of ransomware with the help of our whitepaper, 3 Steps to Ransomware Recovery. Learn how to follow Gartner’s best practices to build an Isolated Recovery Environment

Download Whitepaper

Out-of-Band Management: What It Is and Why You Need It

by | Jan 26, 2024 | Data Center Management, Data Center Resilience, Improve Network Security, Minimize Impact of Disruptions, Monitoring & Reporting, Out of Band Management, Power Management, Remote Network Management, Serial Consoles

Thumbnail – What is out-of-band management

This scenario is every IT professional’s worst nightmare: it’s the middle of the night, a remote site on the other side of the country has gone offline, and nobody knows why. A single minute of downtime can cost anywhere from several hundred dollars to tens of thousands of dollars, and the nearest tech is a six-hour plane ride away. Consider 2024’s CrowdStrike outage and the devastation caused for banks, airports, and many other organizations.

A bar chart showing the average hourly cost of downtime by industry.
Data Source: SolarWinds

Out-of-band management offers the solution: a way for teams to access critical remote infrastructure during outages and breaches without “out-of-chair” expenses. Out-of-band management allows organizations to recover remote infrastructure faster, reducing the duration and expense of downtime.

This guide to out-of-band management answers critical questions about what this technology is, why you need it, and how to choose the right solution.

Table of contents
What is Out-of-Band Management?
Why Do You Need Out-of-Band Management?
What is an Out-of-Band Management solution?
How Does Out-of-Band Management Improve Security and Resilience?
Why Choose Nodegrid for Out-of-Band Management?

What is out-of-band management?

Out-of-band management (OOBM) involves controlling network infrastructure and workflows on an out-of-band network. An out-of-band network is an entirely separate network that runs parallel with your production (or in-band) network but doesn’t rely on any of the same infrastructure or services. OOBM allows teams to administer network infrastructure remotely on a dedicated connection, such as secondary Fiber or cellular LTE, that will remain available even if the in-band network goes down from an equipment failure, ISP outage, or ransomware attack.

A diagram showing how out-of-band management works.

The biggest reason to use out-of-band management is to ensure continuous, uninterrupted access to critical remote infrastructure even when the primary network is down. OOBM allows teams to recover from outages and cyberattacks faster and more cost-efficiently because they can access, troubleshoot, and restore systems without rolling trucks or hiring on-site services.

Out-of-band management provides a lifeline for teams to access critical remote infrastructure when the production network is offline. It allows them to immediately begin troubleshooting and repairing the issue to restore services ASAP. With OOBM, companies save money on recovery expenses, and minimize the duration and business impact of downtime.

What is an OOBM serial console?

Front and back views of the Nodegrid out-of-band management serial console.

Some organizations use OOBM jump boxes (or jump servers) that are connected to both the in-band and out-of-band networks, allowing administrators to “jump” from one network to the other for management. Examples of low-cost jump boxes include the Intel NUC and the Raspberry Pi. However, OOBM jump boxes are security risks because they do not effectively isolate the management infrastructure, plus they require an entire duplicate infrastructure of devices and services to create the out-of-band network. The best practice for security, resilience, and efficiency is to deploy an all-in-one, out-of-band management solution.

An out-of-band management solution uses hardware devices known as serial consoles, which connect to infrastructure devices via their management port (usually RS232 Serial, Ethernet, or USB). Serial consoles are known by lots of other names, including terminal servers, console servers, console server switches, serial routers, and serial switches.

The serial console has dedicated network interfaces to provide an Internet connection for remote management access, often fiber or 4G/5G cellular LTE, so they don’t connect to or rely upon the primary production network at all. This gives teams the ability to continuously monitor and administer critical remote infrastructure even during an ISP or WAN outage that would make a jump box inaccessible.

Learn more about security & resilience with out-of-band management
  • Understanding Serial Console Interfaces
  • Serial Console Redirection Guide
  • Serial Console PDU Management Guide

    •  Administrators remotely access an OOBM serial console via this dedicated link and, from there, can view and manage all connected infrastructure from a single, convenient software platform. This software is typically deployed on-premises and runs as a VM (virtual machine)  either on the serial console itself or on a separate machine, but there are some cloud-based OOBM network management software tools.

    Out-of-band management software varies from provider to provider, with most offering second-generation (or Gen 2) solutions that provide some built-in automation capabilities but do not support vendor-neutral integrations with third-party tools. Newer, third-generation (or Gen 3) solutions use an open, x86 Linux-based operating system to allow easy integrations with other vendors’ software for automation, orchestration, security, monitoring, and more.

    The benefits of out-of-band management

    Out-of-band management can help you:

    • Improve network performance: Performing resource-intensive management, automation, and orchestration workflows on the out-of-band network reduces the strain on the production network for better speed and reliability.
    • Accelerate ransomware recovery: The OOBM network can be used to create an isolated recovery environment (IRE) where teams can safely rebuild and recover from ransomware attacks without the risk of reinfection, reducing the duration and expense of ransomware-related outages.
    • Streamline repairs and rebuilds: OOBM provides the ability to deploy the tools and applications needed to isolate, cleanse, rebuild, and restore services that have been affected by failures and ransomware.

    The security and resilience benefits of out-of-band management are discussed further below.

    How does out-of-band management improve security and resilience?

    Network breaches and ransomware attacks occur so frequently that most businesses know it’s no longer a question of “if,” but “when” they’ll be hit. Once cybercriminals compromise a device or account and can move around the network, it’s only a matter of time before they find the management interfaces and take complete control over critical infrastructure.

    OOBM and management infrastructure isolation

    Serial consoles create an out-of-band network by directly connecting to the management port of infrastructure devices and moving all control functions off of the production LAN. This isolates the management plane from the data plane, which is part of a cybersecurity best practice known as isolated management infrastructure (IMI). An IMI further segments the management network and routes management ports to terminate on top-of-rack, OOBM serial switches, creating multiple layers of isolated management. The isolated management plane is always remotely accessible to engineers via the OOBM connection, but it remains hidden from any cybercriminals who may breach the production network.

    Multi Layered OOB IMI – ZPE Systems

     

    OOBM and ransomware recovery

    Out-of-band management also improves security and resilience by aiding in ransomware recovery. According to a Sophos survey, 70% of companies hit by ransomware take longer than two weeks to recover, due in no small part to the pervasive nature of the malware used and how frequently rebuilt systems and recovered data get reinfected. Today’s ransomware attacks are now pre-packaged and move at machine speed – meaning instantly – across infrastructure, bringing entire businesses down before they’ve even realized they’re under attack. The longer the business is offline, the more revenue (and customer trust) is lost, causing recovery costs to skyrocket.

    An IMI using out-of-band management gives teams an isolated recovery environment (IRE) where they can recover data and rebuild systems without the risk of reinfection. The IRE allows organizations to get services back online faster to reduce the financial and reputational consequences of ransomware attacks.

    A diagram showing the components of an isolated recovery environment.

    Resilience is defined as the ability to continuously operate and deliver services, if in a degraded fashion, even while undergoing major failures and breaches. Out-of-band management improves resilience by ensuring that teams have continuous access to critical remote infrastructure no matter what’s going wrong with the production environment. OOBM serial consoles also isolate the management infrastructure to protect it from attackers on the primary network and provide a safe environment for teams to recover from ransomware.

    Learn more about security & resilience with out-of-band management
  • Dissecting the MGM Cyberattack: Lions, Tigers, & Bears, Oh My!
  • The Biggest Ransomware Attack You Haven’t Heard of…Yet
  • Breaking Down The 2023 Ragnar Locker Cyberattacks
  • What to do if You’re Ransomware’d: A Healthcare Example

    • Why choose Nodegrid for out-of-band management?

    Many network teams think of out-of-band as being a huge expense and time sink. Setting up  proper infrastructure for OOBM and IMI typically requires 6 or more boxes at each business site for routing, switching, firewall, storage, cellular access, and a jump box. The Nodegrid platform from ZPE Systems reduces the cost and headache of out-of-band management by combining all these functions and more into a single box. Teams can easily drop a Nodegrid box in each site at a fraction of the cost of deploying a traditional OOBM network.

    A diagram showing ZPE’s multi-function capabilities for IMI in branch and edge sites.

    The first Gen 3 OOBM solution

    Nodegrid is the first and only Gen 3 out-of-band management solution. Nodegrid OOBM devices use the x86 Linux-based NodegridOS, which is capable of running VMs and Docker containers to host your choice of third-party applications for automation, orchestration, security, SD-WAN, and more. Nodegrid’s ability to host other vendors’ software ensures that teams have access to all the tools they need to troubleshoot and recover infrastructure from within the IMI environment, making it the perfect network resilience multi-tool.

    Nodegrid OOBM software is available as an on-premises solution or a highly scalable cloud-based app, and both support easy integrations with tools for monitoring, automated configuration management, and more. This enables teams to consolidate and streamline their workflows, maximizing efficiency while reducing the risk of human error.

    Nodegrid’s other key features include:

    • Built-in 5G/4G LTE and Wi-Fi options for OOB and network failover
    • OOB support over IPMI, ILO, DRAC, CIMC, vSerial, and KVM
    • Robust hardware security like BIOS protection, UEFI Secure Boot, and an encrypted solid-state disk
    • SAML 2.0 and two-factor authentication (2FA)
    • Support for legacy and mixed-vendor infrastructure without expensive adapters

    ZPE Systems offers a wide range of out-of-band management devices to fit any deployment size and use case, including the 96-port Nodegrid Serial Console Plus (NSCP) for large and hyperscale data centers, and the Nodegrid Gate SR, which combines branch gateway routing and OOB serial console functionality for remote business sites like retail stores and manufacturing plants.

    Nodegrid OOB serial console comparison


    Guest OS
    Docker Apps
    Wi-Fi
    Cellular (Dual-SIM)
    Serial Ports
    Data Sheet
    Nodegrid Serial Console S Series
    1
    1-2
    No
    1
    16, 32 or 48
    Download
    Nodegrid Serial Console Plus (NSCP)
    1
    1-2
    Yes
    1
    16, 32, 48 or 96
    Download

    Nodegrid OOB network edge router comparison


    Guest OS
    Docker Apps
    Wi-Fi
    Cellular (Dual-SIM)
    Serial Ports
    Data Sheet
    Nodegrid Link SR
    1
    1-2
    Yes
    1
    1
    Download
    Nodegrid Bold SR
    1
    1-2
    Yes
    1-2
    8
    Download
    Nodegrid Hive SR
    1-2
    1-3
    Yes
    1-2
    8
    Download
    Nodegrid Gate SR
    1-3
    1-4
    Yes
    1-2
    8
    Download
    Nodegrid Net SR
    1-6
    1-4
    Yes
    1-4
    16-80
    Download
    Nodegrid Mini SR
    1
    1-2
    Yes
    1
    Via USB
    Download

    Get scalable network resilience with the only Gen 3 out-of-band management solution

    Only Nodegrid OOBM delivers network control, security, automation, and resilience with a completely vendor-neutral platform. To see Nodegrid out-of-band management in action, request a free demo.

    Request a Demo

    ISP Network Architecture

    by | Oct 17, 2023 | Consolidation, Failover Connectivity, Minimize Impact of Disruptions, Modernize Legacy Environments, Monitoring & Reporting, Network Automation, Out of Band Management, Power Management, Remote Network Management, SD-WAN, Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), Simplify Branch Infrastructure, Vendor Neutral Platform, Virtualization

    An engineer installs fiber optic patch cables at a customer site that’s part of an ISP network architecture.
    Internet service providers (ISPs) are the backbone of modern society, responsible for connecting businesses, services, and people to the Internet and to each other. ISP networks are vast, distributed, and complex, making them challenging to manage effectively. However, failing to do so has major consequences. For example, in July of 2022, Rogers Communications in Canada suffered a network system failure after a maintenance update, causing an outage that lasted more than 15 hours and took down emergency services and other critical infrastructure.

    An ISP network architecture must be designed for resilience to prevent major incidents from occurring that affect consumers, communities, and the provider’s reputation. But significant challenges stand in the way, including a reliance on legacy infrastructure, and an inability to troubleshoot and recover failed gear remotely. This post discusses why these challenges exist and what ISPs can do to overcome them.

    ISP network architecture challenges

    Many ISP networks lack resilience because providers are failing to adapt to a rapidly changing landscape. With networks growing larger and more complex every day, new technologies like AI (artificial intelligence) and software-defined networking are needed to manage infrastructure efficiently and deliver innovative services. Additionally, providers get stuck in a break-fix cycle that leaves teams struggling to maintain service level agreements or focus on innovation. Let’s look at the causes of these challenges and discuss how to build more resilient ISP network architectures.

    Legacy infrastructure creates technical debt and hampers growth

    The challenge:

    The solution:

    Reliance on legacy systems creates technical debt and prevents ISPs from implementing new technologies

    Vendor-neutral platforms like Gen 3 serial consoles extend automation, software-defined networking, and other advanced technologies to legacy infrastructure until it can be replaced.

    Internet service providers often have a network architecture that’s a mix of new and legacy infrastructure. However, engineers with the experience to support older solutions are no longer working in the field, either because they’ve been promoted to leadership positions or retired. When legacy hardware fails, inexperienced engineers need time to overcome this skills gap, and ISPs may even need to bring in consultants. This increases the cost of failures, creating what’s known as “technical debt” – when a solution is more expensive to support than the value it brings to the organization.

    In addition, ISPs can improve network resilience and provide better service to customers, by adopting new technologies like AI, 5G, software-defined networking (SDN), and Network as a Service (NaaS). But legacy hardware hampers the ability to adopt these technologies. For example, NaaS abstracts the need for MPLS circuits and customer-premises gear, making architectures more cost-effective and improving the customer experience. NaaS brings SDN concepts like programmable networking and API-based operations to WAN & LAN services, hybrid cloud, Private Network Interconnect, and internet exchange points. It optimizes resource allocation by considering network and computing resources as a unified whole and attempts to automate as much as possible. The trouble is, ISPs struggle to implement NaaS and other beneficial new technologies because their legacy hardware simply can’t support it.

    Solution: Legacy modernization with a vendor-neutral platform

    The ideal solution is to replace legacy infrastructure with modern hardware and software that supports the latest technologies. But for many ISPs, an overhaul like this is too costly and intensive. The next-best option is to bridge the gap with a vendor-neutral network modernization platform that extends automation, AI, and 5G connectivity to otherwise unsupported systems.

    For example, serial consoles (also known as terminal servers, console servers, and serial console switches) provide remote management access to network infrastructure. The newest generation of these devices, known as Gen 3, are vendor-neutral by design so that they can control third-party and legacy hardware. Through a combination of built-in features and integrations, Gen 3 serial consoles can use technology like zero-touch provisioning (ZTP), AIOps, and automated configuration management to control connected hardware that otherwise wouldn’t support it. Some solutions, such as the Nodegrid platform from ZPE Systems, can even directly host SDN and NaaS software from other vendors, so ISPs can start implementing network improvements right away while they gradually replace their outdated infrastructure.

    Physical infrastructure is difficult to manage and troubleshoot remotely

    The challenge:

    The solution:

    ISP network admins can’t respond to changing environmental conditions or recover failed hardware remotely

    Environmental monitoring connected to an out-of-band (OOB) management solution ensures continuous remote access on a dedicated, isolated network that enables fast and cost-effective recovery.

    ISP network architectures involve a great deal of physical infrastructure, which is often deployed in remote edge sites and customer premises. Even with software- or service-based network solutions, hardware is needed to host that software, and the physical environment for that hardware is often less than ideal. Drastic weather changes, power outages, and other unexpected scenarios can happen without notice and rapidly bring down an ISP network. These events often cut off remote management access as well, making troubleshooting and recovery difficult, time-consuming, and expensive. In fact, supporting this physical infrastructure often consumes so much time and effort that it prevents ISPs from focusing on delivering better services and software to their customers.

    Solution: Out-of-band management with environmental monitoring

    The first part of the solution involves monitoring the environment that houses remote, physical infrastructure. An environmental monitoring system uses sensors to detect changes in airflow, temperature, humidity, and other conditions that affect the operation of network hardware. These sensors give ISPs a virtual presence in edge deployments and customer sites so they can quickly respond to changing conditions before systems overheat or circuitry corrodes.

    The second part involves providing management teams with reliable remote access to physical infrastructure that won’t go down if there’s a production network outage. Out-of-band (OOB) management solutions use serial consoles with dedicated network interfaces used just for management access. This creates a parallel, out-of-band network that’s completely isolated from production network services and infrastructure. Additionally, many serial consoles use cellular connectivity via 4G or 5G to OOB access, providing a wireless lifeline to connect, troubleshoot, and restore remote infrastructure. OOB management allows ISPs to troubleshoot and recover failed hardware remotely, even during total network outages, so they can get services back up and running faster and less expensively.

    The environmental monitoring system should run on the OOB network so remote admins can continue to monitor conditions while they recover failed hardware. The out-of-band management solution also needs to be vendor-neutral so ISPs can deploy third-party automation, AI, and NaaS on the OOB network. For example, Nodegrid Gen 3 serial consoles provide OOB, environmental monitoring, and a vendor-neutral platform to host third-party software at the edge. Nodegrid even enables fully automated responses to changing environmental conditions in those edge environments before admins are aware of a problem.

    To learn more about building a resilient, automated network infrastructure with Nodegrid, download the Network Automation Blueprint.

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    ISP network architecture resilience with Nodegrid

    ISP network architectures must be resilient, meaning service providers must find a way to bridge the gap between legacy and modern systems while ensuring continuous remote access to manage, troubleshoot, and recover hardware at the edge. The Nodegrid ISP network infrastructure solution  from ZPE Systems is a vendor-neutral, Gen 3 platform that delivers legacy modernization, environmental monitoring, out-of-band management, and much more.

    Nodegrid delivers ISP network architecture resilience in a single platform

    Request a free demo to see Nodegrid ISP network architecture solutions in action.

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    The Importance of Remote Site Monitoring for Network Resilience

    by | Feb 22, 2023 | Actionable Data, Data Logging, EdgeOps, Failover Connectivity, Monitoring & Reporting, Network Automation, Network Edge Orchestration, Out of Band Management, Power Management, Remote Network Management, Scripting

    remote site monitoring

    Enterprise networks are huge and complex, with infrastructure hosted in many different facilities across a wide geographic area. Though most network infrastructure isn’t housed in the same location as the core business, it’s still vital to the business’s continual operation. Remote site monitoring gives network admins a virtual presence in remote sites like data centers, manufacturing facilities, electrical substations, water treatment plants, and oil pipelines.

    Most organizations already have some form of remote infrastructure monitoring, but traditional solutions come with major limitations that make it difficult for networking teams to maintain 24/7 uptime. In this blog, we’ll discuss the importance of remote site monitoring, analyze the limitations of traditional solutions, and explain how the ideal remote monitoring platform improves network resilience.

    The importance of remote site monitoring

    Many organizations have reduced their IT staff due to the economic recession, leaving networking and infrastructure teams stretched too thin. When there aren’t enough eyes on remote infrastructure, enterprise networks are more vulnerable to breaches, hardware failures, and other major causes of network outages. With the average cost of downtime rising above $100k in 2022, and cyberattacks causing major disruptions to oil pipelines in recent years, this is a problem that’s too expensive to ignore.

    The limitations of traditional remote site monitoring solutions

    Many organizations rely on remote site monitoring solutions that are fragmented and vendor-specific. Admins have to log in to one platform to view monitoring data for a remote site’s wireless access points, for example, and a different platform to monitor IoT devices in the warehouse. These complex and repetitive tasks can lead to fatigue and negligence, especially for overworked and understaffed networking teams. At an even higher level, this makes it difficult to see the relationships between different systems and solutions or get a complete picture of the overall health of the enterprise network.

    Another limitation of traditional solutions is that they’re often affected by the same issues as the infrastructure they’re monitoring. For example, if the LAN goes down in a remote office and the on-premises security appliance can’t get an IP address, then admins won’t be able to remotely access that appliance to view the monitoring logs. This can significantly delay or even prevent remote diagnostic and recovery efforts, leading to expensive truck rolls.

    The problem gets even worse if the remote site is inaccessible due to natural disasters, conflicts, or other external factors. Network teams need a way to get eyes on the problem, diagnose the root cause, and deploy fixes without physically seeing or touching the affected infrastructure.

    The ideal remote site monitoring solution

    To avoid these limitations and ensure network resilience, the ideal remote site monitoring solution should consider the following factors:

    Vendor-neutral and centralized

    A vendor-neutral monitoring platform can collect and analyze logs from every component of your infrastructure. This gives admins complete coverage, so nothing falls between the cracks.

    Another benefit of vendor neutrality is that it enables unified, centralized monitoring. That means networking teams only need to log in to a single portal to observe the entire distributed enterprise architecture.

    Out-of-band

    Deploying remote site monitoring on an out-of-band (OOB) network means that it won’t rely on production LAN, WAN, or ISP infrastructure. This ensures that admins always have access to vital monitoring data even during an outage, making it easier to remotely diagnose the issue.

    Plus, using an OOB management solution for monitoring improves network resilience even further by giving admins a direct connection to remote infrastructure that doesn’t require an IP address. That means they can still access and fix remote devices during an outage.

    Automated

    Automated monitoring solutions help to ensure that admins are quickly notified of potential issues and that possible remediation steps are taken even if nobody is available right away. Some solutions can, for example, automatically refresh DHCP on a device that lost its IP address or re-direct traffic to a secondary resource when the primary server stops responding.

    Automated monitoring solutions help to reduce the workload on understaffed networking teams without sacrificing resilience.

    Building network resilience with ZPE Systems

    A centralized, vendor-neutral remote site monitoring solution with out-of-band management and automation support helps to ensure network resilience even when IT staff is reduced or remote sites become inaccessible. The Network Automation Blueprint from ZPE Systems provides a reference architecture for achieving network resilience with OOB, automation, monitoring, and more.

    Ready to learn more?

    To learn more about remote site monitoring and network resilience, contact ZPE Systems today.

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