VM’s and ILO’s and RDP, oh my!

September 9, 2010

So, you’ve built a state-of-the-art lights-out data center with all the latest best-of-breed technologies. You have virtual machines, Windows servers, Linux/Unix servers, assorted service processors, blade systems, and a resilient network and security infrastructure. You also have a heterogeneous assortment of technologies, that each requires a different set of access and administration tools. How can you provide your systems admins a centralized system to access everything from a “single pane of glass” to simplify their daily job responsibilities?

Enter Command Center, a vendor-agnostic data center access and management system. Command Center was originally designed to manage KVM and serial switches, but the IT world has changed, and so has Raritan’s Command Center. Command Center offers a wealth of IP-centric tools that are perfect for providing network-based access and management capabilities for today’s modern data centers. Server access tools include RDP, VNC, and SSH for your Windows, Unix, and Linux systems. VMware Virtual Machines are dynamically supported by tight integration with Virtual Center and offer VI Client, RDP, VNC, and SSH access in addition to virtual server system information. Service processors can be integrated by using the native ILO/RILO, DRAC, IPMI, and RSA interface capabilities of Command Center. Network and security systems can be accessed via a web browser, SSH, and Telnet. And if you are using KVM and Serial switches, they can be centrally managed and accessed too!

There are many benefits to using Command center to manage and access your data center infrastructure. Centralized access to all data center devices from a “single pane of glass” is convenient and allows admins to quickly and easily get to any system. Users and user groups can be defined and controlled by flexible access policies. Tight integration with Active Directory, LDAP, Radius, and TACACS provides enterprise class authentication functionality. Centralized logging and reporting with detailed audit logs that track device and user access provide rich security functionality.

While Command center may not eliminate all of your proprietary management systems requirements, it can add rich functionality to complement them, and often at a fraction of the price.

For white papers and additional information on Infrastructure management, please visit https://www.raritan.com/resources/white-papers/infratructure-management/