Mirapath, Inc.

Benefits

Having an out of band infrastructure saves time and money.

When in band tools are not available, a technician must address the problem locally where the IT assets are located. They must walk, drive, or fly to fix the problem or they rely on untrained, local hands to address the issue. Both solutions are not efficient and time consuming.

Downtime means loss of revenue and productivity. The exact amount of loss in loss of revenue and productivity depends on industry, ranging from thousands of dollars to millions per hour.

In a lab environment, out of band infrastructure such as console servers can speed up the development cycle of new products and facilitate cooperation among different geographic areas.

Components

1. 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, operating system or network status.

Considerations when selecting an out of band management interface:

a.      Is it a software or appliance?

b.      Is it redundant?

c.      Is it easy to deploy, use and maintain?

d.      What type of devices does it support (e.g. Servers, Network devices, Virtual servers, Blades)?

e.      How secure is it? Can it be tied to my company’s security policy?

f.      Does it allow for other vendor support?

2. 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:

a.      What are the port densities available?

b.      Optional dual NIC?

c.      Optional dual Power?

d.      Optional internal modem or PCMCIA support?

e.      Does it allow for local and/or remote port buffering?

f.      Does it allow for multi user read and write access?

g.      How secure is it?

h.      Does it have optional centralized management?

i.      Can I easily integrate remote power control?

j.      Do I need custom adapters/cables  for it?

k.      Can I write scripts for it?

l.      Does it provide for automation of certain issues?

3. 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.

Considerations when selecting a KVM Switch:

a.      Number of ports/servers supported?

b.      Number of concurrent remote users?

c.      Optional dual NIC?

d.      Optional dual power?

e.      Is the local user unblocked?

f.      How secure is it?

g.      Does it have optional centralized management?

h.      Can I easily integrate remote power control?

i.      Does it have automatic mouse sync?

j.      Does it provide virtual media support?

k.      Does it have a console port?

l.      Is the video encrypted?

m.      What is the video resolution?

n.      Does it allow for Windows automatic log out?

4. 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.

Considerations for a power strip within the out of band framework.

a.      All the considerations for the power strip section are valid

b.      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.

c.      Can it be integrated with the chosen out of band management interface?

View our Power Management Solutions

Customer Success Story

Entertainment Company Wants Best Out of Band Solution for them

Challenge:

• Customer needs out of band access to routers, switches, servers, UPS using a dial-up connection for 22 US and 11 International WAN sites.
• Customer feature requirements are internal modem, minimal additional adapter/cabling requirement, ease of set up, strong security authentication, international warranty support.
• Customer also has a target budget number which includes all international shipping and customs/duties charges.

• Based on customer requirements, Mirapath recommended three different console servers to the customer, highlighting their similarities, differences, and impact on installation and usage of the device.
• Mirapath solution specialist provided onsite demo of all three solutions. Customer had the opportunity to test each solution interface.
• Based on Mirapath’s recommendations and onsite demo, customer made a well researched and confident decision.

• Mirapath dropped shipped to each and all individual locations arranging for international logistics and documentation. – Customer internal overhead of cutting multiple Purchase Orders and coordinating their own logistics was minimized.
• Mirapath included the appropriate international power cord for each international site – customer was confident that they could install locally without further research on correct power cords and unnecessary down time.
• Mirapath had best practice session with customer lead engineer to jump start the installation process – saved customer time and maximized value of IT equipment investment.
• Entire project was delivered under budget and 33 sites were delivered on time.