Agentless Management Software

Windows and Linux Server Management for the Distributed Enterprise
The IPMI Server Manager provides critical hardware management for Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI)-aware Windows and Linux servers. It provides a standards-based, centralized interface to server health information including alerts, power control and asset tracking functions. New features in IPMI v1.5 are also supported, enabling out-of-band management such as power cycling. This greatly eliminates the time consuming and costly task of diagnosing and responding to remote server outages.

Standards-Based Platform Management
Increasingly, customers are purchasing solutions that support industry standards. By utilizing Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) and Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), together with IPMI v1.5, you are assured of upward compatibility with new operating environments. The IPMI Server Manager is a complete application, with no additional configuration or deployment steps required.

Centralized Events and Alerts
The IPMI Server Manager adopts a 'Management Console- Management Server - Managed Server' architecture. The console provides local, centralized LAN access to the management server. The management server takes care of the connections to the managed servers for administration purposes - retrieving information and events as well as sending commands on behalf of the console.

The managed servers hardware sensor information including Fan, Voltage, Temperature and chassis sensors are gathered by the management server and presented within the Console. Hardware event logs are retrieved and the events sorted by severity. When alerts are raised, specific actions can be chosen. This makes it easy for the system administrator to stay in touch with hardware outages via pagers or emails, reducing the need to be tied to the management console.

Out-of-Band Management over LAN
Traditional management solutions are limited during the boot phase or when the OS does not respond. The IPMI Server Manager offers a unique approach to enhancing management during these situations. Out-of-Band Management allows system administrators to manage or power-cycle servers remotely, resolving service and application outages rapidly even when the OS is down.

Bridging the Gap between Standard and Proprietary Management Interfaces
OOB Services provides critical hardware management for IPMI-compliant servers as well as supporting vendor specific interfaces like the HP remote management/telnet interface. It provides a standards-based, one-to-many, foundation for server health information including alerts, sensor information, power control and asset tracking functions. All operations can be secured by using supported embedded authentication and encryption options within the managed server.

SOL Manager and CLI Manager are the first products in the OOB Services product line. The SOL Manager extends existing management domains by allowing access to various Boot and system consoles.  The CLI Manager extends management by presenting information within a telnet interface, combining interactive, menu driven and scriptable monitoring, management and recovery tasks. Both products support the IPMI management standard and other vendor-specific interfaces.

Future OOB Services products will offer additional features in the following areas:- SSH-enhanced security, Directory services, Automated Operations, Integration with management suites such as HP OpenView and management frameworks (i.e. IBM/Tivoli, CA Unicenter, BMC Patrol, Microsoft MOM), Virtual Media Support and Web Services.

Command Line Interface (CLI) Manager
The CLI Manager is a scriptable console application program for the control and management of remote servers using IPMI v1.5, v2.0 and other proprietary protocols. It allows cost effective administration of one or more servers from a command line shell, rather than a graphical user interface (GUI). The CLI Manager is used to perform the following tasks:

• Platform power management
• Platform and system identification
• Access to the platform event log
• Access to Field Replaceable Unit (FRU) information
• System identifier control

In many cases, administrators require a rapid and error-free response to system issues. However, traditional management solutions may not be the best 'first response' choice. Often, there is a learning curve associated with their extra functionality. Scripting may be difficult or impossible to achieve. The CLI Manager is a good choice for these situations. The managed systems hardware sensor information including Fan, Voltage, Temperature and chassis together with hardware event logs are gathered and presented within the CLI Manager main window. Commands can then be issued to resolve or restore system function. And by using any TELNET client (supporting VT100 emulation like Hyperterm or xterm), scripting can be used (Windows .BAT or Linux shell scripts). All access to the remote system is protected by username and password privileges, increasing the integrity of the system when multiple administrators exist.

SOL (Serial-Over-LAN) Manager
The SOL Manager is a telnet daemon that allows cost effective LAN based administration of servers using the IPMI v2.0 protocol. Any standard telnet client application, such as HyperTerminal on Microsoft Windows or telnet on Linux, can be used to access the daemon's features. The SOL protocol coupled with the remote system's BIOS console redirection allows administrators to view and change the BIOS settings over LAN. Linux serial console and Microsoft's EMS/SAC interfaces can also be accessed over LAN using SOL.