Purchase criteria for console servers and KVM over IP siwtches
Rights & Authentication:
1) Authentication protocols such as RADIUS, TACACS+, Active Directory, RSASecurID and LDAP supported for identifying users?
2) What rights management or authorization features are available? Such as restriction per port per user/group, time of day etc? Are these ACLs defined locally or via AD, LDAP, TACACS+ and RADIUS?
Management features:
1) Single view for all monitored devices without requiring to scroll or click to quickly spot problems
2) Consolidates console, KVM over IP and power management solutions
3) Scheduling of tasks such as power-on, export console server etc?
4) Analog and digital connectivity in one device
Access methods:
1) IPSec VPN support?
2) Telnet, SSH, web access?
3) Dial-in, dial-back, wireless and other out-of-band connectivity support?
Facilities management:
1) Power and rack space considerations?
2) Serial surge protection support?
3) Power strip control
Availability & Redundancy:
1) Automatic fail-over and syncing of data and transactions and/or clustering options
2) Solution architecture, distributed or hub and spoke (one server connecting to multiple console and KVM over IP switches)
Security
1) Encryption of data in transit using SSL, AES, DES, 3DES
2) Exit macros to send keystrokes to log out each user when a session is terminated for any reason
3) Level of auditing of user access and format of audit logs?
Manageability
1) Flash upgradeable
2) Customized view per user
3) SNMP and email integration for monitoring and alerting?
4) Backup and restoration of device itself?
Reporting
1) Which event logging format (syslog etc) are supported?
2) Statistics of user access/reporting and its format. Integration with existing reporting investments?
Misc:
1) Solaris reboot feature with a 'break' combination?
2) Shared access to same port for monitoring, knowledge transfer?
3) Intelligent cabling to facilitate device naming and detection
4) Multi-device and platform support including power consoles, environmental monitors, UPS, power generators, PBX etc
5) Scalability with growth in users, servers and network devices
6) Programmability to take automatic actions
7) Virtual media for remote file transfer
8) Windows scaling with window size change?
9) ROI by calculating cost per managed port?
10) NEBS certification and level of certification
11) IPMI (Intelligent Platform Management Interface) support. It is an open standard that runs on dedicated chip known as BMC (Baseboard Management Controller). BMC runs independent of server OS. Server management can be done either via an agent running locally on OS or via a hardware feature such as IPMI. IPMI helps to monitor hardware and sensors, control system components and retrieve logs of important system events. Hardware health conditions such as temperature, fan, voltage, hardware errors (memory, network etc) and chassis intrusion.
1) Authentication protocols such as RADIUS, TACACS+, Active Directory, RSASecurID and LDAP supported for identifying users?
2) What rights management or authorization features are available? Such as restriction per port per user/group, time of day etc? Are these ACLs defined locally or via AD, LDAP, TACACS+ and RADIUS?
Management features:
1) Single view for all monitored devices without requiring to scroll or click to quickly spot problems
2) Consolidates console, KVM over IP and power management solutions
3) Scheduling of tasks such as power-on, export console server etc?
4) Analog and digital connectivity in one device
Access methods:
1) IPSec VPN support?
2) Telnet, SSH, web access?
3) Dial-in, dial-back, wireless and other out-of-band connectivity support?
Facilities management:
1) Power and rack space considerations?
2) Serial surge protection support?
3) Power strip control
Availability & Redundancy:
1) Automatic fail-over and syncing of data and transactions and/or clustering options
2) Solution architecture, distributed or hub and spoke (one server connecting to multiple console and KVM over IP switches)
Security
1) Encryption of data in transit using SSL, AES, DES, 3DES
2) Exit macros to send keystrokes to log out each user when a session is terminated for any reason
3) Level of auditing of user access and format of audit logs?
Manageability
1) Flash upgradeable
2) Customized view per user
3) SNMP and email integration for monitoring and alerting?
4) Backup and restoration of device itself?
Reporting
1) Which event logging format (syslog etc) are supported?
2) Statistics of user access/reporting and its format. Integration with existing reporting investments?
Misc:
1) Solaris reboot feature with a 'break' combination?
2) Shared access to same port for monitoring, knowledge transfer?
3) Intelligent cabling to facilitate device naming and detection
4) Multi-device and platform support including power consoles, environmental monitors, UPS, power generators, PBX etc
5) Scalability with growth in users, servers and network devices
6) Programmability to take automatic actions
7) Virtual media for remote file transfer
8) Windows scaling with window size change?
9) ROI by calculating cost per managed port?
10) NEBS certification and level of certification
11) IPMI (Intelligent Platform Management Interface) support. It is an open standard that runs on dedicated chip known as BMC (Baseboard Management Controller). BMC runs independent of server OS. Server management can be done either via an agent running locally on OS or via a hardware feature such as IPMI. IPMI helps to monitor hardware and sensors, control system components and retrieve logs of important system events. Hardware health conditions such as temperature, fan, voltage, hardware errors (memory, network etc) and chassis intrusion.
posted by Usman Wahid at
12:57 PM
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