Applications:
• Secure, remote OOBI administration
• IPMI management
• Consolidated OOBI administration and provisioning
• 24/7 mission-critical network operations
• Lights-out, automated data center administration
• Data logging/archiving for regulatory and audit compliance
(Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, etc.)
•Audited change management
Benefits:
•Reduced MTTR
•Reduced operational costs for OOBI administration
•Easier and faster provisioning of OOBI
•Reduced management overhead
• Centralized security policy
• Audited change history
AlterPathTM Manager 5000Out-of-Band Infrastructure Administration
The AlterPath™Manager 5000 serves as the command and control
center for the AlterPath System of products designed to provide
secure, remote and consolidated out-of-band infrastructure (OOBI)
administration. The AlterPath Manager 5000 provides high
availability with redundant power and disc drives. Its ability to scale
up to 2,048 data logging/console sessions and 32,768 console ports
in a 2U form factor provides the expandability and flexibility
necessary to support future enhancements and applications. The
AlterPath Manager 5000 enhances out-of-band access by providing
a higher level of logging, automation, security and software
functionality compatible with next-generation data centers,
enabling true lights-out operation.
Adata center's heterogeneous environment requires OOBI access to
the ITassets within the enterprise through many different physical
interfaces, including RS-232 serial console ports, KVM ports,
power control ports, server blades, and service processor managers
such as IPMI. The AlterPath Manager 5000's view consolidation
functionality enables a centralized view of all management ports on
secure, redundant interfaces, and provides a layer of abstraction to
hide the underlying connectivity methods from the user.
In large deployments, the task of deploying and maintaining the
OOBI is a huge undertaking that can overburden the network
operations center or networking teams. Without a central command
and control center like the AlterPath Manager 5000, operational
costs and complexity increase. The AlterPath Manager 5000's
change and configuration management functionality eases
deployment. It tracks and maintains configuration files and
firmware versions for all IT assets, while minimizing extra
overhead. In addition, the health-monitoring module ensures that
the OOBI is always available when problems occur.
Traditional systems management tools such as HPOpenView, CA
Unicenter® and IBM® Tivoli® can monitor the health of the
production network, log events and notify system administrators of
the need for human intervention. However, when network problems
occur, these tools are only useful to inform the operator of problems
and cannot provide information to help to diagnose and fix the
problem. The AlterPath Manager 5000's event management feature
complements the system management tools by providing access to
console data logs and change history, ensuring the operator has a
clear understanding of the status of the equipment before the
problem occurred. The event notification feature can inform the
operator of the exact problem as soon as it occurs.
Information security depends not only on the availability of strong
security mechanisms but also on a consistent security policy
implemented across the data center. The AlterPath Manager 5000
serves as a secure, central point of access for the entire OOBI,
including serial, KVM and power, blade servers, service processors
like IPMI, iLO and other interfaces such as Microsoft®Windows®
2003 Emergency Management Services (EMS) consoles. By using
the AlterPath Manager 5000, all access to equipment console ports
is independently logged and monitored to allow full auditing for
security and quality purposes. It creates a uniform layer of access
control and authentication across different media and target
systems. This simplifies the security architecture.