Out of Band Management - Components

Out of Band Management Interface

Out of band management interface is a single pane of glass from which you have secure, real-time access and control of all your servers, embedded technologies, network equipment and power devices regardless of location, time of day, hardware platform, and operating system or network status.

Considerations when selecting an out of band management interface:

• Is it a software or appliance?
• Is it redundant?
• Is it easy to deploy, use and maintain?
• What type of devices does it support (e.g. Servers, Network devices, Virtual servers, Blades)?
• How secure is it? Can it be tied to my company's security policy?
• Does it allow for other vendor support?

Console Servers

Console Servers provide out of band access to servers, network equipment and any device with a serial port. They are advanced versions of multi-port serial cards and terminal servers. They can be extremely powerful and effective in troubleshooting.

Considerations when selecting a console server:

• What are the port densities available?
• Optional dual NIC?
• Optional dual Power?
• Optional internal modem or PCMCIA support?
• Does it allow for local and/or remote port buffering?
• Does it allow for multi user read and write access?
• How secure is it?
• Does it have optional centralized management?
• Can I easily integrate remote power control?
• Do I need custom adapters/cables for it?
• Can I write scripts for it?
• Does it provide for automation of certain issues?

KVM Switches

KVM Switches (Keyboard, Video, Mouse) are hardware devices that allow for users to control multiple devices. Digital/Over IP KVM switches also gives you remote and out of band capability.

• Number of ports/servers supported?
• Number of concurrent remote users?
• Optional dual NIC?
• Optional dual power?
• Is the local user unblocked?
• How secure is it?
• Does it have optional centralized management?
• Can I easily integrate remote power control?
• Does it have automatic mouse sync?
• Does it provide virtual media support?
• Does it have a console port?
• Is the video encrypted?
• What is the video resolution?
• Does it allow for Windows automatic log out?

Remote Power Management Strips

Remote power management strips are often an integral component of out of band management. In certain instances, the only way to bring back an unresponsive device is to cycle its power.

• All the considerations for the power strip section are valid
• Does the power strip provide for integrated power management with a console server and/or KVM over IP switch? The power functionality is available within the console and KVM sessions.
• Can it be integrated with the chosen out of band management interface?